Hi There
With respect to DR and it's implications
Great stuff, everyone. I just received my X100 and will try to post something soon.
One question...are you folks using the auto dynamic range or setting it for each shot?
DR does not work the way you think it might. In order to obtain 200% you must shoot at ISO 400 or higher and to get 400% you must shoot at ISO 800 or higher. If you are going to use auto ISO it will select a higher ISO so don't be surprised when you see the shot taken at ISO 800 even though there was plenty of light.
John is the expert on the foibles of the camera (he's had it longest and put in lots of valuable effort). As he points out, you must either set the ISO high, or put it on Auto to take advantage of DR.
I started thinking that the jpgs were so good, that I'd really shoot only jpg, but after doing some comparisons I came to the conclusion that everything the jpg did you could do with the RAW files afterwards . . . . but of course, once you've shot jpg you're locked in. I put something about it in another post
JPG or RAW?
Of course, you can shoot jpg+RAW, or you can shoot RAW and press the RAW button to get a jpg in the circumstances where you might like to take advantage of the DR setting.
But - and here seems to me to be the problem (shoot me down in flames if I'm wrong John). IF you have set auto iso + auto DR, and EVEN if you are only shooting RAW, then the ISO will jump about in the way required to produce the DR jpg shot. This means that you can find yourself shooting at ISO 800 in perfectly good light, which does, of course, have an impact on the quality of the RAW file.
My personal feeling is that the safest way to shoot with the camera is to set the jpg settings to standard, turn off DR and shoot only RAW files. There are so many complications involved with the settings, which certainly do not always do what you expect, that this way of working, although less adventurous, seems to be the safest
Other Opinions Welcome!
all the best