What are your W1 settings?

[blr]

When I had the W1 (now sold) I used sharpness at 0 or - with sharpening in post processing and contrast at - in harsh light (sunny, flash indoors) or 0 otherwize. The AF was set to spot. However, the W1 has some problems achieving a proper focus in low light although the camera reports that focus is locked on the subject. This and not the slow shutter speed was the main problem causing blur on my W1 and that's why I got rid of it.

[CVonV]

here are some pics with different sharpness/contrast/saturation settings. tell us what you think

http://community.webshots.com/album/241196270PPesMH

[TNT]

CVonV,

The W1/P100 uses 2 types of noise reduction. The one you asked is Dark Frame NR which is applied whenever exposure time is 1/6s or longer with no effect to sharpness or details.

The other is Sony's Clear Color/Clear Luminance NR that is applied to all pictures with grave effects, except in the case of Low(-) Sharpness setting where it is either not applied or applied very lightly with minimal effect that still retains most/all fine details in the shadow and subtle contrast areas. If an image is taken with Low(-) Sharpness setting and some unsharpmask is properly applied afterward, the result will be a sharper, more details, smooth, not as harsh/coarse, less contrasty, less sharpening halos, no smudged/blurred fine details picture than otherwise.

You can find out for yourself by comparing this setting to the others with pictures having lots of fine details like hairs, facial details, distant trees, leaves or grasses, etc...

[kski]

I've taken over 1000 photos with my W1 and the best setting is at 100 ISO if you want clear pics that you can enlarge without noise. And the best settings in the "P" (Program) Mode is Saturation:+ and Sharpness +

That gave me beautiful pictures!!!!

Look:

[TNT]

Enlarged W1's pictures with Sharpness+ setting will clearly show strong and horrible sharpening artifacts like halos and clipped shadow and hightlight details that cause harsh/coarse and too contrasty images. And fine details in the shadow and subtle contrast areas are still smudged. That, IMO, is rather unnatural and really ugly when compared to images from Canon or Nikon digicams.

It's good for you to be happy seeing what you wanna see (it explains when Saturation+ was used in that picture). For those who want to have quality images from the W1, you have to see things and use the camera differently.

[CVonV]

TNT wrote:

If an image is taken with Low(-) Sharpness setting and some unsharpmask is properly applied afterward, the result will be a sharper, more details, smooth, not as harsh/coarse, less contrasty, less sharpening halos, no smudged/blurred fine details picture than otherwise.

what if u didn't use any post-processing software... what would be the best settings?

[kski]

Sorry to break it to you TNT, but I enlarged this image to 11 X 14 and it is PERFECT! Beautiful! Canon and Nikon have reason to be jealous of Sony! For Sony to make such an excellent compact camera like the W1, it's no wonder other companies are using Sony's ccd sensor chip!

[Sola]

Wow! Beautiful pic!! I've never seen something like that come from a canon or nikon compact! Just gorgeous! I think someone is not only jealous of Sony but of your awesome pic!

[v3tester]

I agree with Sola! Beautiful pic! None of my canons could do that! You're right Kski, your setting suggestions seem to work very well.

[Dr Limpopo]

TNT wrote:

CVonV,

The W1/P100 uses 2 types of noise reduction.

2 types... Where's it from? It's interesting info.