Athens AntiWar Protest

[Archangel]

Last Saturday there was an AntiWar Protest in downtown Athens.
My first part-time photojournal job was to take some shots from the Antiwar Protest along with the Live Outdoors Band.
I experimentally used my tiny FZ5 to see how it will cope with such photos.
So here are some from the shots I took which are also some of the 25 shots I returned to the magazine which has covered the protesting.











































George

[Guest]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Hi Archangel
These are stunning photos for such a small camera. Have you done any post processing to them.?

Regards Dennis

[Archangel]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Hi Archangel
These are stunning photos for such a small camera. Have you done any post processing to them.?

Regards Dennis

They are straight out of the cam and downsized only Dennis.
The FZ5 is a stunning camera like the FZ20 and FZ30 too.
Here are also some kids action shots I've got too the same day.












George

[Autumn]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Excellent photos George. I was looking for the Exif info but it isn't there. I should have been interested to see what settings you had used for all of these superb shots.

Good luck with the new job.

[Pops]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Super colour captures.
Maybe I should have kept my FZ20

[Archangel]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Excellent photos George. I was looking for the Exif info but it isn't there. I should have been interested to see what settings you had used for all of these superb shots.

Good luck with the new job.

Hi Audrey,

The first 3 photos in the row have the EXIF attached on.
If you are interesting in some other EXIF of a photo, tell me to send you the photo with the EXIF.

George

[Archangel]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Super colour captures.
Maybe I should have kept my FZ20

Thanks Pops,

I got early last week, a brand new FZ30 after searching for it for quite some time as it is already more than a year and half model and found only 2 pieces left in only one camera store here in Athens.
I got it brand new with 2 year Panasonic warranty for 400 Euros (around 280 British Pounds)!.
The results are also stunning on that model. As I feel uncomfortable of carrying a DSLR and lenses, the fixed 12X zoom at 8MP LEICA lens (15.3X at 5MP and 19.1X at 3MP, all true optical) is the ultimate choice for me right now.


George

[lumix]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Excellent photos George. I was looking for the Exif info but it isn't there. I should have been interested to see what settings you had used for all of these superb shots.

Good luck with the new job.

George as a user of the FZ20 I am not too surprised at the quality of your images. Having said that I must congratulate you on the photographic skill you have applied to these images. First rate and as good as any professional would have turned out. I would suspect that you set the camera on manual focus for those action shots. If that is so then very well done on your behalf.

[Archangel]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

George as a user of the FZ20 I am not too surprised at the quality of your images. Having said that I must congratulate you on the photographic skill you have applied to these images. First rate and as good as any professional would have turned out. I would suspect that you set the camera on manual focus for those action shots. If that is so then very well done on your behalf.

Hi Ron (Mr. Public Enemy )

Unfortunately, there is no manual focus option in the tiny FZ5. The FZ5 is only Auto Focus and that is the main difference apart from size from the FZ20.
So all of my photos are taken with Auto Focus and some with pre-focus. Though the camera especially in daylight focuses fast like hell and if you select the "High Speed" focus option then there is really no difference from DSLR focusing speeds.
In low light situations it still focuses fairly fast. I guess there is no need to describe all these to you as you have personal experience from your FZ20.
Manual focus and zoom options are in my FZ30 with the two rings on the lens barrel, which I will take on the next shootout for testing too.


George

[lumix]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Hi Ron (Mr. Public Enemy )

Unfortunately, there is no manual focus option in the tiny FZ5. The FZ5 is only Auto Focus and that is the main difference apart from size from the FZ20.
So all of my photos are taken with Auto Focus and some with pre-focus. Though the camera especially in daylight focuses fast like hell and if you select the "High Speed" focus option then there is really no difference from DSLR focusing speeds.
In low light situations it still focuses fairly fast. I guess there is no need to describe all these to you as you have personal experience from your FZ20.
Manual focus and zoom options are in my FZ30 with the two rings on the lens barrel, which I will take on the next shootout for testing too.


George

It would seem that the focus on the FZ5 is better than the FZ20. I'm sure that I would not have captured your action shots with my auto focus. Manual or Pre-focus and with some luck maybe. Perhaps I should get my FZ20 checked as the auto focus doesn't lock as fast as I would like it too. Please keep us posted regards the FZ30. I love my FZ20 but may be persuaded to change for one of the other Panasonic models.

[Ian]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Hi George; a very nice crisp set of images, well done

I'm not surprised you got this kind of quality out of the FZ30 and you got a bargain price too. I'm pleased that you looked past the objections many had about smeared pixel-level detail, which I always felt was a red herribg when evaluating this camera's overall image quality.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Hi George; a very nice crisp set of images, well done

I'm not surprised you got this kind of quality out of the FZ30 and you got a bargain price too. I'm pleased that you looked past the objections many had about smeared pixel-level detail, which I always felt was a red herring when evaluating this camera's overall image quality.

Ian

Ah, now I read that you used an FZ5, but you recently bought an FZ30 Sorry!

It looks like you had plent of light on the day, so the FZ5's main problem, of low light image noise, doesn't present itself here.

Ian

[Archangel]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

It would seem that the focus on the FZ5 is better than the FZ20. I'm sure that I would not have captured your action shots with my auto focus. Manual or Pre-focus and with some luck maybe. Perhaps I should get my FZ20 checked as the auto focus doesn't lock as fast as I would like it too. Please keep us posted regards the FZ30. I love my FZ20 but may be persuaded to change for one of the other Panasonic models.

Ron,

You might want to consider the FZ30 in case you want to replace your FZ20.
Though it is hard to find now even the FZ30. If you need to do so then you need to do a lot of searching.
Do not consider the FZ50 though.

George

[Caz]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

A cracking set of images George... good luck in your new job, in case I hadn't said so before

Caz

[Archangel]

Re: Athens AntiWar Protest

Ah, now I read that you used an FZ5, but you recently bought an FZ30 Sorry!

It looks like you had plent of light on the day, so the FZ5's main problem, of low light image noise, doesn't present itself here.

Ian

Ian,

I really don't have any concern of the noise at high ISOs of both the FZ5 and the FZ30. Actually the FZ5 was used in many reviews as a reference camera to compare other compact superzooms and in terms of noise at higher ISOs.
It is good that I read the reviews up to the part that I find them objective and mostly choosing my cameras by analyzing sample photos myself.
There has been too much noise about the "noise" in Panasonics. I have hold many cameras in my hands and performed many tests myself and really I find them no worse than all other brands at high ISOs. Actually sometimes they behave better in terms of noise than other brands by having of course noise at high ISOs, but the noise is more uniformly/evenly spread in the entire picture.

Anyway here are 2 shots straight out of both cameras (FZ5 and FZ30) and untouched at ISO400 and only resized to 1600x1200 as the website permits. Taken just awhile ago in my living room (around 25 sq. meters and with only a 75W bulb on the ceiling lighting at the time).


George

FZ5 @ ISO400 FZ30 @ ISO400