Jogging in the base..
June 3, 2008
Panasonic LX2 & Nikon WC-E68 wideangle converter (0.65x), f6.3, 1/1300, 6,3mm, iso100. RAW Developed in LightRoom & Processed in PS
I was reqested to visit a ship in the naval base today in order to prepare a virtual tour of it for an upcoming exhibition on naval history in the musuem of science and technology. I arrived early and had a bit of spear time, and guess who was there with me..? Yes, you´re right, the famous Nikon WC-E68 wideangle converter!!
The marines were still jogging around the base so I tried to include them in the composition to try and do a (very) loose enviromental portrait including the huge bronze propeller in the foreground. The equivalent field of view is about 19mm. For those that are interested in knowing about the Nikon converter and particularly about it´s pairing with the LX2, I need a bit more time to get used to it. Wide angle photography is not free of it´s complexities. I find it challenging to compose images with wild perspectives. Everything seems sooo far away if you are not carefull..But as a preview I can definetely say that vignetting is simply inexistent. Nada, nothing, zip, rien, niente..Fantastic!! And the other great concern I had, considering the impressive chunk of glass this is was flare. At first sight it seems very resistant (though as you can see in today´s image it´s not absent, but hey, this is an ultrawide!!). It´s still to soon to draw conclusions but I am quite happy with the first samples. Regarding image quality I still can´t comment. More in the upcoming review..
Now as another novelty, you might have noticed I shot this image in RAW. I am forcing myself to do so and comparing the results with the JPEG´s of the camera. Considerations:
- The first result of RAW shooting is that this image nearly ended up being a colour one… 🙂
- I still end up in Photoshop doing plenty of the usual stuff..
- As usual I ended up with a very satisfaying image from the JPEG file , but the amount of highlight data in the RAW file allows for further recovery. Really a visible advantage for RAW.
- First real drawback to RAW shooting: the amount of post-processing time invested for the final image increases by about 70-80%…This may be due to my lack of experience with LightRoom, which is by the way a lovely (and complex) editing tool.
- Second drawback to RAW shooting: The LX2 RAW file is an impressive 20Mb!!! roughly ten times bigger than the JPEG. Definetely not something that encourages RAW shooting..
Today´s image is probably not the best candidate for RAW shooting, as it´s definetely not about tonality or textures and has a very high contrast. I have a feeling that RAW will be advantegous in certain circumstances but I don´t think I will end up being a RAW only kind of guy.Time will tell..
Have a nice day!!
LX2,taking it a day at a time.. 
IMO today’s photograph is an excellent example of the advantages RAW photography. There is so much highlight detail in this photograph.
An outstanding photograph Erik! It is well timed with the jogging soldiers (or marines?).
20Mb is very large for a small sensor compact. The GX100 gives a 14Mb file.
Very good picture and the adapter seems to be working great. I like the composition how you captured the jogging marines just between the palm trees.
Working with RAW files I also find myself often going for a color image instead of the intended b&w image.
Wouter, you are definetely right about the highlight headroom. I try to avoid clipped highlights as I really dislike them. I don´t mind, actually I like deep shadows so with the small sensor camera I normally underexpose by at least 2/3 of a stop (depending on the scene it can be much more). That is where I can see RAW coming to the rescue..
Cris, thanks. I would have liked to make the marines a bit more “present” in the picture, but it prooved the impossible composition..