Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ8?

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I recently purchased a Panasonic DMC FZ8 and still getting to grips with it. I wanted a camera that took crisp pictures and close up nature/flower pics. I'm not very techinally minded and find it dificult to understand the manual. Does anybody else have one or know anything about the camera and the best way to use it! Maybe this question is a little too wide!!!

Any hints and tips would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks in advance
 
Hey,
I have a DMC-FZ3, bit older, only difference is amount of megapixels and its silver. When I first started with it, I used it in auto mode, which is "P." If you haven't read the manual yet, look into it, especially for the area on manual exposure; helps a lot. "A" is for aperture priority, and "S" is for shutter priority, and "M" is for manual. If you didn't know this, it will help. Unfortunately I don't have experience with taking flower pics so I can't help you there. Hope this helps! (You don't need to read the whole manual, just on the areas about the various shooting modes).
 
Yeah I think I have shyed away from the 'Manual' mode thinking it would be better using the AF as this would do it for me. I think I should start using the MF.. Thanks
 
I have a Panasonic FZ20. I am still learning alot about it and I've had it for 2 years, but I like shooting in A mode. On my camera, you hit the exposure button to adjust your aparture in that mode, so going to F8 would give you your nice crisp pics of flowers. Also, if you pre-focus (manually)your camera to 20 feet you can then point and shoot landscapes to get the best focus for entire picture. I hope this helps a little, as I said, I'm just learning also.
 
Hi, I have this camera and it can produce very nice shots. I'll give you a few negative points though: manual focus is atrocious, it's a little bar that goes up or down but you can't tell if your spot on or not. The viewfinder is electronic, and not only it gives you a bad eye but also reacts badly to light, you don't see a thing with too much light, it doesn't give you a good idea of the color exposure control. The camera is useless at mesuring light with filters (I tried ND and it goes crazy and gives me silly reading far too over-exposed).

Good points are: lightweight and handy, good pictures, good speed.

Overall, I find this camera a good little digital, but it really doesn't make me want to drop my film cameras. Maybe I should look at DSLRs, but the price range is far too far from my wallet ;)

Max
 
I have an FZ7 and recently have found that shooting at negative 1-2 EV helps me bring back lost details in post. And where I have really bright backgrounds such as a lot of sky I even go to minus 3. I understand this camera can be fitted with an adapter and a ND filter so I am looking forward to that even though the combined cost will be almost 80 dollars and I am looking to go DSLR perhaps later this year or early next.

I try to shoot everything in ISO 100 now too because 200 and up just seem to get a lot of noise regardless of whether I use the built in noise reduction.

My best advice is to spend a day just shooting hundreds of pics in different conditions if you can find them. Go for a hike and shoot in daylight and shadow, shoot landscapes etc... Try many different settings for each shot. This will get you going, but still leave you a lot to learn don't get me wrong.

I got serious about photography a couple of months ago. I have had this FZ7 for about two years where I used it mostly on overcast days to take texture reference for 3d work.
But the first thing I did back then was start researching settitngs for this or that situation and getting nowhere fast by that approach. Last weekend I went out and tried experimenting and found that I could get a lot better exposures by adjusting down the EV and shooting in A mode. A mode lets you control the DOF very quickly which to me is the thing I am most interested in about photography.

Maxx you want to sell your LA2 and ND?
 

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