Panasonic LC1/Leica Digilux 2: My first attempts

[raid]

I took additional photos today with the LC1.

 

[raid]

There is a spot on the far right side and just "above sea level" that looks like a dirty sensor. How can I clean it? It is at the back of the lens.

It could be the protective filter that is dirty, so I have no cleaned it.

 

[raid]

An error showed in the screen, and I thought that I had some error!
I just checked the manual, and it was just a caution not to ...

When the card access indication 1
lights, do not:
• turn the camera off.
• remove the battery or the card.
• disconnect the DC cable if you use the
AC adaptor.
The card and the data may be damaged
and the camera may not operate
normally.

 

[raid]

I have not tried to make some improvements in the images with PS yet. These are from the camera. I set to RAW, and I get each image as RAW and as JPG.

 

[daveleo]

That spot is not on the other phtos, so I guess that it's not the sensor. Also, that lens is fixed to the camera and the sensor is attached to the back of the lens. It would be quite a trick for dirt to get in between there.

 

[raid]

I saw the spot on several beach photos, and I used the clone stamp to remove them. I will test today if the spot is gone or not after I cleaned the lens. I don't see it in the portraits.

 

[JoeV]

Raid, from having shot a number of older digital cameras, I can attest that, under subdued lighting, if one had to choose between the noise from higher ISOs, and motion blur from using too low of an ISO, it's better to choose the higher ISO; and, if necessary, convert the image to B/W if it's excessively noisey for color.

I'm looking forward to seeing more from your camera.

~Joe

 

[raid]

Thanks for your feedback, Joe. I have started only yesterday to explore what this old camera is capable and what it lacks. It may be a suitable camera for family photos since these usually do not require fast focusing and usually I can control when I take such photos, so I can choose well lit areas.

I need to figure out whether shooting B&W directly is possible or whether I remove colors from the color images.

 

[raid]

The spot is still there and it seems to be a dust spot that made it somehow to the sensor. It cannot be cleaned.

This is at aperture 11.

The spot is not so pronounced at aperture 4.0.

 

[jesse1dog]

If that is all that is 'wrong', Raid, I wouldn't be too bothered. You know where the spot is and more or less when it is likely to appear. You know how to 'fix' it so go ahead and enjoy the camera.

 

[raid]

You are correct, Jesse. It is not a problem for me.

 

[dotur]

That is probably a small dust particle on the tiny LC1 sensor, hopefully a loose one. You won't see it at all at wide apertures, it starts to appear at f4 and gets sharpest at f11. It happened to me once, but disappeared forever after few weeks of use. If it doesn't fall off spontaneously from the sensor, you can't clean it yourself.
For the beginning, don't store you camera with the lens up.

Otherwise, the camera seems to be OK. Your first shots of Dana were blurry because you were too close + the speed was to slow, as Dave said.
Get used to hold your camera firmly at your forehead, and with your left hand under the lens, elbows close to the body.
Always use AF-Macro position on the lens for close-up portraits.
Shoot at f2 and at ISO 100 whenever you can (as I do) - the lens is perfectly sharp at wide apertures, and on AF-Macro you might even get some nice bokeh. And Jesse is right: keep shooting and enjoy your new LC1! 🙂

 

[raid]

Thanks for the tips, Ivan. Dana used to hold her camera to her forehead when she was 3 years old! I posted about it here.

I prefer using f 2.0 with ISO 100 anyways. It brings out the best in this camera.

 

[chhayanat]

You can go to Menu>White Balance>B/W to see the picture in black and white. This is independent of whether you are shooting in raw or jpeg. If you have jpeg settings, you will get a b/w directly out of the camera. Frankly I try to shoot jpegs only in this camera if I can because I believe the in-camera algorithm is hard to match in post-production. Also it allows me to take three pictures for each exposure so sometimes that helps with someone blinking etc. Welcome to Digilux 2 club 🙂

 

[raid]

Thanks. I just did this. I switched to B&W jpg with multiple burst. I set ISO to 400 too.

This image looks much sharper on my monitor when I view it in LR. Now it looks soft to me here.

 

[raid]

Same image. I copied it to a WORD file first, followed by saving it as jpg. It looks sharper. Why?

 

[raid]

This is one of Rasha's photos that I have copied first into a WORD file.

 

[dotur]

Blurry Dana (P1020256-XL.jpg) has only 66 KB, while sharp Dana (LUMIX.jpg) has 754 KB. Obviously the shot itself is sharp - the blurry version is of too low quality.
I do not know what are you doing, but one thing is certain: your LC1 can not be blamed for that blurriness... 🙄

 

[raid]

I shot in RAW and I also got jpg files. Then I uploaded jpg image to smugmug. Then I posted here the link to ot.
I will think this tnough better. The camera is doing well, as you have said. I wo der why the jpg images became so small.

 

[chhayanat]

There is a size/quality option in the menu. Are you asking for the best quality jpeg?