This is the fourth post of the CX1 review series written in a photographic journal sort of writing. In this post, we'll rummage the CX1 to check out its credentials as a serious compact's companion, namely, the elbowroom for manual controls.
^The test started in a rather rundown neighbourhood. To be true to the atmosphere, I locked the exposure after metering a brighter spot and shot the photo. If left to itself, the camera would have exposed the scene to become brighter and the gloominess gone. Read on to see how this AEL is possible with the CX1.
The ultimate credential that a point-and-shooter can be called a serious compact's companion is in its responsiveness in a less costly, more intuitive compact body which features an adequate degree of manual controls. We have discussed CX1's responsiveness in start-up and focusing. The manual control aspect is what to be probed into here.
To test the nitty-gritty of the CX1's capability for manual controls, it is best to use it in a way I do with my GX200, or any other serious compact. So, I walked around town with it and photographed using the customisable functions. Follow me to roam the city.
Quick Access
As I started walking into a rundown area, I fumbled for the mode dial. On the mode dial of the camera are the Auto, MY1 and MY2, among several other modes. The Auto mode, unlike the "fire-and-forget" Easy mode, is more than meets the eyes, so to speak.
CX1 has inherited many great customisable functions from the higher grade Ricoh cameras, the Fn button being my favourite. In a nutshell, it is a quick access button to one of the many essential photographic functions depending on the user's specific setting. The best setting to me is to put AEL (auto-exposure lock) in it, allowing myself to work around the given exposure values by way of metering the desired spot and locking the exposure. So, with the Auto shooting mode, the photographers still have the leeway to expose a scene as their taste dictates.
^This stark contrast of the bright sky and the shadowy facades of the buildings called for me to spot-meter the sky and dial down 1 EV. The adjustment was done swiftly on the CX1, thanks to the customisable quick menu for a better experience in doing the manual controls. By the way, these glass-walled buildings are the major contributors to the hot island effect in the city.
The good of the CX1 about the manual control aspect doesn't stop at the Fn button for sure. Despite the CX1 hasn't the unmistakable control-dials of the GX and GRD cameras, it has a miniature ADJ. jog stick to give users instant access to a quick menu for four customisable functions at the users' choice. Compared to the LX3's teeny-weeny round jog stick, CX1's is much better as it is flat on top which doesn't hurt the finger even after repeated presses. The pressing and pushing are smooth, unlike the LX3's with restricted room for movement. During the week of trying out the LX3, I had found myself struggling with its jog stick. Not with the CX1.
^The cenotaph is in honour of the courageous death of the Royal British and Hong Kong soldiers in the World Wars. It is said that the value of a place can be gauged by looking at the tallest buildings. This is exactly the message of this image. The tallest building is the International Finance Centre. Since the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China, the sense about political correctness could have been the reason that the annual memorial service is relocated from here to a small shrine nearby.
Back to the four customisable functions. This is a great idea to inherit the ergonomics proven successful on the GXs and GRDs. I customised what I believed to be the essential functions in the quick menu, namely, ISO, +/-EV, Metering Mode and +/- Flash Output.
Take the above shot for example, standing on a narrow sidewalk with pedestrians hurrying by, I had to take the shot quickly without blocking people's way. The cenotaph in the middle of the darken lawn was extremely backlit. With two presses on the ADJ jog stick, I turned the ISO to 800. With another two pushes on it, I set the metering to spot. These quick adjustments saved me the pedestrians' frowning. I finished the shot like in no time.
^The International Finance Centre photographed at the longest zoom of the CX1.
MY Choice
Another feature which makes the CX1 stack up to serious compact in function customisation is the MY mode. There are two MY slots on the mode dial with which the user can customise all the desirable settings. Dial to the MY mode, power up the camera and the user is ready to shoot with those pre-set settings.
As I have used the GX200 extensively and experimented with different combinations of settings for the MY slots, my suggestion here is to reserve the MY1 for the longest zoom plus your settings (mine is plus centre-weighted metering) and MY2 for ISO 1600 plus your other settings (mine is plus in black-and-white).
^The new Star Ferry Piers are fashioned after the construction design of the original ones in the early 20th century. For a shot at 200mm like this with the main subjects in the centre of the scene, it is advisable to employ the centre-weighted metering.
Since I use the step zoom, zooming the lens from 28mm to 200mm will be a pain if without putting the longest zoom setting in MY1. The centre-weighted metering is used because usually at the longest zoom, the subject makes up the largest area in the scene and you will wish to expose it right.
Such a MY1 setting affords me an instant toggle between the focal length at 28mm in Auto mode to 200mm. This is a great feature for control-freak serious compact users like me.
^The Legislative Council building, previously housing the High Court, has its steeple being composed in the narrow space between the Bank of China Tower and the Cheung Kong Centre. This is another example to show that centre-weighted metering is usually needed for shots at a longer focal length.
Fix Minimum Aperture
Ricoh should be praised for its logics in the elements it put in the cameras. It is safe to say that the CX1 is a rare in that it incorporates truly useful functions even though it is in the point-and-shooter class. The camera maker is considerate enough to add an interesting function in the CX1 called Fix Minimum Aperture.
This function simply closes down the aperture at a fixed mid-range opening to give the image a greater depth of field. To me, it is useful in another way.
^The Jardine building with, as my Aussie buddy commented, toilet-style windows. The small sensor in the CX1 ensures an extensive depth of field.
There are three factors affecting the depth of field: the focal length, the distance between the camera and the subjects, and the aperture value. The last factor is the point of concern here. Since the CX1 sports a small sensor, for reason of arithmetic proportion you won't bother to know in detail, the distance in reality is calculated to be much shorter, thereby ensuring an extensive depth of field in the image.
Therefore, with or without the Fix Minimum Aperture, the depth of field will not make an observable difference. That is provided that the focal length and the distance of the nearest subject don't condition the depth of field to be shallow at a wider aperture.
^This skyline shot was done at 85mm using the Fix Minimum Aperture function. The aperture is fixed at F6.9.
But there is something good about this function. As we all know, the sweetest spot of a lens is some way down the widest aperture. Since there is no way to tune the aperture in the CX1 other than by using the Fix Minimum Aperture function, this is the workaround way to ensure the aperture opened at a spot nearest to the sweetest one.
Time Exposure
The roaming around the city was almost finished. But not yet. I stayed in the street until quite late to test the Time Exposure function.
In a word, it allows the user to fix the shutter speed at 1, 2, 4 or 8 seconds. Great for control freaks like me even though I'm sure the night-shot mode can do a similar trick. But, hey, it is nothing better to be able to control how the effect looks in the final image.
So I screwed the CX1 on the mini-tripod and tune the Time Exposure to 8 seconds, which resulted in the last photo of this post.
As the camera was mounted on the tripod, I pressed the ADJ jog stick and made use of the default fifth function on the quick menu. The specific function allows user to move the separate or integrated AE and AF aim across the screen. Since the street scene was quite dark, I moved the AF aim to a more contrasty subject to facilitate the focusing. This function is a really likeable take by the Ricoh designer.
Finally, on second thought, I used the infinite-focusing to shoot the photo.
(to be continued)
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