David_Senesac
11th of March 2009 (Wed), 01:45
I've had my G10 for a bit over a week now and have taken it out in the field twice. I spent several hours reading all the useful to me parts of the 300 page manual while playing with the controls including scrutinizing the charts at the end. Generally I'm enthusiastic about image results and operational functionality except for one function. Unless I'm missing something, adjusting auto flash exposure compensation aka FEC is a tedious operation. Ambient exposure compensation is performed efficiently in a traditional manner via the top of camera exposure compensation dial. Flash exposure compensation requires drilling down into MENU.
To be specific, lets say I am about to take a picture in somewhat dim conditions like EV 12 or such. I might set up in Av mode, set ISO manually, and set up the aperture to f/ whatever. Upon half-way depressing the shutter, the exposure will lock in a shutter speed depending on the what the TTL sensor reads. If flash is off via the Metering Light Button, I might end up with some slow shutter speed like 1/4 second in order to accurately expose the scene. If I adjust the Exposure Compensation Dial, it can adjust the exposure in 1/3 stops between +2 and -2 stops that in Av mode will adjust the shutter speed. Now if without changing anything else, I turn the flash on, and it has been set to Auto and no FEC via the MENU...Flash Control setup, if I then take a shot, the shutter speed will always be 1/60 second and the flash will be adjust a brief period the flash is active during the long 1/60 second shutter interval in order to accurately expose a subject. It seems the only way to adjust the flash exposure compensation is to key:
MENU
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button (Flash Control)
<right arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
Just to reach the "Flash Exp. Comp" field where one then uses the <right arrow> and <left arrow> buttons for values between +2 and -2 in 1/3 stop increments. That is a total of 9 button pushes and after selecting whatever compensation a tenth actuation is required on MENU to return to the shooting mode. It one intended to change from the default 0 to -2 that would require an additional 6 actuations of the <left arrow> button. Some small cameras with this kind of setup have set up the Exposure Compensation Dial for double duty between setting ambient and flash exposure.
Some might wonder why might that be important? One of the main reasons for my buying the G10 is because I expect it is the best tool out there for closeup and macro work done with the intent to get maximum depth of field and resolution with a small sized camera that can get in close and not cast shadows. I have bought the RS-60ES remote shutter release that is a huge advantage for subjects like wildflowers that one often has to wait at length until brief momentary lulls in breezes for subjects to be still enough for clean captures at slow shutter speeds. In other words timers won't work because lulls are too brief. I'm going to be pretty much camping out at ISO80 and F8 for most closeup shots.
Lets say I'm set with the G10 on my of Benbo Trekker tripod per above settings and for a subject have a common shadowed flower situation with mostly dim green leaves, a dark earthy background, and small white flowers. Regardless of how I set up the exposure area, the sensor will tend to see a dark subject and in exposing the leaves accurately, overexpose the white flowers. So the solution is to go into FEC and change to say -1 1/3 or whatever. And by trial and error, that may take a few FEC setting tries. Thus having to go through all those button pushes for each iteration becomes a tedious process.
This is a downsized version of an impressively sharp pic of 3766x3278 pixels in Av mode auto flash -1 stop, I made in our redwood forests just so last Sunday:
http://davidsenesac.com/Spring_2009/rose_trillium.jpg
To be specific, lets say I am about to take a picture in somewhat dim conditions like EV 12 or such. I might set up in Av mode, set ISO manually, and set up the aperture to f/ whatever. Upon half-way depressing the shutter, the exposure will lock in a shutter speed depending on the what the TTL sensor reads. If flash is off via the Metering Light Button, I might end up with some slow shutter speed like 1/4 second in order to accurately expose the scene. If I adjust the Exposure Compensation Dial, it can adjust the exposure in 1/3 stops between +2 and -2 stops that in Av mode will adjust the shutter speed. Now if without changing anything else, I turn the flash on, and it has been set to Auto and no FEC via the MENU...Flash Control setup, if I then take a shot, the shutter speed will always be 1/60 second and the flash will be adjust a brief period the flash is active during the long 1/60 second shutter interval in order to accurately expose a subject. It seems the only way to adjust the flash exposure compensation is to key:
MENU
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button (Flash Control)
<right arrow> Button
<down arrow> Button
Just to reach the "Flash Exp. Comp" field where one then uses the <right arrow> and <left arrow> buttons for values between +2 and -2 in 1/3 stop increments. That is a total of 9 button pushes and after selecting whatever compensation a tenth actuation is required on MENU to return to the shooting mode. It one intended to change from the default 0 to -2 that would require an additional 6 actuations of the <left arrow> button. Some small cameras with this kind of setup have set up the Exposure Compensation Dial for double duty between setting ambient and flash exposure.
Some might wonder why might that be important? One of the main reasons for my buying the G10 is because I expect it is the best tool out there for closeup and macro work done with the intent to get maximum depth of field and resolution with a small sized camera that can get in close and not cast shadows. I have bought the RS-60ES remote shutter release that is a huge advantage for subjects like wildflowers that one often has to wait at length until brief momentary lulls in breezes for subjects to be still enough for clean captures at slow shutter speeds. In other words timers won't work because lulls are too brief. I'm going to be pretty much camping out at ISO80 and F8 for most closeup shots.
Lets say I'm set with the G10 on my of Benbo Trekker tripod per above settings and for a subject have a common shadowed flower situation with mostly dim green leaves, a dark earthy background, and small white flowers. Regardless of how I set up the exposure area, the sensor will tend to see a dark subject and in exposing the leaves accurately, overexpose the white flowers. So the solution is to go into FEC and change to say -1 1/3 or whatever. And by trial and error, that may take a few FEC setting tries. Thus having to go through all those button pushes for each iteration becomes a tedious process.
This is a downsized version of an impressively sharp pic of 3766x3278 pixels in Av mode auto flash -1 stop, I made in our redwood forests just so last Sunday:
http://davidsenesac.com/Spring_2009/rose_trillium.jpg