Panasonic FZ30

[Jocelyn Walker]

After phoning a number of the bigger camera dealers & finding they no longer kept stocks of the FZ30, I went out today to a small camera dealer & found they had 2 left on the shelf! So I bought myself 1, an early birthday present along with a 1 gig memory card! Maybe I should have bought a 2 gigabyte? What are the advantages of shooting in raw apart from file size? I normally download my pics onto my 'puter as soon as I get the chance & delete pics from camera anyhow! I obviously have a lot to learn now, as it seems one ought to have a pilots licence to operate all the things this camera has! I realized that I couldn't afford a DSLR & perhaps they are beyond what I need for the type of photography I do anyhow!

[lumix]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

After phoning a number of the bigger camera dealers & finding they no longer kept stocks of the FZ30, I went out today to a small camera dealer & found they had 2 left on the shelf! So I bought myself 1, an early birthday present along with a 1 gig memory card! Maybe I should have bought a 2 gigabyte? What are the advantages of shooting in raw apart from file size? I normally download my pics onto my 'puter as soon as I get the chance & delete pics from camera anyhow! I obviously have a lot to learn now, as it seems one ought to have a pilots licence to operate all the things this camera has! I realized that I couldn't afford a DSLR & perhaps they are beyond what I need for the type of photography I do anyhow!

Welcome to the Panny Club. I'm sure you will be very pleased with your purchase. I have the FZ20 an earlier version of the one you have. I have owned many cameras in my 60 odd years of photography. My Panny is to date the best allround camera I've ever had. I look forward to seeing some of your pictures.

[Martin]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Snap - I just taken delivery of a ZX30 also a birthday treat -must be catching - I'm still assessing it but so far so good. I am wondering about RAW myself but 1 step at a time. Its seems the panny fan club is growing

Martin

[lumix]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Snap - I just taken delivery of a ZX30 also a birthday treat -must be catching - I'm still assessing it but so far so good. I am wondering about RAW myself but 1 step at a time. Its seems the panny fan club is growing

Martin

All cameras first produce a RAW image. Some allow you to record and store this image in it's RAW state. Your camera will then take this RAW file and convert it to JPEG. In doing so it compresses the file size and some quality is lost. You can download the RAW file to your computer and do the conversion yourself. Doing it yourself lets you control the process and also lets you correct exposure and white balance errors. One of the drawbacks of shooting in RAW is the size of the stored files. Your card will not be-able to hold as many images compared to JPEG. My view is, get the exposure and white balance right in the first place and then there is little to be gained from using RAW.

[Martin]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Thanks for that Ron, I suppose we should all like to get it right first time and not have to do too much post processing. I usually leave white balance on auto - maybe its time to experiment. Oh I noticed my typing is up to its uaual standard ,I of course meant FZ30 not ZX30.

Martin

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

All cameras first produce a RAW image. Some allow you to record and store this image in it's RAW state. Your camera will then take this RAW file and convert it to JPEG. In doing so it compresses the file size and some quality is lost. You can download the RAW file to your computer and do the conversion yourself. Doing it yourself lets you control the process and also lets you correct exposure and white balance errors. One of the drawbacks of shooting in RAW is the size of the stored files. Your card will not be-able to hold as many images compared to JPEG. My view is, get the exposure and white balance right in the first place and then there is little to be gained from using RAW.

Hi Ron, Thanks for the advice. I've often tried experimenting with white balance on my Nikon, but it seemed very hit & miss when I got it right. Mostly preferred bracketing! The Panny has choice of TIFF shooting which the Nikon didn't have, but I use to convert to when transfering pics to computer. That seems even bigger than RAW if I'm not mistaken! As you say less compression & loss of detail. My favourite type of photography was/is Macro, so the most detail is what I'm constantly striving for! The PS CS2 has got the wherewithall to correct exposure & I do sometimes play around with that. I am looking forward to testing it out. I took a couple of shots of my pooch last night & the quality seems amazing on the LCD, hopefully even better on 'puter screen! Perhaps the RAW can wait until I have my trip to Kenya, which was supposed to be in July but has been postponed to next year unfortunately! Then I'll really need to find something for Mega, mega strorage!

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Snap - I just taken delivery of a ZX30 also a birthday treat -must be catching - I'm still assessing it but so far so good. I am wondering about RAW myself but 1 step at a time. Its seems the panny fan club is growing

Martin

Hi Martin,
Yep, Birthdays are very good reasons to treat oneselves, as most of us wouldn't be SO spoilt as far as presents go & I wouldn't expect it either! At least this way we can alleviate the conscience slightly huh! I can see I'm going to enjoy this one! The comment from my other half on seeing the camera said, 'I guess we'll see even less of you now!' Ooooh dear!

[Guest]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Congratulations Jocelyn on your new purchase. Judging by the quality of some of the pictures posted by Archangel you should be pleased with your results. As a matter of interest, you ought to contact him for some tips on its operation etc. That is if he has not fled the forum after his recent exchanges with BearFace. Happy shooting - I look forward to seeing some of your results from the new purchase.

[Patrick]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Hi Ron, Thanks for the advice. I've often tried experimenting with white balance on my Nikon, but it seemed very hit & miss when I got it right. Mostly preferred bracketing! The Panny has choice of TIFF shooting which the Nikon didn't have, but I use to convert to when transfering pics to computer. That seems even bigger than RAW if I'm not mistaken! As you say less compression & loss of detail. My favourite type of photography was/is Macro, so the most detail is what I'm constantly striving for! The PS CS2 has got the wherewithall to correct exposure & I do sometimes play around with that. I am looking forward to testing it out. I took a couple of shots of my pooch last night & the quality seems amazing on the LCD, hopefully even better on 'puter screen! Perhaps the RAW can wait until I have my trip to Kenya, which was supposed to be in July but has been postponed to next year unfortunately! Then I'll really need to find something for Mega, mega strorage!

[joefoto]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

You made a wise purchase. I bought an FZ-20 to replace my K-M Z3 (didn't like being dropped on concrete from 3 feet). The Panasonic stabilization is super, but mine gets really noisy as ISO increases. For an all around, fully featured, wide ranging zoom, Panasonic FZ series give you a lot for the money.

Have fun. Show us some early results!

Joe

[Archangel]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Hi Jocelyn,

I just got back from my long Easter vacation.
I had to postpone my trip to Serbia the last moment and finally spent the Easter vacation at my country place. Though I took around 800 photos

Congratulations for your new purchase. I think you will enjoy it a lot.
Give me sometime to unpack and arrange my stuff and I will get back to you with some nice tips for your FZ30.


George

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Welcome back from your trip George & I welcome some tips when you get the chance. I will have a look at the manual you sent previously. Also thanks Patrick for your advice as well. I have been shooting in Tiff but when it is uploaded to the computer it downloads both jpeg & Tiff files of each pic. Quite frankly, at present, I wouldn't know what to do with RAW files, but as you say. it would be best to shoot in RAW. Practice, practice & more practice & of course research will help me in the end! The people on this forum are extremely helpfull, patient & kind. Thank you

[lumix]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

One thing for sure, you will just love the Zoom range on your new camera. Here are a couple of shots I took today.

[Patrick]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Welcome back from your trip George & I welcome some tips when you get the chance. I will have a look at the manual you sent previously. Also thanks Patrick for your advice as well. I have been shooting in Tiff but when it is uploaded to the computer it downloads both jpeg & Tiff files of each pic. Quite frankly, at present, I wouldn't know what to do with RAW files, but as you say. it would be best to shoot in RAW. Practice, practice & more practice & of course research will help me in the end! The people on this forum are extremely helpfull, patient & kind. Thank you

[Archangel]

Re: Panasonic FZ30

Welcome back from your trip George & I welcome some tips when you get the chance. I will have a look at the manual you sent previously. Also thanks Patrick for your advice as well. I have been shooting in Tiff but when it is uploaded to the computer it downloads both jpeg & Tiff files of each pic. Quite frankly, at present, I wouldn't know what to do with RAW files, but as you say. it would be best to shoot in RAW. Practice, practice & more practice & of course research will help me in the end! The people on this forum are extremely helpfull, patient & kind. Thank you

Jocelyn,

I'm preparing an e-mail for you with some tips for the FZ30 along with one to match DSLR smooth quality, if you are interesting to do so.
Here are two sample images at wide angle (35mm) and full telephoto (420mm). The camera records amazing amaunt of detail even at full telephoto (that is much more visible at the full photo size). Both shots supplied are handheld.

In bright sunlight or backlit use the parasoleil (lens hood supplied). That will minimize lens flare and ghosting. The parasoleil cuts out excess light and improves picture quality.


@ 35mm






@ 420mm





George