Z1s Camera settings (guide?)

Object track

Used this today but didn't snap the shot. It did well following a kid jumping around in a bouncy castle and that was through some netting on the side of the castle. Didn't settle on the still net it tracked the girl back and forth Several times.

Iso I already explained

Metering

Center - this will meter the exposure for what ever is in the middle of the scene you are shooting. I don't see why you would use this setting and I don't know why it's on by default. Maybe your subject isn't in the middle, maybe you're using interesting composition and your subject is off center.

Average - this should.be your default. This takes into consideration the lighting in the entire scene and exposes accordingly.

Spot - advanced metering when you want to expose for a certain place in the scene. For example, if you're shooting into the sun and your subject is back lit you could use spot metering to expose for the subjects face. There face will be properly exposed and the background light will probably be blown out which sometimes makes for an interesting photo.

Image stabilizer is what it is. When this is on you can not adjust iso

EV

This is on the fly exposure. If your scene is too dark or too bright in the viewfinder you can adjust this up and down to compensate for the lighting situation. I believe you can adjust in half stops and full fstop increments.

Cloudy / shade - picture of clouds

These are white balance settings. Cloudy is used for overcast cloudy days or when your subject is in shade. It compensates for the cool blues you get in these conditions and will warm up the photo a bit after its taken.

Sun

Opposite of.the previous setting. It will cool the image a bit when the sun is shining and your photos are too warm.

Fluorescent

This will adjust the color balance when you're taking pics under this type of lighting indoors somewhere

Incandescent

Does the same except for incandescent bulbs such as house lamps etc


Now these aren't set in stone. Rules are made to be broken. You may get a cool effect by using fluorescent setting in the shade or under the sun. It's all about experimenting and creativity and getting the look you like.

I know I've been rambling and typed up an essay but I will finish with some images and some before and after shots. Thanks for reading if I made a mistake or if there are questions feel free to ask.

You can follow me on ig @whentheFstops


Before (how the image came out the camera)


After




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Per request in another thread I am here to talk a little.about how to operate this camera in manual mode. I've seen complaints about how.it.performs in auto so hopefully what you see in here will make you switch to manual for your shots.

Let me start by saying you won't get dslr type quality out of this thing but the faults the camera does have from my observations, can be fixed in post easily. Now this is just my style and personal opinion, but I've never had a camera phone that took images that I couldn't make better with a little.bit of post editing. Hell even my professional dslr pictures get the editing treatment.

In my real first experience today with the phone I found that it normally takes decent images. The pictures lack a ton of contrast in my opinion and that was what I found myself adjusting the most. Colors are fairly good except I took one macro of a flower in my garden yesterday that was so saturated all the details in the petals were blown out. It was an overcast day which is the ideal lighting situation for a photographer but for some reason the pink flower turned out neon red in the image. I didn't have that happen today, which was a sunny day, so I'll blame that on a fluke shot or maybe the conditions confused the software for one reason or another.

As far as the camera interface, more importantly, knowing where the settings are so you can access them quickly when trying to take the shot. I am happy with what is offered in manual, the only thing I wished I had was an option for shutter speed but I've only had 1 phone that ever had that option so I'm not complaining.



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Btw...it was sunny today so my iso stayed on 100 with touch focus. The only thing I changed was the white balance depending on if the subject was in the sun or the shade

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I never use the auto mode and I suggest no one do. Even though you are somewhat limited in a camera phone you still want to be able to take the photo you want not the photo the phone wants you to take. You may want to blowout those highlights in the background or you may want to underexpose the image. It all depends on your style and preference. This is why manual mode is the ideal why to shoot. Now you might say for street photography or situations where you just have time to get a quick shot shoot in auto. Which is fine, capturing the picture is what's important not the settings in that situation. But even then I would still say adjust the settings beforehand according to the environment you know you're going to be in so you can shoot freely without worrying about adjustments. I remind you everything I've said thus far is all my opinion. So let me move on to the individual settings and what they do.

Resolution

No need to explain this or self timer or smile shutter. I think we all know what those do.

Focus modes

Single auto is just that. A single focus area in the middle of the viewfinder.I don't like this because it hinders composition.

Multi

This simply places multiple focus areas on the screen. Haven't used this yet. I assume it does its best trying to find the areas you want be in focus I guess for group shots or something.

Face detection is self explanatory

Touch

This is my ideal setting. You simple tap the area in the viewfinder that you want to be in focus. Works well because when you use interesting composition you can focus on any area of the scene instead of a fixed place in the center like in single mode






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As far as the camera interface, more importantly, knowing where the settings are so you can access them quickly when trying to take the shot. I am happy with what is offered in manual, the only thing I wished I had was an option for shutter speed but I've only had 1 phone that ever had that option so I'm not complaining.

Iso, shutter speed, and aperture are all related and affect one another. I haven't looked at specs but I'm assuming we are working with a fixed aperture and we can't change the shutter speed so I'll just talk briefly about iso.

Iso is going to affect how sensitive the sensor is to light around you. In other words you would use low ISO when there is plenty of natural or ambient light around, and a high iso for a night shot or for low ambient light like maybe dim house light or candle light. I haven't tested this phone in bad lighting conditions and I haven't browsed through the picture thread so maybe others can chime in on how it does at night and in low light situations. I had an HTC one and people praise that phone for its picture taking in low light but I found that images were too noisy if you tried to sharpen them afterwards imo.



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