Larry Bolch
Well-Known Member
Since the X100 is in essence a full-time LiveView camera, it must use contrast detection rather than the phase detection focusing used by dSLRs. There has been a good bit of criticism across the InterWebs about its ability to focus in low light.
A group to which I belong, was having its annual summer cook-out last Saturday. We were surrounded by a grove of trees, so after sunset there was the glow of the sky directly overhead, and the light from the fire from ground level. By 20 minutes after sunset, the camera was pretty much at the limit of its focusing ability.
The last image I shot was at 1/5th of a second ISO3200 at f/2.8, and while the sky looks bright in the background, we were into night. I was shooting off a monopod, which I braced against my chair to eliminate camera movement. However, 1/5th was not fast enough to eliminate subject movement, and all shots in that time period showed some. This was the final X100 shot of the day, and even though subject motion was minimal, it was certainly there.
This tells me that in practical terms, if you can hope for a reasonably unblurred image due to motion—the camera can focus. There is a rule of thumb based upon 35mm lens coverage, that the minimum shutter speed for hand-holding should be 1/focal-length or above. This would mean that a very steady hand, should be able to work at 1/30th. I was at least 2.0-3.0EV beyond the point where I could hand-hold it.
I continued to shoot for the next hour or so with the D700—still using the well braced monopod—but even at ISO12,800 with f/1.8 primes subject motion blur reduced keepers to a very limited percentage.
The joy of the X100 is that it is small, mobile and does not require one to carry a bag full of lenses and accessories. When walking out, I would not think of packing a tripod. In spite of using the monopod the other night, it is all about hand-holding. So in practical terms, if you can successfully hand hold it when photographing non-posing people, it focuses just fine. If I am going to photograph fireworks, lightning or night-scapes that require long exposures, that is the domain of the D700 and its arsenal of lenses—not the X100.
I began shooting about 6:00pm, and at that time the sun was being filtered through the leaves creating a dappled effect. The spots exposed by direct sun were many EV brighter than the overall level of light. With the D700, I have been setting the background layer to capture as much detail in these highlights as possible, then doing a second layer for the overall ambient light, letting the highlights blow out totally. Once layered, I select the highlights and use them to make a layer mask. A tweak of the levels control blends them nicely by boosting the mid-tones, still retaining highlight detail.
No such finesse was required with the X100. With its between-the-lens leaf shutter, it can synchronize fill flash up to 1/2000th of a second. I set the ratio to -2/3EV and it fully retained the look of ambient light, but smoothed out the difference between the dappled highlights and the overall level of light, so layering is not needed. With the flash being extremely close to the optical axis there is no perceptible secondary shadow, and it is almost impossible to tell that fill-flash was used.
A group to which I belong, was having its annual summer cook-out last Saturday. We were surrounded by a grove of trees, so after sunset there was the glow of the sky directly overhead, and the light from the fire from ground level. By 20 minutes after sunset, the camera was pretty much at the limit of its focusing ability.
The last image I shot was at 1/5th of a second ISO3200 at f/2.8, and while the sky looks bright in the background, we were into night. I was shooting off a monopod, which I braced against my chair to eliminate camera movement. However, 1/5th was not fast enough to eliminate subject movement, and all shots in that time period showed some. This was the final X100 shot of the day, and even though subject motion was minimal, it was certainly there.
This tells me that in practical terms, if you can hope for a reasonably unblurred image due to motion—the camera can focus. There is a rule of thumb based upon 35mm lens coverage, that the minimum shutter speed for hand-holding should be 1/focal-length or above. This would mean that a very steady hand, should be able to work at 1/30th. I was at least 2.0-3.0EV beyond the point where I could hand-hold it.
I continued to shoot for the next hour or so with the D700—still using the well braced monopod—but even at ISO12,800 with f/1.8 primes subject motion blur reduced keepers to a very limited percentage.
The joy of the X100 is that it is small, mobile and does not require one to carry a bag full of lenses and accessories. When walking out, I would not think of packing a tripod. In spite of using the monopod the other night, it is all about hand-holding. So in practical terms, if you can successfully hand hold it when photographing non-posing people, it focuses just fine. If I am going to photograph fireworks, lightning or night-scapes that require long exposures, that is the domain of the D700 and its arsenal of lenses—not the X100.
I began shooting about 6:00pm, and at that time the sun was being filtered through the leaves creating a dappled effect. The spots exposed by direct sun were many EV brighter than the overall level of light. With the D700, I have been setting the background layer to capture as much detail in these highlights as possible, then doing a second layer for the overall ambient light, letting the highlights blow out totally. Once layered, I select the highlights and use them to make a layer mask. A tweak of the levels control blends them nicely by boosting the mid-tones, still retaining highlight detail.
No such finesse was required with the X100. With its between-the-lens leaf shutter, it can synchronize fill flash up to 1/2000th of a second. I set the ratio to -2/3EV and it fully retained the look of ambient light, but smoothed out the difference between the dappled highlights and the overall level of light, so layering is not needed. With the flash being extremely close to the optical axis there is no perceptible secondary shadow, and it is almost impossible to tell that fill-flash was used.
