lumix questions...

[back alley]

on the fz20...

when shooting indoors at work, under flourescent lighting many of the faces are coming out way too red.
do i need to set the white balance manually?

i'm still getting lots of not too sharp pics but i know it's me as some are very sharp.
i need to figure out how to hold these smaller, lighter cams better.

when using the cam on a tripod, shooting other cameras, the pics are nowhere near as sharp as the canons i've had previously. i doubt that it's the camera.
maybe the shutter release button is more sensitive than on the canons?
do i need to use the macro setting when shooting under 2 or 3 feet?

and i don't know which is the flourescent symbol in the menu.

another question...all my pics have the same 72dpi when i look at image size, no matter what quality/size i choose. is that the highest this goes? can't be!

i just printed off an english language manual and need to study it.

thanks guys.

joe
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[JoeFriday]

I'm not sure about all your questions, joe.. but I know you're supposed to turn OFF the image stabilizer when the camera is on a tripod

not sure about the white balance for red faces, but I bet that's the case

I think all images will be 72 dpi, but the physical size of the image will be larger for higher quality.. there are 3(?) settings for image size/quality, IIRC

as for sharp photos.. you gotta check two things.. make sure the camera is on AF and not MF (that's a problem the gf always had with that).. and you hold the shutter button halfway to focus, then all the way to shoot, without letting up on the button.. another problem the gf had.. I never got blurry shots, so I know it's not the camera

and yes.. macro for under 2 feet.. definitely

 

[peterc]

The Panasonic I have has a number of different settings for various colour temperatures of flourescents (you might have to test to see which one works).

Macro setting under 3 feet is probably a good idea.

72dpi is it for most digicams, though Canon and Nikon seem to clock in at 300dpi.

Sharpness -- what in-camera sharpening are you using? No sharpening will look fine printed, but generally sucks on a screen.

Peter

 

[Nick R.]

The 72 dpi is a meaningless number as far as quality. You have a fixed number of pixels to start with. Think of it as taking the same 35mm negative and blowing it up on paper to different sizes. The poster sized one will look a lot crudier than the 4"X 6". Now take those same prints and place the 4 x 6 at arms length, the 11 x 14 across the room, and the poster print across the yard -so that the relative sizes are similar. Guess what, the quality of all will look the same because you're working from the same negative. DPI is like that. Set it to 600dpi in PS shop and you're looking at a smaller image (don't increase the pixel count artificially). Set it to 72 and you're viewing a much larger image but the quality hasn't changed. Just the apparent quality from looking at an enlarged print.

 

[ampguy]

Joe, I have the smaller auto focus only version, and yes the WB has to often be set manually for color tones to come out right. On mine (FZ3), there are 3 settings for the image stab. - off, on when shooting, and on all the time. I usually use the middle setting, on at time of shot, with little or no image degradataion.

There are also settings for AF, spot, 3 point, and 9 point. I always use 3 point. I think you can configure, but if I recall, holding the shutter down partway locks exposure, and a 2nd button locks focus, if you're not fast shooting, you may want to use the 9 pt. auto-focus, or manual focus. I also like the live histogram, something I miss on my DSLR.