Original RAW capture at E400mm focal length. This is a crop to half linear dimensions of the original, effectively a 5Mpx file at E800mm focal length. |
Panasonic
FZ1000 at E800mm focal length
The
Panasonic FZ1000 is
one of the most versatile cameras I have ever used, providing very good image
quality in a wide range of conditions.
The lens ranges in focal length from E25mm at the wide
end to E400mm at the long end, where E= 35mm equivalent focal length.
There are four ways to extend the effective focal
length:
1. Cropped RAW
2. i-Zoom (JPG only)
Set i-Zoom ON in the Rec Menu.
3. Extra Optical Zoom (JPG only) Set Picture Size to M = 10 Mpx or S = 5 Mpx in the Rec Menu.
4. Digital Zoom (JPG only) Set Digital Zoom ON in the Rec Menu.
The three JPG zooms can be combined but with severe
loss of quality so I will confine this discussion to a maximum of E800mm as
this is a useful zoom level which can give good results and makes the camera
readily controllable handheld.
In each case this produces a file with 5 effective
Megapixels. The higher Mpx counts on the Digital Zoom and i-Zoom files are just
achieved by interpolation, they do not indicate any extra imaging information.
In previous and current trials I confirmed that the
three digital JPG zooms give identical results once the resulting images are
brought to the same total pixel count, pixels per inch and output size.
So for the comparison with cropped RAW I have used the
i-Zoom frames.
Same subject and camera using i-Zoom with the focal length indicator at E800mm, original JPG capture. |
The
test
With the camera on a sturdy tripod I photographed
Casuarina trees about 200 meters away. These trees have fine soft needles
instead of leaves providing a good test of the imaging system’s ability to
resolve fine detail.
For the RAW capture I zoomed to E400mm, cropped the
file to half linear size (= E800mm = quarter area and therefore 5 Mpx) and
sharpened the cropped file in Adobe Camera Raw.
For the i-Zoom capture I zoomed out to E800mm using
the E Focal length guide in the EVF. I sharpened this file and increased
contrast as I have my JPG settings at low contrast.
Then I adjusted the JPG file to the same pixels per
inch and picture size as the cropped RAW
file.
I opened both files together in Photoshop and examined
them side by side on screen.
This is a crop from the already cropped original RAW capture at E400mm. This picture has 0.69 Mpx. |
Results
The cropped RAW file showed better rendition of fine detail.
Apart from that the color was different but
that’s about all.
Advantages
of cropped RAW
* The RAW file has all the captured information so is
much more tolerant of digital editing.
* Better rendition of fine subject details.
* Better highlight/shadow detail.
* Much greater capacity for highlight recovery when
subject brightness range is high.
* Ability to tailor noise
reduction/contrast/sharpening to each
file individually as opposed to the batch processing approach of JPG rendition.
Advantages
of i-Zoom
* The crop occurs at the point of capture with
possible advantage for autoexposure and autofocus.
* Suits JPG workers well.
* Able to use JPG functions such as i-Dynamic and
i-Resolution. (But RAW is better).
I-Zoom,
Extra Optical Zoom or Digital Zoom ?
* I Zoom can be set ON in the Rec Menu and left on all
the time if desired. If RAW capture is used it is inactive. Switch to JPG
quality and the zoom indicator in the viewfinder now indicates a maximum E
Focal Length of 800mm. You have full
control of the size and position of the AF box.
* Extra Optical Zoom is a bit of a misnomer. No zoom
beyond E400mm occurs in the lens in any zoom mode. This one is active if Picture Size is set to [ExM 10M] or [ExS 5M]
in the Rec menu.
* Digital Zoom is like i-Zoom but you have no control
over the large, fixed AF box once the zoom indicator passes E400mm.
It’s all quite confusing. I don't pretend to understand the technology behind the digital zooms but I can view the results readily enough.
Which
to use ?
RAW shooters look no further. Keep right on shooting
RAW and crop.
JPG shooters have to make a decision.
I have found i-Zoom easy to use. I can leave it set to
ON all the time with no effect if RAW or RAW+JPG Quality is set, but immediate
effect if JPG only is set.
Some users like Extra Optical Zoom but remember you
get reduced picture size with all captures, zoomed or not.
There may be some advantage for video with Digital
Zoom but I have not explored this.
Comment
about pixel counts
We now have DSLRs with 50 million pixels. Wow ?
The Casuarina pictures shown in this post have 5
million pixels. You can see plenty of detail even though the pixel count is
very low by current standards.
In my view super high pixel counts are basically a
marketing exercise. I guess a few professional photographers will be able to
make good use of the potentially extreme resolution if their lenses and
technique are good enough. But for the vast majority of amateur/enthusiast and
I suspect most professional photographers 50Mpx is just overkill.
This morning I printed up one of my tree pictures made
with a hand held Panasonic LX100 in the Australian bush. At an actual picture
size of 390 x 586 mm the print looks clear and sharp, with crisp rendition of
fine details. Pixel count after cropping and some perspective correction in
Photoshop is 9.6 Mpx.
Viewers will like/dislike the photo on grounds of
aesthetics or personal preference but I very much doubt many people will find
grounds for adverse comment about technical issues.
What was the print resolution of the 390x586mm image?
ReplyDelete360 dpi if I remember correctly. That's what I usually use.
DeleteAndrew