Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]From: "Peter Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: 13 July 2003 21:11 Subject: [Leica] PeeKay's Walk, Saturday, July 12 > I'd had a rough week at work. I was practically comatose through much of > Saturday. Then my wife persuaded me accompany her a walk in Seattle's > Discovery Park. This is not your typical city park. It's a former > military base that is being allowed to largely revert to its natural > state. And it's huge. > > At the last minute, I decided to take the Unlika Leica (Nikon Coolpix 990) > along. I ended up doing a GeeBee-style walkabout. Along with beautiful > nature, I even found a couple of tattooed GothChix wanabees! So, with > tongue in cheek apologies to Graham, let me present: > > http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/DiscoveryPark/DiscoveryParkWalk.htm > http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/DiscoveryPark/DiscoveryParkWalk2.htm > > I can see that the Coolpix 990 is not going to satisfy me long-term. Not > enough megapixels, some shadow noise even at ISO 100, some oft-needed > controls buried in menus you can't read in the sunlight. I'm very > interested in how the supposedly improved, supposedly coming-in-August > Lumix Lika Leica will work--I might be interested. Meantime, though, it's > a great learning tool for not much initial outlay. > > Anyway, here's how I set the Coolpix, based on suggestions I received on > the LUG and LEG, particularly from Sonny and Tina. The idea was to > minimize shutter delay, menu fiddling and blown highlights, and still have > usable shots. > > White balance: Set manually, don't use Auto. > Contrast: Lowest setting > Sharpening: Off > Autofocus: Set to focus on the center spot with a half-press of the shutter > release. > I used infinity setting and occasionally guessed manual focus for scenics and > action shots, respectively. > Exposure: Usually shutter priority. > Metering: Matrix, set to meter on half-press of the shutter release. > Exposure compensation: Set anywhere from 0 to minus 1.3 stops, depending > on how badly I thought the highlights might blow. > > The result was some slightly flat shots with I then did all my level > adjustments and sharpening in Picture Window Pro. Usually I just pulled > the black and white points to minimum and maximum, boosted the midtones a > bit, and sharpened. I think I underadjusted some pictures due to blown > highlight paranoia. > > I may try doing manual exposure on the Coolpix with a separate > meter. Incident and brightness range stuff. Trying to use the camera for > that is maddening. I also wish I had a rangefinder in the > Coolpix. Fighting autofocus when I could focus more quickly myself. > > And yes, that is a Tilley hat. I bought it well before before I found out > it was LUG anti-chic. > > --Peter Klein > Seattle, WA ====================================================================== Hi Peter, A real tonic :-) Thanks for posting. - --Graham - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html