Lumix DMC-TZ5 night shots problems

[Houmie]

Hello everyone,

I have read superb reviews about DMC-TZ5 however even simple photographs at night look so grainy and bad. If the objects or people are close to the flash then its fine. However if they are standing a bit further away all I see are grainy pixels. It just looks horrible and I wonder if I have set something wrong or if the camera is broken.

For example take this picture, why does it look so grainy? I have set it to auto-Intelligence (iA) settings and use no tripods.
http://www.houmie.com/P1000243.JPG


I have seen a member here in Forum called Zola70 who made fantastic shots with this camera:
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412963
So it must be possible.

Please help,
many Thanks,
Houman

 

[night86mare]

noise is always most apparent in the shadow details, whether it is p&s or dslr

when they are close to camera and flash, they tend to be well exposed so no problem

when further away it's simple, the flash doesn't catch them so well so you tend to get an underexposed picture and noise.

there is no problem with your camera, it's just the way it goes.

your exif details:

iso 400
1/8 sec
f/3.3

the iso 400 is the one causing the trouble. take some time to read up about "digital noise" on google.. if you can't find anything coherent with those search parameters try photography noise, there should be a lot netliterature on this out there

 

[dennisc]

That's Lumix, noisy @ iso 200 onwards. Notice lanterns are well lit, that's the difference and iso 125, 1/30sec, etc something which any cam can perform well shooting against light. Tried it.
Yours has been dimly lit, high iso, there's where Lumix exhibits its infamous water color effect.

 

[Houmie]

Thanks for your advice guys.

I read a bit about the noise. Some recommend higher ISO and some say it makes it even worse. I have no idea. Its just annoying to see much cheaper cameras can make better pictures at night than my expensive camera. Very disappointed in Lumix. I wished the reviews had mentioned this more clearly.

 

[night86mare]

Thanks for your advice guys.

I read a bit about the noise. Some recommend higher ISO and some say it makes it even worse. I have no idea. Its just annoying to see much cheaper cameras can make better pictures at night than my expensive camera. Very disappointed in Lumix. I wished the reviews had mentioned this more clearly.

cheaper cameras will also have the same problems, the problem lies not with lumix

 

[Houmie]

I found this free tool that works wonders:

http://www.neatimage.com/download.html

It can completely remove the noises. The pictures becomes a bit blur, but it looks 1000x better than it is. Highly recommended!

Cheers
Houman