HS20 EXR Review Pt.3 -- Settings

The next set of images I took was with the Camera set to EXR D-Range Priority.
This automatically defaults the camera to Auto ISO 400. The one setting I have preset here is Dynamic range to 400, its a nice middle of the road setting and was appropriate for the shooting conditions of the day, which was experiencing variable light, as well as good contrast, highlights and shadow.

Test scene chosen for a good range of light and shadow contrast

All other camera settings were left exactly as they had been set for EXR Resolution Priority mode. See the prior post for these settings. There are advantages to this mode in that you dont need to be as attentive to the ISO values you may need in variable light. However you still need to be mindful of the metering and EV levels if the scene changes rapidly. To demonstrate this I snapped of a rapid succession of shots of the same scene going from full wide angle to full telephoto as it tests the metering accuracy between shots as well as the other auto functions such as ISO range. You will note that only in the last image did the ISO value change and that apart from the EV being changed to -0.67 little else changed during the test shots. The light was a little variable as can be seen in the images. The camera appears to be very good at setting the correct exposure as well. All the images in the album are original and as shot.
Dr Priority ISO 400 Gallery.
Metering as I have indicated previously is extremely important. For the wide angle shots AE average was fine, however on almost all telephoto occasions the camera refused to focus until AE was switched to either spot (in very bright light) or multi if the light source was confused or less intensely lit. The cameras metering system appears to be considerably better than the HS10 requiring a more accurate assessment of the scene the photographer is looking at. This link takes you to a set of photos showing how the metering differs. The point of focus was out the office window at the mountain in the background. When viewing the Picasa web album click on the full details link on the right of the page.
You will note that there doesn't appear to be a great deal of difference between spot and average in the three images shown. This comes about as the light source is directly from outside so both average and spot are metering  correctly at this point, however multi has given the most accurate assessment of the scene I presented the camera with, in terms of overall lighting. Had I bumped the EV up this would have been even more apparent with the exterior highlights blowing out even more. These images were shot using DR Priority Auto ISO400.

• Metering details are :

1 = Average
3 = Spot
5 = Multi