Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30By: Dave EtchellsPanasonic's latest in the Lumix lineup, with an eight-megapixel sensor and high quality long-zoom Leica optics. <<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 7:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 01/18/2006 |
Exposure
The Lumix FZ30 offers excellent exposure control, with Auto, Program AE (P), Aperture Priority AE (A), Shutter Speed Priority AE (S), and Manual (M) exposure modes, and a selection of special settings for specific shooting situations. Full Auto mode puts the camera in charge of everything, except resolution, zoom, and the flash mode. Program AE mode controls shutter speed and aperture settings, but also provides access to other exposure controls including Exposure Compensation, Flash Exposure Compensation, Spot Metering, ISO adjustment, AE lock, Auto Exposure Bracketing, White Balance, Contrast, Sharpness, and Saturation, among others. Halfway pressing the Shutter button displays the selected aperture and shutter speed settings. You can shift the exposure by turning the rear control dial, biasing the exposure toward more or less depth of field.
Shutter Priority mode puts you in control of the Panasonic FZ30's shutter speed setting (from 1/2,000 to eight seconds), while the camera chooses a corresponding lens aperture. As with the Program AE mode, you maintain control over all other exposure options. Aperture Priority works along similar lines, except that you control the aperture (f/2.8 to f/11.0) and the camera chooses the best corresponding shutter speed. Both the shutter speed and aperture values are displayed on the LCD monitor. If the camera can't find an aperture or shutter speed to produce the correct exposure with the shutter speed or aperture you've selected, the LCD indicators will turn red, letting you know that you need to change the setting you selected.
Full Manual exposure mode lets you control both shutter speed and lens aperture independently, extending the shutter speed range to a 60-second maximum time. Pressing the Exposure button switches the four-way rocker control arrow keys from their normal functions to control aperture (the up/down arrows) and shutter speed (the left/right arrows). Tapping the Shutter button calls up an exposure-meter display on the LCD screen, showing the currently selected exposure level, across a range of +/- 2 EV; a nice touch. The exposure-meter display disappears after a few seconds of inactivity, or you can use the Display button to select a display mode without the on-screen information overlay.
No less than 14 preset "Scene" exposure modes are also available for shooting under special conditions, and include Portrait, Sports, Food, Scenery, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Baby, Soft Skin, Candle Light, Party, Fireworks, Snow, Starry Sky, and Panning (following a moving subject) modes. These modes preset a variety of camera options, helping novice photographers capture good-looking pictures in challenging situations without requiring a full knowledge of the camera. Two positions on the Panasonic FZ30's Mode dial access the scene modes, "SCN1" and "SCN2." Through the Setup menu, you can set the camera to automatically display the Scene menu in either mode, or set it so that the previously selected scene is enabled whenever switching to the other mode. With the latter option, you can have two different scenes ready to go and accessible at a moment's notice. For example, you can switch from Scenery to Party modes when photographing at a wedding, easily moving indoors and out without a lot of camera setup. Most of these modes are fairly self-explanatory, each dealing with specific lighting or subject conditions.
Exposure compensation can be adjusted from –2 to +2 exposure values (EV), in one-third-step increments. The FZ30's metering system offers three operating modes, which include Multiple, Center-Weighted, and Spot, selectable through the Record menu. Multiple metering measures brightness throughout the entire frame, and determines the best overall exposure. Center-weighted averaging is based on an averaged light reading of the overall scene, but places more emphasis on the center of the viewfinder or LCD monitor. Spot metering reads only a specific point in the viewfinder. You can lock the exposure (and focus) by halfway pressing and holding the Shutter button, and then reframing the subject. An AE Lock button on the rear panel also locks the exposure, independently of focus, until the button is pressed a second time or the shutter is released.
The Panasonic FZ30 offers six White Balance modes, including Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Halogen, Flash, and White Set. The White Set mode allows you to manually set the white balance by holding a white card in front of the camera to set the value in the setup mode. You can fine-tune the white balance by adding more red or blue to the color balance in all of the modes except Auto, using the WB Adjust feature (accessed by pressing the up arrow of the arrow pad until WB Adjust appears on the LCD monitor).
ISO film speed equivalents on the Panasonic FZ30 are set in the Record menu, with choices of Auto, 80, 100, 200, and 400. The higher the ISO setting, the more you can extend the camera's exposure range in low-light situations. Just keep in mind that higher ISO values have progressively lower quality levels, with increased image noise. On that note, the DMC-FZ30 does feature long-exposure Noise Reduction, which uses dark frame subtraction to reduce the amount of image noise in longer exposures. What this means is that after the initial exposure, the camera takes a second exposure with the shutter closed, and compares the two images to subtract the noise pixels from the main image.
In perhaps its most unusual feature, the Lumix FZ30 offers a noise-reduction adjustment through its Record menu, with options of High, Normal, or Low Noise Reduction settings. This setting adjusts how aggressive the camera is about trading away subtle subject detail for reduced image noise. Digicam anti-noise systems basically look for regions of the image where there's relatively little local contrast between adjacent pixels, assuming that wherever the local contrast is lower than a certain threshold, whatever's left there must be noise. When that condition occurs, the camera "flattens" the contrast further, suppressing the noise. This is fine if you're dealing with a part of the subject that has little or no detail of its own (a blank wall or the sky for example), but if the detail in the subject has only subtle contrast (hair is an excellent example), the camera can mistakenly flatten-out the subject detail along with the image noise.
The Panasonic DMC-FZ30 also offers a Color Effect setting with Cool, Warm, Black and White, and Sepia color options. A Picture Adjustment menu option features additional adjustment tools, including Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, and the above-mentioned Noise Reduction options.
Auto Exposure Bracketing
The Auto Exposure Bracketing mode is accessed by pressing the up arrow of the Four-Way Arrow pad until "Auto Bracket" appears on the LCD monitor. It automatically captures a series of three images, each at a different exposure setting. You can manually set the Panasonic FZ30's exposure variation between shots in one-third-step increments, up to as much as +/- 1 EV. The camera makes all three exposures in rapid succession with just one press of the Shutter button. Unfortunately, this function cannot be used with flash photography. If the flash fires, only one image will be recorded. (The likely reason for this is that the onboard flash recharges too slowly to be usable in a multiple-exposure application like this.)
Burst Shooting
The DMC-FZ30 has three Burst shooting modes, which are accessed by pressing the Burst button on the top panel. Low Speed mode captures a maximum of nine consecutive low-resolution frames at two frames per second, while High Speed mode captures the same number of images at bit under three frames per second, as long as you hold down the shutter release. (Burst length will depend on the subject you're shooting, and how well the resulting images compress.) There's also an Infinity mode, which limits the number of images only by memory card capacity, and shoots at approximately two frames per second. The number of images and actual shot-to-shot speed depend on several factors, including the amount of memory remaining on the flash card and the size/quality of the images being acquired.
Movie Mode
The Panasonic FZ30 also offers a Movie mode, which is accessed by turning the Mode dial on top of the camera to the miniature film frame symbol. The Motion JPEG files are recorded at 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels, at either 30 or 10 frames per second. Recording times are limited by frame rate and memory card capacity. Recording stops and starts with a full press of the shutter button, and the amount of available recording time appears in the upper right corner of the LCD monitor. The camera's exposure is set and fixed at the beginning of the recording interval. Movies are recorded with sound. Unlike its "INF" continuous shooting mode, the FZ30's Movie mode appears capable of recording movies continuously to the limit of card capacity.
Flip Animation Mode
Enabled through the Record menu, the Panasonic FZ30's Flip Animation Mode lets you connect a string of images together to make a 20-second movie that resembles a flip animation. You can record as many as 100 consecutive images to create the animation. To capture the series, select "Picture Capture" under the Flip Animation menu option, then snap away. Once you've captured all of the files you need, select "Create Motion Image" and select the frame rate (either five or ten frames per second) to string the images together into a motion file. Once the animation has been created, you can opt to delete the still images to save memory space. (This can be a fun mode. Sony had a Flip Animation option on their cameras a couple of years back, but that feature was limited to a much shorter sequence of images.)
Self-Timer Mode
The Self-Timer is set by pressing the left arrow key on the Four-Way Arrow pad, and offers a choice between a two- or 10-second countdown. When set to Self-Timer, the camera displays the standard self-timer icon (a clock counting down) in the LCD display, and depressing the Shutter button activates the countdown, during which a lamp on the camera's front panel blinks. The two-second option is very handy when you're shooting long exposures with the camera on a tripod, and want to avoid jiggling the camera and blurring the shot when you press the Shutter button with your finger. The two-second countdown is enough time for any vibrations to die down before the shutter opens, but not so long as to seriously slow your shooting. - I also find myself using a short self-timer for shots in low light or macro situations, where I just prop the camera on a convenient rock, fence post, or water glass (at a restaurant, for example) to avoid hand-held jiggles. Very convenient, when you don't happen to have a tripod along.
Flash
The Panasonic FZ30's built-in, pop-up flash operates in one of six modes: Auto, Red-Eye Reduction (Auto), Forced, Red-Eye Reduction (Forced), Slow-Sync (with Red-Eye Reduction), and Flash Off. The Auto mode tells the camera to determine when flash is necessary, based on existing exposure conditions. Forced means that the flash fires with every exposure, regardless of lighting conditions, and Flash Off completely disables the flash. The three Red-Eye Reduction modes fire a small pre-flash one second before the full flash, to reduce the redeye effect in portraits. Slow-Sync mode combines the flash with a slower shutter speed, letting more of the ambient light fall on the camera's sensor, brightening background objects.
The flash exposure can be adjusted from -2 to +2 EV in one-third-step increments by pressing the up arrow of the Multi controller until the Flash Exposure Compensation adjustment appears. Panasonic rates the DMC-FZ30's flash as effective from 0.98 to 22.9 feet (30 centimeters to 7 meters) depending on the zoom setting and ISO. In my own tests, the camera's flash easily reached out to the 14-foot limit of my test setup, at ISO 100.
Unlike the FZ15, a hot shoe on the top of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 allows attachment of an external flash. The company lists the Panasonic PE-20ST, PE-28S, and PE-36S units on the accessory list, but it looks like any basic thyristor-driven single pole flash will do.
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