![]() Often, the selected focal point was bottom left of centre. The focusing is fast, but on numerous occasions I found the focal point wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I’m a little weary of La Ramblas because of the reports of robbery during the time we’ve been there, so it’s great to be able to have a compact camera to hand. I head out into the streets to take some typical tourist shots: it’s iAuto all the way as I grab whatever looks interesting. It’s the last day in Barcelona for me and the sun comes out. Unfortunately the file type limits you to 7 minutes, or 2GB, of capture per file. The results, however, at the 720p “HD” setting are nice and clean and the audio is surprisingly good for a busy show floor. Sure, there are times that you might want manual focus in video, such as if you are filming a still scene and don’t want the continuous AF seeking whilst you film, but you definitely need to use caution. ![]() It’s something of a double-edged sword, because it’s easy to forget that you’re in manual focus in a particular shooting mode and you’ll find your video is also manual focus. Without a “neutral” video position, you need to make sure that you’re shooting video the way you want it to turn out and in most cases that will mean returning to the iAuto position before pressing the video button, or changing the settings in the stills shooting mode before hitting the video button. This means that if you’ve had the exposure compensation turned up or down, you’ll get this in video, or if you are using an Art Filter, you’ll get this in your video too. It isn’t quite that simple, however, because the video mode will also pick-up on settings you’ve applied to stills capture. But other than that, the only settings you get to directly control the video is the option to turn the mic off, or switch to a lower resolution through the menus. You can use the zoom lens, whilst filming, but there is a perceptible dip in the capture volume whilst you do so - we’re guessing so you don’t hear the servo motor powering the lens. This is all well and good, but you don’t get any overt video controls. Instead, you have to press the button on the back for instant video capture. Although the camera has a mode dial, that dial doesn’t offer a video position. Stuart fluffed his lines a little, so I've chopped that together as a quick example below - sorry about the rough iMovie editing. We land on the Sony Ericsson stand and shoot a little video introducing the new phones using the XZ-1. We’re working the floor picking up on details we didn’t get at the press events, or getting extra playtime with the things we’re interested in. The grey miserable sky is a reflection of my mood as I head off for my Valentine’s Day breakfast, on my own, 1000 miles from my wife and kids, facing a 16-hour working day.īy the time we hit Tuesday afternoon, all of the big announcements of Mobile World Congress have been made and we’re in what we call “minesweeping”. ![]() Although uninspiring, I’m pleased the XZ-1 gives me what I ask for, without colour casts or complaining about the dull conditions. The colour fidelity is very good and the resultant pictures reflect the light conditions. ![]() It is still a little gloomy, but the XZ-1 has no problem giving me realistic shots and there’s no noticeable problems at either end of the zoom. However, with the absence of flowers or pretty girls to take pictures of, I snap off some shots of the dirty ship outside in iAuto mode, then get some shots at full zoom. To my surprise, I find that during the night a cruise liner has parked outside my window. I roll out of bed, stroll over to the curtains and fling them aside. Monday is one of the big press days for Mobile World Congress and things are frantic, so I have an early start. So the result is passable rather than great, but at least I know it is easy to get to the settings I should have used. In reality I should have taken the shot in RAW, or JPEG and RAW, which that camera easily allows through a press of the “OK” button to enter the menu. What the camera didn’t tell me was that by default the manual shooting options were paired down to a slightly lower resolution and with the option of fine or normal compression on the JPEG. The camera tells me it will give me the right exposure as a result. The process is easy enough and I opt for the 2-second self timer on an F/8 4 second exposure, with the camera sitting on a picnic table. Setting the camera to manual, I attempt to grab a shot along with promenade, without too many people, looking at the venue of the Sony Ericsson launch. I try several handheld shots, but it’s too dark to shoot unsupported. I head out onto the beach and see what I can get.
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