FZ20 test drive

[flowerpot99]

Hi guys took my FZ20 for a test drive today. Found some pro and cons about this camera but generally find it great.

Hope the people on Pana Island will come out firmware up dates to extend the shutter time to 30secs...

These are some of the photos I took do give some comment and advise ;p Erm since I'm just a newbie so guess the photo may look alittle.... But do give some tips on how to utlise this machine :thumbsup:

Wish I can have a longer shutter time to play with

 

[flowerpot99]

 

[k3nn3th03]

wa.. u can take the moon pic..

i try myself but cannot ( due to i am s.... )

care to share wit me how u take ?

thanks

 

[flowerpot99]

Erm I mount it on tripod then use manual mode, then slowly adjust the focus and shutter speed.Didnt use any thing special but just Hoya UV filter for protection.Wonder if this helps. BTW its tonights mood :bsmilie:

 

[zenesh]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

great pic.

got great pics. more like need to get pointers from you.

As for shutter speed, i find that the 8 sec is enough already. I did night shots initially with 8 sec shutter speeds and F8 if i am not wrong. And they were too bright.

Another thing is that iI realised that if the shutter speed for night shots is longer, the lights seems to have a star effect. wonder if anyone else has it?

 

[flowerpot99]

I need the longer shutter time to get some effects like:

With a longer shutter speed the sea almost became a mirror. Hoping to create a reflection on water surface somedays. This photo is abit over-exposed I feel but if got ND filter maybe.... With 8 secs this kind of effects are not possible.

Notice the star effect, with longer shutter time the star effect becomes prominent even without filters.

By the way took these with Sony W1, my other camera.

 

[Scann69]

Flowerpot99, here are some pictures i took when i 1st got the FZ20. Remember that if u want pictures to be brighter you can reduce the F number, increase the shutter speed and also increase the ISO. Of course setting a higher ISO will means more noise but you can always remove them using 3rd party softwares. Here is a picture of the Novetel i took. It's over expose.

Your flower pictures are a little blurr. Were the flowers moving due to wind? If that is the case, i normally use a flash but set the flash to the lowest cos i don't want the natural colour of the flower to be lost.

And of course the moon....well, you can try to crop your picture so it looks bigger. In my case what i did was i used digital zoom. Picture taken handheld.

Hope the above is helpful. My pictures has all the exif on it so you can try those settings the next time u take similar pictures.

 

[rhair78]

I need the longer shutter time to get some effects like:

With a longer shutter speed the sea almost became a mirror. Hoping to create a reflection on water surface somedays. This photo is abit over-exposed I feel but if got ND filter maybe.... With 8 secs this kind of effects are not possible.

Notice the star effect, with longer shutter time the star effect becomes prominent even without filters.

By the way took these with Sony W1, my other camera.

Hi flowerpot, the reason pana cannot make it have longer exposure, is cos the minimum aperture is f8. most night shots will be overexposed if you leave it longer than 8 sec, depending on the amount of available light.

 

[Scann69]

Stars like this you mean? It's more clearly seen for the lights behind. Just set the ISO to 400.

 

[flowerpot99]

Tks for all the info guys :thumbsup: Really appreciate it.
Now I know I can use ISO setting to create star effect. But does shutter time affect the star size? seems like my stars are longer but yours have many more blades and shorter.

Ya scann69, you are right the flower is moving vigorously when I was taking it. By the way, to make the bulit in flash throttle down I lower the flash value, correct?

rhair78, I do agree that pic get over-expose at longer shutter time but I think using ND filter will help right? Its is not the brightness or the exposure of the photo that I wanted a longer shutter time
Actually, I wanted the >8secs of shutter time mainly for creating mirror liked water surfaces and sometimes motions or reflection, for the rest like landscape, potrait I guess its enough.

BTW, scann69 nice moon shot :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
you must be a human tripod :bsmilie: My hand keep shaking, think at 8x zoom my pic blur liao :sweatsm:

 

[Scann69]

Tks for all the info guys. Really appreciate it.
Now I know I can use ISO setting to create star effect. But does shutter time affect the star size? seems like my stars are longer but yours have many more blades and shorter.

Ya scann69, you are right the flower is moving vigorously when I was taking it. By the way, to make the bulit in flash throttle down I lower the flash value, correct?

BTW, scann69 nice moon shot
you must be a human tripod. My hand keep shaking, think at 8x zoom my pic blur liao.

From what i've heard is that the F number helps with the star on the lights. The higher the F number, the clearer the stars should be but since at F8 the camera only gets minimum light so that is the purpose of increasing the ISO to 400. Again, be prepared to get a lot of noise on the pictures. Below are samples.

This is taken at ISO 80, F/2.8 & Shutter at 1 sec

This is taken at ISO 100, F/8 & Shutter at 8 sec

To lower the flash brightness, just press the round button up 3 times and reduce by pressing left.

If you look at the exif for the moon picture, the shutter is set to 1/400 which makes everybody at that shutter speed a human tripod

 

[rhair78]

ah flowerpot, If you like star effects for getting the nice star at lights etc.. there is a star cross filter by hoya.

Good idea about using ND and even polarisers to lower exp. thanks for tip.

 

[LifeWorld]

Yo flowerpot,

If you look at the street light with your eyes wide open, you see the light brightly shine at you. If you close your eyes slightly smaller, you will see the stars of it. Similarly, for Aperture, if you set to big (f/2.8) you won't get 'stars' on your night shot. Try at f/5 or smaller Aperture.

This is what you can get. Straight out of the camera at f/5.6, 8s, A mode