The built-in motordrive offers an impressive 3 frames per second, which should be sufficient for most hobbyists needs. I also liked the exposure bracketing feature whereby the camera shoots three frames - the "correct" exposure and then one shot either side for under and over exposure. The values can be custom set in 1/3 stop increments. On exposure issues, I found the camera had a tendency towards overexposing pictures by about 1/2 stop. I used an exposure compensation of -2/3 for most of my test pictures.
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Correct exposure |
+2/3 stop Overexposure |
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A good exposure but the camera had to underexpose by 2/3 of a stop
Click on picture to download original file
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Camera "Correct" exposure |
My "Correct" exposure (-2/3 stop EV) |
The motordrive options are selected via a continuous shooting button located near the shutter release. This has to be depressed and a further selection is made via the control arrows at the rear of the camera. Although it seems awkward at first, once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy to use. However, I would have preferred the options to be chosen from the menu screen.
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Motor drive and Exp compensation buttons |
Small fiddly rear controls |
Next to this is the exposure compensating button. Adjustments are set via a scale which is visible on the LCD screens together with a histogram. The one thing that has been omitted is an indication to let you know that exposure compensation is being applied – the camera remembers your settings so next time you turn the camera on, any compensations will be automatically applied without warning! The exposure compensation button also doubles as the aperture selector when in manual mode.
Setting the correct exposure in manual mode is a hit and miss job, there are no guides to show you where the correct exposure should be. You can see the plus and minus signs on the screen capture (below left) I would have preffered a scale along the lines of the EV compensation scale (below right).
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Manual exposure scale |
EV scale would be a better option |
Playing back or previewing your pictures on the LCD screen is excellent. You can zoom in and reposition the image anywhere on the screen and there is a small icon to indicate your position.
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A good selection of playback options |
Navigation is easy too |
