VOX Archive: N82 Camera and battery trials

This was originally posted to VOX on May 25, 2008

A while back, I went to watch wrestling in Burbank. I’ve attended a lot of local wrestling shows and learned that sport mode does not work indoors.

This is a picture using sport mode from September of last year:

N82 | Lights?

As you can see, this picture is practically all black.

Here’s an example of auto mode

N82 | PWG intros

The picture is still quite dark and very yellow. The flash fired, but it didn’t help. The ISO speed is 100 here.

I’ve found that using Landscape mode, Incandescent lighting, +0.5 exposure and high ISO settings gets accurate results. Here’s an example with these settings:


N82 | Ode to the Bulldogs

I have those settings set up in the User defined scene mode. These settings are helpful for capturing fast paced action, since there’s no time wasted on focus. The problem with the user defined mode is that it takes three clicks to activate. It would be really easier if the camera remembered the last settings used when closed. Another great alternative would be to have keypad shortcuts. Unlike the S60 Web browser, the number keys don’t do anything with the camera. For now, the only way to keep these settings active is to leave the camera open and let it go to standby. This leaves the lens unprotected and subject to dust.


N82 | Lookout!

This is a problem for me, since I love to sit in the front row. Often the wrestlers will fly out of the ring and into the crowd. When this happens, I usually close the lens protector. It gets pretty annoying having to set up the settings each time I open the camera.

I shot over 100 photos that Sunday and by the end of the night, 3 hours of taking pictures, I still had 5 bars left on the N82. This battery performance astounded me. My N95 would only last about 90 minutes before hitting 1 bar of battery left. The need for my Proporta mobile charger wasn’t needed any that night and made me very pleased.

There’s one thing the N95 has over the N82: left handed shooting. With the N95, I could hold it in my left hand and easily make one handed shots. With the N82, my left hand shakes due to the pressure required to press the capture button while maintaining a good grip. I have, however, gotten the hang of one handed shooting with my right hand. But this makes my wrist strap useless.

Addendum: Check out the rest of the photos from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's DDT4 shows on flickr
Night 1
| Night 2