Snowy Night - Nikon v Lumix

Experiment - Nikon S9050 on a tripod shooting through the kitchen window. Had to take a lot of shots as the scene was so dark. In fact the LCD screen was virtually blank even with the outside lighting switched on. Exposure was about one second. These were about the best of the bunch. Orange sky is the falling snow reflecting the sodium street lights. Also there is an interior reflection from the window.



All photos tweaked with the ReDynaMix plug-in in Photoshop Elements.


Yellow foreground is from a low energy lamp outside.

Finally I tried the Lumix TZ7. This time I was able to see a dim view of the scene on the LCD screen. The Lumix took 8 seconds to take the photo plus another 3 or 4 seconds processing before it was saved.



Interestingly both cameras claimed they were properly focussed by giving a green indication on their screens and by beeping. Both cameras were set to their fully automatic settings with flash forced off.

More Monochrome

Again taken with the Nikon S9050 using the High Contrast Monochrome setting.


One side of the village cricket field is bordered with a line of Poplars.

As taken by the Nikon S9050 - cropped

The same crop processed with ReDynaMix in Photoshop Elements

 The cricket clubhouse in Winter

As taken by the Nikon S9050

As above processed using ReDynaMix in Photoshop Elements

Some tree bark patterns (unprocessed):

All were taken hand held with one hand. The other keeping a tight hold on Penny's lead. Unfortunately with her four years training for greyhound racing her chasing instinct would kick in if she spotted any small furry prey. Considering the grey, dull lighting conditions they came out much sharper than I expected - a tribute to the camera's image stabilizing abilities.

What a Grey Day

Not really. It has been wall to wall sunshine and cloudless blue sky so far today. Practising more with the Nikon S9050 I decided to try out the Special Effect Mode called 'High Contrast Monochrome'. The camera also has the ability to make b/w copies of the colour photos but the test I made gave soft focus b/w. Must investigate that further.

The advantage of the High Contrast Monochrome mode is having a b/w view of what you are taking shown on the LCD. This gives an instant idea of what the result will look like. That I found very handy and helped in composing the picture, focus point and exposure point. Not that I am saying my results are marvellous - far from it but I like the possibilities. It was just a pity there was a lack of white cloud.

All these are exactly as taken by the Nikon with its highest resolution jpg (no RAW available). If the odd horizon or tree is tilted blame the hairy monster who seemed to delight in trying to turn me into a 21st Century Houdini by wrapping the lead round my legs if we stayed in one place for too long.

The variation of shading in the sky is not a fault in the camera - distant blue in the sky was much paler than that overhead.

My favourite of this batch

As an addendum - video can also be shot in monochrome.