I was interested in seeing the effect of varying the FZ18 contrast setting on high-contrast scenes.

All images are M mode at iso 100, F5.6. Sharpness, NR and Saturation are all set to zero. White balance=Sunny. 5 sets of images at different contrast settings, each set autobracketed +/1 1EV. No postprocessing

The 5 sets of images were all taken over a minute or two, however the sun pattern on the lawn did change over that time.

If you look at the album, the images should display as 5 rows of 4 columns (the middle button for the Picasa "Size" control)

The images in the left-hand column are all at the camera-recommended shutter speed 1/320 sec. Column 2 is 1EV darker at 1/640 sec and column 3 is 1EV brighter at 1/160 sec. The images in column 4 of the album (not shown below) are toss-ins to keep the columns aligned, and include the obligatory FZ18 squirrel.

The five rows correspond to contrast = minus2, minus1, zero, plus1, and plus2 respectively.

Start with the images labeled "zero" (contrast=zero)- neither the clouds nor the lawn is well exposed in column 1. EV-1 is OK for the clouds, and EV+1 OK for the lawn.

The image labeled "minus 2" however (contrast= minus 2) captures both the clouds and the lawn acceptably at the default exposure. Even the -1EV variant does a tolerable job on the lawn, and is better for the clouds.

Finally, the high-contrast images (rows 4 and 5) show little tolerance for the light range.

In summary - decreasing contrast - even to minus 2, adds as much as one EV at the top and bottom of the DR (a total of 2 EV!) compared to the contrast=zero results. Increasing contrast above zero should be restricted to situations which specifically require it (i.e. little DR on the histogram)

This is a link to the album (if you want to see the individual images in more detail)
http://picasaweb.google.com/sherman.levine/Contrast

Sherm

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc213/sdlevine/sdl_184.jpg