Photography News Issue 45

Photography News | Issue 45 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 37

Performance: exposure latitude

To look at the 77D’s exposure latitude with its Raw files, I shot the below scene, which contained plenty of highlights and shadows. The original scene was captured well, showing the 77D’s excellent on-chip dynamic range (TIPA testing measures it at 11.9 stops, which is impressive for an APS-C camera). In manual mode the correct exposure was determined at 1/3sec at f/14 and ISO 100. Raws were exposed at +/-5EV to see how the files would respond when corrected using the Adobe Camera Raw interface in Photoshop, with the Exposure slider

used to match the original exposure. Underexposed Raws recovered well, bar at -5EV which showed a colour shift and banding. For the others, results were good, albeit with expected increases in noise over the correct exposure. At -4EV there was lots of grain, but -3EV was a marked improvement with a decent level of detail retained. -2EVwas quite usable. Tolerance to overexposure is limited to about +2EV, wherein recovered shots look much like 0EV. Any further, and the overexposed highlights look grey. I also noticed a slight loss in highlight saturation.

+5EV

+4EV

+3EV

+2EV

+1EV

0EV

-2EV

-3EV

-1EV

-4EV

-5EV

Images Although the EOS 77D meters well, mistakes can be made, and high-contrast scenes usually need special attention. For that reason it’s good to know how far you can rely on the exposure latitude of a camera’s Raw files.

Original image

Original image

Performance: High ISOnoise reduction

The EOS 77D’s high ISO noise reduction (NR) options are split into five settings: Off, Low, Standard,High, and a Multishot NR mode wherein four exposures are taken and merged to reduce interference. NR is only applied to JPEGs, of course, but in all but theMultishotmode, youcanshoot Raw+JPEG. To test performance, I shot a series of identical exposures, using theLarge Fine JPEG setting, with the ISO set to 6400, and compared themat 100%. The Low setting removes mostly colour noise, leaving a fine grain structure. As you can see, it’s okay if you don’t mind a little speckling, as it has quite a natural, filmgrain look. The Standard mode offers a good balance; therein the noise reduction is not soheavy that it sacrifices toomuch detail, but grain ismostly eliminated. TheHigh setting is prettygood, too, though textures did seem to flatten a

Images The EOS 77D’s noise reduction functions performedwell across the board. TheMultishot mode gives great results, but must be used in the right circumstances. Best results were from the EOS 77D’s Multishot mode, with the camera comparing four separate frames and averaging the noise out of the final result. However, even though the frames are in quick succession, shooting this way still leaves you susceptible to camera or subject movement, which may cause blur or ghosting in the image. Therefore, the Multishot mode is ideally used on static subjects and when shooting froma tripod. bittoomuchformytaste.Thatsaid,it’s nowhere near as waxy as many High ISO NR results on other cameras, so if you want smoother shots, it’s fine to go down that route.

ISO 6400, NR OFF

ISO 6400, NR LOW

ISO 6400, NR STANDARD

ISO 6400, NR HIGH

ISO 6400, NRMULTISHOT

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