Are you this way by choice or by birth? Being dressed down by some self appointed site minder is disgusting. I was out for a one hour hike and took some snap shots using an effect set in this Sony camera.....And i fully understand how HDR works ...and in this case I CHOSE deliberately to use an enhanced version of it.

What don't you get about that? Do you have a Sony camera with these settings yourself are or you just shooting from the hip because you dig it ...you really find yourself on the top of your game when you can use a forum like this on an obscure subject specific to this guy's question concern??... This really took some maniacal effort on your part to teach everybody some lesson ...and oh look ...there is still only one page of comments since this was so obscure to begin with...

But this is where YOU are gonna teach a lesson for the ages....

You are one of the most hateful angry bloggers I have ever seen on a non-political site. Who will be your special target next?'

Do you even comprehend what you read? What grand purpose do you accomplish "protecting whom from what"?

You need to up your meds to control your spastic episodes where you perceive yourself as the savior of Western Civilization on of all place the Ugly Hedgehog? This is your battleground? This is where you strut your stuff? Good God....

No one hour impromptu hike is safe from an idiot like you and thank heaven you were not out on that trail with us...

wow.....What the hell kind of a freak do you stare at in the mirror each morning, "friend".

We can only imagine.....

Now you just move on .....I am sure you have some more important interventions in front of you though you are in desperate need of one yourself....

Bold and powerful on the Ugly Hedgehog...... You have found your calling in life for sure.....A photo blog and you can't control your venom..... A freakin' photo blog....

This is a personal attack ....You must have a spectacular social life to double down here...just because you don't like some of the settings available on Sony cameras....I even said this was not probably something for everybody..and did it several times.

Do you hunt around this site to lambast people as a matter of form? Is this your game?

My response was to a specific concern about this menu area in Sony cameras....this was an illustration of it.....good, bad, or indifferent....

You are a real work on a site that is about open discussion about photography not directed personal attacks ..so in your alpha male furor I can expect yet another attack.

You obviously did NOT and still haven't read what I wrote.

I have been on this site a short while and find most of the contributors here bright and open minded.....What useful information do I get from a person like you?....I did not sign up for a site so benign as this about photography to have such bile unleashed for no other reason than you can type.

Have a wonderful life.

Actually there was not enough light though it does look that way only because of the HDR processing in taking 3 images of widely different exposures and then combining them up. I did say this was a deliberate choice for the painterly effect...I did not have a tripod either. Your remarks here suggest your opinion vs what i did chose to do on purpose with what I had in hand...... It was a response to the writers very specific question about the picture effect option in most current Sony A mount and E mount cameras... You could not have read what I wrote to launch your "learning the exposure basics" personal attack. Nice. Thanks...really advances this discussion. Good job.

i use several Sony cameras like the A6000 and A77 II and others that have this similar menu section. I like using POP color and the one I really use a lot in drastically low light landscape situations is the HDR painterly mode .....There are 3 settings in this mode and when the scene gets the darkest, I use the HIGH painterly HDR selection and am able to get some very salvageable hand held shots in very dim lighting situations at sunset and in the afterglow period in Sedona for example.

If there is too much light and you employ the high HDR painterly setting it looks pretty whacked out IMHO. But in very dim light it seems more natural...which probably has the RAW purists on here falling off their chairs in dismay and horror....

This picture effect menu area is kind of fun to use and experiment with....but again in very low light landscape situations the HDR painterly selection on HIGH is pretty nifty...

....I have included here some with this painterly effect where the lighting had gotten impossibly dark and I did not want to use flash........all hand held...On the Bell Rock/Courthouse Butte loop trail area in Sedona..Nov. of 2016. A6000 with the kit lens at fine JPEG setting...Some quick adjustments in PSE 12.

Sky conditions were overcast the entire day but in the west the overcast layer ended above the horizon which allowed an opening for sunlight for about 20 minutes...Nobody was out there on the trail since it had been a dull day until those last 20 minutes.....The painterly HDR setting can add lots of punch even to overcast conditions so on your very capable A6300 try this setting though I am not sure it is on there though most recent Sony cameras have that menu option..

You sort of have to play with this painterly effect ....I use the manual setting when I use the painterly effect so I can adjust the initial exposure to give me the lighting I want in the HDR capture sequence...You can vary the effect by adjusting the exposure ...not an exact science so you have to check out the image after you take it...

I gave this menu a good workout that evening ...and at some points just used the POP Color menu option in the the Photo Effects menu area...and if that was too strong with the reds, i just put the photo effects menu in the OFF position...You can get some incredibly crimson afterglow sequences in Sedona...so it's not all about the initial sunset there but also about being patient with the afterglow time which can last 20 to 25 minutes!!! Just have to be patient because just when you think it's over, it's not!!!

And you cannot reverse or take out the photo effect you shot with either ....which was one of your concerns.. .....So you are making a serious decision or choice when you use Sony's picture effect menu....

...I like to use my NEX-6 and/or my A77 II simultaneously with no picture effect on if I am using the A6000 WITH the painterly HDR or POP picture effect on so that I can do both (no effects or with effects).

I mean you can turn it off and on with one camera but there is a bit of mining around in the menu to get to that point...Thus two cameras are a good idea. On this evening however I just had my A6000 so I committed to the painterly HDR effect and only a few times switched to the effect being off. The lighting was so unique I do wish I had that second camera but didn't so I did dig into the menu a few times to turn the picture effect off and on...I have not figured out a way I guess to do a preset of this ..have to look it up in the PDF manual.

The painterly HDR effect is pretty radical but I like the option of making something unusual which makes all these Sonys so much more fun than using my pro Nikons all the time.

The hues can get a bit torched in this high painterly HDR mode that can require a bit of talent to adjust in PSE and I have not quite mastered some of that since it would require some layer techniques that I am still trying to learn....The NIK plug-in does have a really easy to use gradual filter option that is useful in situations like I encountered that evening with background areas in totally brighter light then the deeply shadowed foreground...thus my escape hatch that evening was the painterly HDR option though there is as you know a simple HDR setting that could be used as well...

In general I like the painterly HDR option for a lot of this red rock scenery in AZ, NM, UTAH, and some parts of NV as well. This option lends itself to creating a more Western aura to the images that I find personally attractive.....others might find it blasphemous!! But the good folks at SONY included it in most of their cameras so why not use it if it "helps" get you something you like??!!!

Anyway good luck experimenting with this menu area on your new Sony A6300!!!

Colleges at the D-1A are making similar restrictions as the NFL.. I did a lot of UCLA practices some years ago in Westwood and that was pretty cool though I have not done that recently since each coach has their restrictions re spying competition.... UCLA's program has been in rugged shape recently so I prefer going to my old high school now. I can only stand so much pain in person.

.....I go to my old high school who win lots of games each season and shoot from the stands.

If it is just hands on camera time you want this is a good option. I have had some of my photos published in the weekly high school newsletter and have been offered to get a pass to shoot from the sidelines. You can get some unique angles from the stands. I have a big alumni list (Class of '66) so I send my game shots out and it is appreciated.

So there are niche things you can do short of all that NFL or big college level activity that could open a new avenue to satisfy your desire to do football shots.

I am a happy camper up there eating my hamburger and having a Coke ....my cameras at the ready...paying about 8 dollars to get in...having the time of my life on Friday nights at my old high school.....overcoming some tricky lighting situations ...giving my gear a good solid workout....working on the images in PSE 12 afterwards....keeping busy.....

Anyway..just a thought.

I stopped at Elements 12.. it has a very cool straightening fill tool....This does it for me.....Best to learn all the complexities of 12 re using layers....But 12 is a good one though I understand your point...!!!

Thank you...This should STOP yet another UHH JPEG vs RAW open range gunfight....

Ironically RAWs have to be converted to JPEG anyway in order to use them in a common manner.....and it seems like the color bit depth advantage goes flying out the window as well....

But what you stated here should be erected as a monument in New York Harbor next to the Statue of Liberty for all those who are put to shame for DARING to shoot only in JPEG....as many professionals do to keep their workflow productive and useful.

We are talking dog whistle stuff here and saying for example that the engineers at SONY had no idea adding an extra fine JPEG setting choice on my A77 Mark II camera to further reduce compression means they are out of touch with reality...

So again thanks for silencing the RAW True Believers on this site at least for a few minutes. You just made my morning!!!

Buy a USED Sony CyberShot DSC HX9V.... KEH.com carries these off and on and can be found on Amazon.com 3rd party sellers...as well as on EBAY....

review
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/sony_cybershot_dsc_hx9v_review/

short video
https://www.cnet.com/products/sony-cyber-shot-hx9v/review/

user guide
http://docs.esupport.sony.com/dvimag/DSCHX9V_guide/eng/contents/06/index.html


dpreivew
https://www.dpreview.com/products/sony/compacts/sony_dschx9v


trusted review
http://www.trustedreviews.com/sony-cyber-shot-dsc-hx9v-review-review


To me this IS the finest, most full featured pocketable point & shoot camera EVER made...with a really powerful zoom lens as well.

It this doesn't do the trick the Sony A6000 used with the kit lens is a magnificent camera....You can still buy these new though the above sources sell used A6000's at a discount.. The Sony NEX-6 is another great option as well. The NEX-6 and A6000 both have APS-C large sensors...the Sony has a much smaller 2/3 sensor.

However for portability based on what your wife does....the HX9V is the cat's meow....In fact buying two of them would be a good idea...3rd party Sony G batteries are inexpensive and stand alone chargers are cheap, effective, and readily available on Ebay or Amazon...

No Sony point & shoot before or AFTER this model can best what it does...(IMHO)...

Good luck on your search.

I own 4 of these HX9V's and am ALWAYS on the lookout for more good used ones....

It is a wonderful, classic piece of equipment!! It goes everywhere with me....despite how many pro style Nikons I lug along with me....

I mostly use Transcend external HD's....they are weaponized almost for military grade drop testing...Solid..reliable...no aux power supply needed...

Amazon.com has good prices on them....


Transcend External HD
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MNGQ6C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This case is a perfect fit for Transcend external HD's
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HDJT4S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


this six foot extension cable gives a more relaxed connection to your machines for the external hd. Most external HD's come with a very short USB 2 or more like USB 3 cable..
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFLNUAE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

THIS IS A REFRESHING CHANGE FROM THE RAW VS JPEG BATTLE!!!! THANK YOU!!!

The low light capabilities of smart phones such as the Samsung S7 beat the heck out of most ILC's these days. I have seen results from inside buildings to tricky low light dusk subject matter in the Southwest that are astounding. Since the market collapse of 2007 to 2009, a lot of people no longer have the discretionary money to buy expensive camera systems that produce results that are significantly better for THE COMMON shooter than can be gotten with smart phones.

Nikon and Canon missed the boat since they should have led the way in this market but instead they dug in their feet producing countless variations of low end, prosumer, and high end Pro cameras with now even a tier within the high end category. They did all this while an outlyer like Samsung have smashed everybody by LISTENING to and responding to their consumers.

Many on UHH seem rather indignant about the fact that all this progress is going on while most of us cling so mightily to a paradigm that has tectonically shifted just below our feet. Millennials, Gen X, Gen ZERO, yuppie scum, and geezers boomers are now using smart phones as their ONLY camera of choice now. Why would anybody buy a point & shoot camera even if you never will use the messaging capabilities of the smart phone? Buy a used S7 and just use the camera portion of it!

These smart phones are effortless to use from a birthday cake candle celebration in a darkened room to photos of friends and families at a picnic...

The fact is these smart phones WORK for the situations most people desire...To say they are "good enough" to me sounds haughty and arrogant.. The best response is to consider them as an additional tool.

A few years ago I was out at Sedona. For some geezer related reason I left all my camera equipment at the condo some 13 miles away after going through all the traffic circles etc...So there I was with a totally dramatic sky and no camera ..none of my high end pro Nikons...no Sony DSLR's..nothing... until I remembered I had my 50 dollar ZTE smart phone that I was using to replace an ancient Motorola RAZR flip phone. I never used it and still never use my ZTE because I am anti mobile phone seeing EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE glued to their phones...

I only carried the mobile phone in case of an emergency since I travel in wilderness areas a lot though ironically, without a pricey SAT phone, your coverage the further out you are is nearly non-existent...better off having a VHF transmitter to contact overflying jets if you know the en route center sector frequency you are in.

So to this day I have no idea how to text nor send a photo. I only got the ZTE at Best Buy since I was at an AT&T hard sell for a version of the Samsung S Galaxy smart phone that with trickster sell methods had me thinking it was gonna be free of charge until I understood how they market 800 to 1200 dollar phones like that....So I thought I will just have to use my old Razr flip phone for my so called "emergency" uses.

I went to Best Buy and low and behold this fifty buck ZTE phone with no contract with the latest Android version..nice screen..very responsive ...since I had investigated fully the Samsung...So I simply gave them my AT&T mobile phone info...the guy installed some sort of chip...and I was off and running...Again no contract and just using my AT&T monthly fee that was associated with my RAZR flip phone..

To this day I have no idea how to text, send emails, and send photos on line...No idea and don't care to know...

So back to Sedona and no cameras. I figured out I had this one year old ZTE with me and rather than spend over an hour through the traffic circles and traffic to get my camera bag, I instead took this ZTE phone out of its place in my back pack...went to a park bench....and spent an hour figuring out how to work the dang thing to take photos...I did not have my instruction book either. I did have a 32GB micro SD card installed and plenty of fresh batteries that I had bought and charged with an external charger as well.

So I had the equipment and now all I needed was to understand this little camera phone And I was shocked at the many camera features it had....I puttered away taking test shots at the park bench until I figured it out to the point of understanding how I could get good exposures in high contrast and back lit situation since it didn't have HDR like some of the new ones...at least I didn't see it in the many menu options.

It took one hour to figure this out just north of Cathedral Rock. So then I set out with this tiny camera phone. I felt really weird since the usual crew of photographers were everywhere with high end Canons, tripods..loaded for bear EXACTLY LIKE I would have been had I brought my gear...

So I went to my usual spots that I have scoped out over the years re reflecting pool areas in the Oak Creek....dramatic areas where I got the best angles etc....and now I was exactly like the scores of other tourists armed with this tiny camera among "the professionals looking photographers".

The sky that day went from looking like the End of Times dark and foreboding to just absolutely sunny wonderful...and then apocalyptic! I took hundreds of images not using a viewfinder but awkwardly pointing this little camera which showed my exposure in real time like my Sony's.For four hours until it fell dark, I continued on and even in the dark.

I missed nothing that afternoon since when I came back to my condo and processed them in PSE, I was shocked at how good the 5MP images were!! My previous DSLR and mirrorless camera experience DID help me to trick that thing into taking nicely exposed photos. The new S7 and the newer S8 have way more capabilities than my ZTE of course but 5MP was just fine vs 24mp if you weren't cropping small parts of an image. If the original image was composed properly, you didn't have to crop.

What I took that day with the ZTE would have looked no differently than my pro style Nikons...save the fact I did not have the use of a Polaroid filter though during the dark cloudy periods of that afternoon it probably would not made a difference ..and PSE of course could be worked in such a way to increase contrasts as well re the clouds.

It has been about 3 years since that happened. I have NOT taken a single shot since then with the ZTE! I would probably have to study the ZTE smart phone again to figure out the menus/options to refresh my memory

I got some really good photos that afternoon that when I look at them today, I tend to forget HOW I did it....the meta data on the image file tells the story however.

This experience of mine personally and seeing the images of others using smart phones ESPECIALLY IN LOW LIGHT SITUATIONS has blown up any delusions I had that these phone cameras are a fad.

They are NOT a fad. They have taken over the world of common everyday photography to the point they are used by news services both stills and videos.

So there are vast numbers of professional photographers using these smart phones to make a living...Let's not kid ourselves about that..no matter how startling and upsetting this is to more legacy style photo snappers like myself...

I love the process of these cameras...I have a huge collection of cameras as well...film 35mm/medium format....and a large progression of digital cameras that have left me using my Sony A6000 and Sony A77 II almost exclusively these days....(and that is a vast over simplification). I love using my DSLR's even if I look out of place in a sea of smart phone camera users...Doesn't bother me at all ...I just mix in....

In surfing back in the 60's, long boards were the thing like the Jacob's Robert August (Endless Summer star) noserider board to the short boards.

Today both long boards, short boards, and in between lengths are just fine... Whatever works .....The same evolution is going on with cameras....film is staging a comeback...like vinyl records are....and now the used market is flooded with very capable used digital cameras..though Nikon and Canon obsessively continue to make a variety of cameras ...and amazingly just when you thought you saw everything under the sun, Canon is now selling a SL2!!!!

How can they stay in business doing this sort of thing?...yet they STILL overcharge for full frame sensor cameras ....after all these years they still mess with the consumer while Samsung RESPONDS to the consumer's wishes nearly instantly.... Canon and Nikon are their own worst enemy as they play this game with consumers re DX and FX sensors... What a continuing fraud this full frame sensor B.S. is after all these years when they should be priced so much lower since you can't fool camera users that there has to be that kind of markup re DX to FX...all B.S..... They had to create these tiers to fool consumers...

On the other hand....you don't see that kind crap going on with Samsung ...EVERYBODY gets access to the best technology they have without the gizmo marketing tiers...

In this chaotic market, I look at it as buying opporunity if you don't get suckered into very, very expensive highest end cameras that we all probably don't need except if you were a pro getting rich off of this and can afford to write this stuff off as a "business expense".

My spin on this is that smart phone cameras will rule the universe. The 1% keep getting richer and richer and the middle class is getting reduced so where economies can be found without some drastic reduction in quality (not the case with the Samsung S category of smart phones..in fact just the opposite trend)..people will do what is in THEIR economic interest, not of that of Nikon or Canon who arrogantly continue to make a blizzard of cameras ...and artificially hold their loyal customers hostage for way too long re sensor sizes....The so called 1 inch Sony sensor in some newer travel sized camera rather than the tiny 2/3 size is the latest scam. Why not just put a DX or FX sized sensor in there!...like Sony proudly does with their E aka NEX series cameras?


The one fatal area of all this smart phone imaging is centered around archiving of images by making hard copies of the photos...In this I mean I watch my daughter and her grand daughters take loads and loads of images...post them on a wall and send them out to their world of friends....But their effort to PRINT out the results is sorely lacking in that when these kids turn 18 or 20...just how many photos,ACTUAL PHOTOS, will they have for the remainder of their lives like we do since our parents printed out the photos of us, first black and white and then color. And how odd was it that back then, when most got their Instamatic photos, the first thing in the trash were the dang negatives!

But at least there were hard copy photos and slides that many of us today have scanned and corrected though the B/W glossy printed photos from back then last forever.

But the mindset today is to shoot, send, then erase after a time to make more room on their smart phone for more photos.Sure some of this goes to the cloud but how reliable will that be in future years if a company goes out of business?

We legacy photo people with our old ways are VERY aware of preservation on our hard drives etc but even that is no guarantee...Only actually printing out the photos creates an old fashioned but proven method of preservation...

I don't think today's smart phone shooters get that since it costs money to print photos .....I suspect a majority of these people just shoot and erase into the ether their photos... In terms of what this means to kids whose parents are into shoot, send, then erase, what exactly will they have in hand in a shoe box or in an album of their youth?

The quick and easy method of smart phone photography lends itself to deletion/erasure. We legacy shooters have a nearly reverential respect for preservation...at least I do. My grand kids from birth to now 13 and 14 years of age, have printed out albums that fill a bookshelf....though I have slides and all the negatives and every single digital image file I ever took of them backed up on a variety of Transcend external hard drives.

Are these smart phone shooters that diligent and foreward looking? Sure some of them are to a point but relying on somebody's cloud vs having hard copies of the photos are radically two different concepts.

So I think the HIDDEN and more sinister argument here not so much between DSLR users vs smart phone users...it is the old school habits and respect the DSLR/SLR old school people have re archiving. With computer crashes, hacking, bankruptcies in photo related enterprises, the last man and woman standing will be the person with prints and multiple hard drive storage in various locations. You don't get that sort of thinking with instant gratification smart phone shooting where erasure/deletion to make more room is the rule not the exception.

Yes I see this entire smart phone takeover going on and applaud it since Samsung for example unlike Canon and Nikon have responded with magnificent precision to consumer desires that when you look at it are very highly sophisticated technical demands that can trump even my Canon f1.2 very expensive lens/camera combo into oblivion in a low light situation that a Samsung S7 can master without ANY difficulty or user angst without double and triple checking, giving extraordinary results on the first shot.

To be blinded to the utility of these smart phones is to do so at your own risk..... There is room and use for smart phones even with the most august, ritualistic, process motivated photo shooters among us ..including the best pros.. To think otherwise is foolish and arrogant....

Once again the debate for me surrounds archiving..and we legacy shooters understand what that means so that decades after we are "dust in the wind", our kids and our grand kids will have something of their long ago past sitting on their laps as they page through what we had the vision of creating years before.

That gift of photographic preservation is as important to our families as it is to the Getty Museum. If being geeked out looking among the masses of smart phone users with our old big DSLR's, then I proudly wear that badge knowing the philosophy of our heritage over the last 70 years is not only about what devices we used to caputre images.

The Sony A6000 with the kit lens is perfect ...One of the best cameras I have ever owned. You can pick up used A6000 from KEH when they have them ...

You won't regret it!!!

PSE has evolved into a very robust program re layering...In fact most users of PSE don't fully utilize hardly any of its remarkable layering abilities which is probably the fundamental bedrock of Photoshop CC.. You figure out layering, you have mastered post processing photography...

In this regard, PSE is a perfect choice for most users since it does layering....I have even heard that some Photoshop CC users also use PSE.

There are many good remarks here and Alan Myers seems to be the most insightful....He took a long time to develop that response for you and if you notice he is not trying to sway you to Photoshop CC as are some of the other contributors..

I currently use PSE ver 12...and before that I used VER 6 for years since ver 6 marked a huge leap forward for PSE... VER 12 is just fine for what I do....

The bottom line is how the final image works for you.

PSE is a stand alone product..no subscription...you own and use it until the cows come home...


If you just go to Barnes & Noble and page through the 400 page plus books available for PSE versions, you will understand that this is no watered down program any longer...

In that regard, I think PSE would fit your uses just fine...In other words, if you find you cannot use even 20% of the abilities of PSE, then why bother with the even more complex Photoshop King of the Hill .....?? I have added Alien Skin and the NIK suite to my PSE and it gives me a lot of new abilities....

In the end ..to do anything useful with our images we still have to make them into JPEGs....So like Mr. Meyer's said in his comment that you have to figure out your end purposes for your images re size/resolution/color depth...

So I will go against the grain here and suggest you buy PSE and work with it FULLY for a year or so ..buy a supplemental help book....

YouTube is loaded with free PSE tutorial videos as well...most related to layering...(if you need to manipulate your image in that exacting of a manner in the first place)...

But before you do anything...go to a Barnes & Noble and page through one of those supplemental help books and see what you think re the abilities inherent now in PSE.. I think you will be pleasantly surprised!!! Good luck and Happy 4th of July to you!!

go to a FEDEX store (ex Kinko's) and see if they can read your card....

Importantly like somebody said here, DO NOT REFORMAT THAT CARD!!....

CAN YOU TRY COPYING THE CARD TO YOUR YOUR COMPUTER LIKE A HARD DRIVE? DON'T OPEN UP THE FILES..JUST COPY THE ENTIRE CARD LIKE IT WAS A LETTERED DRIVE AND THEN TRY TO OPEN IT...

THE GOOD THING IS THAT YOU CAN SEE the images on your camera.....Is there some kind of odd write protect thing going on with the card or something your 7Ti is doing internally to be able to read the files? Maybe the expanded PDF instruction file can give you a hint?

...Did you google your problem? Call Canon tech support or the tech support for the card you are using...?

I would go to FEDEX and see if they can read your card there on one of their photo machines...

Very strange ....good luck and let us know what the answer was!!!...in case that happens to one of us viewers at home!!!


take care...

Steve3265....you might want to read this before going down this RAW rabbit hole... good luck....This RAW vs JPEG topic creates Galactic Ugly Hedgehog conflicts on a scale you can't imagine...but read this along with the live fire you have directed on your position.......You have no idea what you have are getting into here...no idea. You need to read this:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm