[charles777]

Hey guys !! Proud new owner of a copper Z3 and absolutely in love
I could use some advice though... I am really bad with cameras and settings and I have a few questions... first of all I will be using my Z3 to capture a couple of hundred indoor pictures this weekend on the inaugural 2 day sailing of a new cruise ship out of New York. Lighting will be all over the place ranging from brightly lit atriums and restaurants during the day from sunlight to artificial lighting in the evenings in lounges, common areas, theater, casino etc. There will also be some dimly lit places.
First question: Is the Google Camera app better at some things than the Sony one ?
Second question: would the best aspect ratio be 16:9 (I always used that on my S4)
Third: Is the Superior Auto mode good on the Sony app ? If I switch to manual, and I want to keep image stabilization on, it looks like I'm limited to 8MP pics... is that good enough ? What resolution will Superior Auto shoot at ? Looks like I can only adjust the Aspect Ratio...
What situations would HDR be good for ?
Any advice would be welcomed !!
Thanks in advance guys...

[gunzkevin]

I think the Sony camera app is a better rounded app.
Unless you are comfortable with switching on HDR, changing your iso, and all of that, I recommend sticking with superior auto. It will automatically choose when HDR is helpful, and it really does do great work. Especially with darker pictures. That said, if it is processing dark pictures too much, I would then switch to manual to bypass the night mode processing.

But HDR is good for when there is a high contrast. Think of the sun coming in a window, and the walls next to the window are really dark and have no light on them. HDR will take multiple pictures with different focus set. It will get one where the sunny window is the focus point making that really bright and detailed, then will focus on the walls, making them more detailed and bright. Then it stitches them together so everything is nice and bright.

But overall, superior auto is really great. I really never need to switch out of it. And 8mp is plenty. It sometimes even looks better than 20.7mp.

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[JBeef]

The

Hey guys !! Proud new owner of a copper Z3 and absolutely in love
I could use some advice though... I am really bad with cameras and settings and I have a few questions... first of all I will be using my Z3 to capture a couple of hundred indoor pictures this weekend on the inaugural 2 day sailing of a new cruise ship out of New York. Lighting will be all over the place ranging from brightly lit atriums and restaurants during the day from sunlight to artificial lighting in the evenings in lounges, common areas, theater, casino etc. There will also be some dimly lit places.
First question: Is the Google Camera app better at some things than the Sony one ?
Second question: would the best aspect ratio be 16:9 (I always used that on my S4)
Third: Is the Superior Auto mode good on the Sony app ? If I switch to manual, and I want to keep image stabilization on, it looks like I'm limited to 8MP pics... is that good enough ? What resolution will Superior Auto shoot at ? Looks like I can only adjust the Aspect Ratio...
What situations would HDR be good for ?
Any advice would be welcomed !!
Thanks in advance guys...

I'd use 4:3 instead of 16:9. The sensor shoots in 4:3 and the 16:9 is just an automatic crop of that. Better to shoot in the 4:3 and control the crop later yourself.
I'd also stick to the stock camera app (far more options). And just take lots of pics. Especially with difficult lighting just snap away and you're bound to get some great shots ;-)

[JBeef]

Oh and if you're taking pics of things in motion "timeshift burst" is really useful.

[charles777]

The

I'd use 4:3 instead of 16:9. The sensor shoots in 4:3 and the 16:9 is just an automatic crop of that. Better to shoot in the 4:3 and control the crop later yourself.
I'd also stick to the stock camera app (far more options). And just take lots of pics. Especially with difficult lighting just snap away and you're bound to get some great shots ;-)

Thanks for the reply
Quick question though... since I'll be shooting pictures of pretty large and wide spaces, would 4:3 mean that I would get a narrower albeit taller view? Would 16:9 capture a wider shot?

[JBeef]

No. Try it out yourself. 4:3 will be more zoomed out so will fit the same stuff in. All 16:9 does is take the same 4:3 image and zoom in and crop to make it fit the wide-screen format.
A 16:9 image has less pixels as it has just cropped the original 4:3 image.

[charles777]

No. Try it out yourself. 4:3 will be more zoomed out so will fit the same stuff in. All 16:9 does is take the same 4:3 image and zoom in and crop to make it fit the wide-screen format.
A 16:9 image has less pixels as it has just cropped the original 4:3 image.

okay gotcha thanks