S2is - How low do you go?

[Dr. DOS]

First time poster... long time reader. This is a Great forum. The S2is sticky is wonderful reading. Needless to say my Sony D8 vidcam is for sale once I saw the quality of the MPEG encoded files burned on to a DVD that I acquired off the S2is avi mode (640x480x30) ... Sweet stuff.

I've been experimenting with the M, Av and Tv modes, indoors, no flash, shooting under a 300w single light source. Small room, den, about 15x10. I've also done a few shots under the SCN/indoor mode. A few thoughts / questions:

In the Av mode, iso 200, with f set to 3.x the shutter is trying to go down to 1/4 and 1/6 seconds. Although some shots seem clean most a rather blurry when I review the computer. This is with adjusting exposure compensation to -1/3 -2/3 and -1

In the Tv mode, iso 200, set to 1/10 to 1/15 the shots seem a tad too dark but are rather clean. M mode seems to provide the best settings; F3.x and 1/15 but the exp compensation jumps way down to -1 2/3 and -2.

What has been you best indoor settings under regular lite... no flash?
iso200(max), F4(min), 1/15s(min), exp comp threshold -2/3

How low do you let the exp compensation fall. max -2/3?

Appreciate any feedback on your favorite indoor, no flash settings.

In SCN Mode, Indoor settings a review of the photo show no ISO setting. Does anyone know if it is 200 or 400?

[thrpy]

The compensation in Tv and Av modes is from the "Safety-on" in the menu settings, it corrects for the wrong setting. You might try to drop your ISO to 100 and for all around keep you F around 4.5 - 5.0
It takes a lot of playing around with the camera, which is the advantage with the S2 and any digital camera. There are scads of little features that you will find this way, some you will like and some you won't, but you will learn.
I have been massively pleased with the vid's from the camera, but watch the sound hertz setting, that can aggrevate you. Also, mid-range setting on sound quality will increase time, slightly.
Use a good hi-speed card and it will reduce the drag on the internal memory and not leave you short, I have an Ultra II, 1 gig, works great. Especiallly since I like to bracket pic's in hi-speed.
Macro is incredible.

[Dr. DOS]

Thanks for the feedback... I knew I wanted to dump the camcorder so I bought the 2G hi-speed card -- I'm getting about 15 mins of 640x480x30 @44.1 video.

I've tried dropping to iso 100 indoors, without flash, but the shutter is dropping back to an unaccetable level (1/2, 1 seconds, etc)

[JTL]

Outdoors in bright sun, I regularly stop down my S2 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop...but indoors is a different story. But, you can easily brighten those darker pics at least a stop without destroying them in most software programs. The truth is...indoors without flash, you need to be shooting at ISO 400 (or higher). But on the S2 at ISO 400, I'm sure you would find the picture too noisy for your liking (although, I have plenty of ISO 400 pictures that have "cleaned-up" beautifully with noise reduction software). If shooting indoors without flash is your primary purpose, and you don't want to be messing with software, then you need a dSLR, not an S2...on a 350D for instance, ISO 400 looks like the S2's ISO 100 and ISO 1600 is slightly better than the S2's ISO 400. This is because of the much larger CMOS sensor and more sophisticated firmware.

[Dr. DOS]

Thanks .... I'll try a few at 400 and see what kind of noise I get... I'll clean up the noise in Neat Image. Do you know of any other apps that do a decent job of cleaning up noisy images?

[JTL]

Thanks .... I'll try a few at 400 and see what kind of noise I get... I'll clean up the noise in Neat Image. Do you know of any other apps that do a decent job of cleaning up noisy images?I've tried almost everything. I was using Noise Ninja with very good results...but nothing has beaten the noise reduction function built into Paint Shop Pro X (v10.03)...

[Dr. DOS]

I've tried almost everything. I was using Noise Ninja with very good results...but nothing has beaten the noise reduction function built into Paint Shop Pro X (v10.03)...

Wonderful program. You were right, the digi camera noise removal tool is great. now if I can just figure out how PSPX can use my existing Photoshop filters I'll be set. (recognizes them but errors out when you select one) .... I guess that's for another day.

[BowerR64]

I normaly use the largest appature, 50 or 100 ISO and usualy i at about 1/30th - 1/60th. But i use the room light, 2 75watt clamp lights and a 500watt halogen from walmart. I have about $30. in lighting and a white sheet for a back drop.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/BowerR64/Camera/Vibrant2.jpg

Left is normal, right has the vivid boost

[ale_g]

Try Noiseware from imagenomic (www.imagenomic.com) it works great and it has a version which is absolutely free.:D