Sony RX100(m2) observation on JPEG/RAW and shadow recovery.

Chris2500dk

Top Veteran
I did a little test today regarding shadow recovery/underexposure on my RX100m2.
I put a test chart under a bright lamp, put a ND filter on the camera and took 3 different shots.
These I imported in Lightroom and bumped the exposure up around 4EV until they were correctly exposed.

First the JPEG
JPEG.jpg

As expected it's pretty bad. But JPEG files aren't really made for such heavy manipulation.

Then the raw file
RAW.jpg

Much better I think. Obviously not on the level of larger sensors, but quite respectable, and definetely something I could work with.

The last shot is also a JPEG, but shot with DRO level 5 turned on.
DRO.jpg

It really surprised me how much better it turned out than the regular JPEG. In Lightroom I had to up the exposure by about a stop less than the raw file, so obviously the camera did something.
Basicly my conclusion is to view DRO as in-camera shadow recovery done before the raw conversion.

This means that the DRO files are much easier to work with if you for some reason want to post process JPEGs instead of working on the raw files.
I've been doing this recently, as I'm using Snapseed on my tablet to PP so I need JPEG files. Setting DRO to level 5 and underexposing the shot by around 1 stop gives me some nice and flat JPEGs with greatly reduced chance of blown highlights.
Snapseed lets me bring back contrast very easily and I can always darken the shadows again to the degree I need it.

Anyway, this was probably obvious to everyone else, and I've just been rambling, but I found it interesting to do a more controlled test instead of just going on the gut feeling I had from my shooting.
 
Yeah, amazing little sensor. It has it's limits but it punches well above it's weight. I remember how impressed I was with the jpegs during the short time I was shooting with one. Even the jpegs had a lot of latitude, without using DRO. This is a shot my wife took of me and it was horribly under-exposed due to the brignt sky behind me - my face was basically black. And it was early days, before raw support, so everything was jpeg. And yet I was still able to raise the shadow over my face to get something quite useable out of it... And now I recall it was even done in Snapseed on an iPad, so a relatively crude processing tool as well...

7787690876_a54d45776a_b.jpg
LBI 8/12 by ramboorider1, on Flickr

It's a great sensor in a camera I never learned to like. But I'm psyched now that Sony is selling it to other manufacturers. Someone's gonna nail it with that sensor and produce a truly classic compact.

-Ray
 
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