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First thing first, available light shooting is one way of showing how well the EOS 88 really shines in this aspect. Using both the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and EF 35-80mm f/4-5.6 III lenses, shooting available light photos is a breeze. The EF 35-80mm zoom lens is very compact and lightweight while the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM felt heavier than both the EOS 88 and zoom lens combined. As the third photo above had shown, the EOS 88 look quite tiny when compared to the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens attached to it. With its six-zone Evaluative metering and 3-point AF system, one would readily assumed that the EOS 88, a camera aimed at the beginners and people new to photography, will take care of any subject matter and all one needs to do is to simply point and shoot. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You need to know some basic principles of photography, like understanding the fundamentals in order to make full use of this camera. And this procedure is not limited to the EOS 88 alone but other EOS models or any 35mm SLR camera. Like what was stated in issue 28 of this column on tips to more creativity in photography, unless the camera used happens to be either the EOS 300 or the EOS-3, depending solely on the Evaluative metering of most EOS models does not guarantee perfect exposures. At certain times, it will work and sometimes it won't. In the photo of the shopping mall's interior (below, left), the EOS 88's Evaluative metering worked well to properly exposed the shot while on the nighttime city scene (below, right) of Kuala Lumpur's famed Bukit Bintang district, the photo was underexposed by half a stop to guarantee pure blacks in the shadows area. Relying on Evaluative metering would have rendered the blacks unnatural and overexposed the highlights.
For the scene of the area outside Kuala Lumpur's Lot 10, Partial metering was used with the EF 35-80mm f/4-5.6 III zoom lens set at the 35mm focal length. The reading was taken from the Guess advertisement window and memorized with AE Lock (which is automatically activated when Partial is used) and the third photo from above was the result. The next photo of the same scene, shot at the lens' 80mm setting, was recorded at the almost the same exposure setting. The EOS System's fully electronic lens mount automatically ensured that the exposure for the 35mm setting was changed slightly when the maximum aperture changed from f/4 to f/5.6 at the 80mm range. Despite the changes to the maximum aperture and corresponding shutter speed, the EOS 88's programming ensured that the overall exposure effect remained the same. Exposure mode used? It was the camera's Intelligent Programmed AE.
Next, from the photos above, the
close-up shot of the bicycles was recorded using available daylight-type fluorescent
lighting with the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens set at 1/60 sec at f/1.4. Naturally, the
EF 35-80mm zoom lens' variable maximum aperture was way too slow for this type of
exposure. The next two photos are examples of how having the knowledge of what constitutes
a good exposure come into being. A Partial meter reading on the Guess advertisement's
face of the model resulted in an underexposed shot. Taking a new reading comprised
of the advert and the dark columns of the mall gave a better exposure rendition. |
