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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 By: Dave Etchells Panasonic updates its 12x optically stabilized Leica lens digicam to five megapixels. Select a topic Reference: Datasheet DMC-FZ5 Sample Images DMC-FZ5 Imatest Results DMC-FZ5 Photo Gallery! --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Comparison With Panasonic DMC-FZ3 3. User's Report 4. Design 5. Viewfinder 6. Optics 7. Exposure & Flash 8. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 9. Operation & User Interface 10. Camera Modes & Menus 11. Image Storage & Interface 12. Video, Power, Software 13. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on DMC-FZ5 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Operation & User Interface :(Previous) | (Next): Image Storage & Interface>> Page 10:Camera Modes & Menus Review First Posted: 05/09/2005

Record Menu: The following options are available by pressing the Menu button in any record mode, though some menu options aren't available in all modes:

• White Balance: Sets the white balance to Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Halogen, Flash, Manual, or White Set modes. (White Set isn't a separate white balance mode, it's just the option for manually setting the white point that's selected by the Manual option.)
• Motion Rate: (Movie mode only.) Sets the frame rate to 30 or 10 frames per second for movie files.
• Sensitivity: Adjusts the camera's sensitivity setting. Choices are Auto, 80, 100, 200, or 400 ISO equivalents.
• Picture Size: Sets image resolution to 2,560 x 1,920; 2,048 x 1,536; 1,600 x 1,200; 1,280 x 960; or 640 x 480 pixels, plus an "HDTV" setting (1,920 x 1,080 pixels).
• Quality: Sets the image compression to Fine or Standard, or to uncompressed TIFF.
• Audio Recording: When enabled, causes the camera to record five seconds of audio with each still photo. (JPEGs only, audio recording isn't available with TIFFs, or when shooting in one of the camera's continuous modes.)
  
  
• Metering Mode: Designates the camera's metering mode as Multiple, Center-Weighted, or Spot.
• AF Mode: Sets the AF area mode to Nine-Area, Three-Area High Speed, One-Area High Speed, One-Area, or Spot.
• Continuous AF: Turns the Continuous AF mode on or off.
• AF Trigger: Selects whether autofocusing should be achieved with the shutter button, or via a separate Focus button. When enabled, focus is set whenever you press the Focus button on the rear of the camera, and isn't changed until you snap the shutter or press the Focus button again. When disabled, a half-press of the shutter button sets focus.
• AF Assist Lamp: Activates the autofocus assist beam, which automatically turns on whenever the camera is autofocusing in dim lighting to help the camera focus on poorly lit subjects.
  
  
• Digital Zoom: Enables or disables the digital zoom option.
• Color Effect: Selects a color effect, with options of Cool, Warm, Black and White, or Sepia.
• Picture Adjust: Offers three settings - Natural, Standard or Vivid. The natural setting gives a softer, less color-saturated image, while the Vivid setting increases both color intensity and sharpness, as compared to the default Standard setting.
• Flip Animation: Enables Flip Animation mode. "Image Capture" lets you capture the series of images (as many as 100). During capture, you're told how many images in the series have already been captured, how many are remaining, and can browse the captured images and delete specific images as you desire. "Create Motion Image" puts them together as a motion file with a choice of 5 or 10 frames per second playback speed. The "Delete Still Images" option erases the series of still images, but not the motion file.

Scene Menu: If designated through the Setup menu, this menu automatically appears whenever the camera is switched to the Scene mode. If turned off, pressing the Menu button when in Scene mode calls up this page. For each Scene mode option, you can press the left arrow button to receive a brief description of the mode. (No screenshots here, these screens just have a little icon and text name for each mode.)

• Portrait: Utilizes a larger aperture to decrease the depth of field, and emphasizes flesh tones, resulting in a sharply focused subject in front of a slightly blurred background.
• Sports: Employs a faster shutter speed to "freeze" fast-moving action.
• Scenery: This mode fixes focus at infinity, and is best for capturing wide vistas and landscapes.
• Night Scenery: In this mode, the camera slows the shutter speed to as long as 8 seconds, capturing more ambient light and preserving color in darker exposures. (The flash is disabled.)
• Night Portrait: As with the mode above, the camera uses a slower shutter speed for better color in night shots. However, the flash is set to Slow-Sync with Red-Eye Reduction mode.
• Panning: This mode is for panning the camera to photograph a moving subject, such as a runner or cyclist. You hold down the Shutter button and pan the camera with the subject, so that the subject is in focus but the background is blurry.
• Fireworks: Here, the camera uses a slower shutter speed and enhances color slightly to capture the full pattern and color of fireworks.
• Party: Best for taking pictures under dim indoor lighting with a flash, you can select between Forced Red-Eye Reduction and Slow-Sync Red-Eye Reduction modes. Biases white balance for indoor lighting.
• Snow: This mode adjusts the white balance and exposure to counter the bright snowy areas of the scene, preventing the camera being fooled into underexposing the shot.

Play Menu: This menu is only available in the Review mode. It lets you scroll through captured images; erase, protect, and rotate them; or set them up in a slide show or for printing on a DPOF compatible device. The Play menu offers the following selections:

• Rotate Display: Selects whether images that were tagged as rotated by the camera's orientation sensor, or using the next menu option, should be shown rotated on the LCD display.
• Rotate: Rotates captured images 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Protect: Write protects the currently displayed image, protecting it from accidental deletion, except by card formatting. There's also an option for protecting multiple images at once.
• DPOF Print: Marks individual or multiple images for printing on a DPOF compatible printer, or cancels marking of images.
• Slide Show: Automatically plays all images or only DPOF selected files in a slide show format. You can designate the display interval for images from one to five seconds, and audio can be enabled or disabled.
  
  
• Audio Dub.: Lets record a brief audio clip (max. 10 seconds) to attach to the currently reviewed image.
• Resize: Lets you resize an image to a smaller resolution and save a separate copy.
• Trimming: Sort of like a cropping function, this option lets you "trim" an image and save it as a separate file. To trim the image, you use the Playback zoom and pan functions to select the area of the image that you want to retain on the display, and then press the shutter button to save the cropped image.
• Format: Formats the SD/MMC card, erasing all files.

Setup Menu: The Setup menu provides universal camera control options that remain the same in both Shooting and Review modes. This menu is accessed by depressing the Menu button once and scrolling to the right with the Multicontroller. Following are the available settings:

• Monitor: Adjusts the brightness level of the LCD monitor in seven steps.
• Auto Review: Disables the automatic image review, or sets the review time to one or three seconds. A Zoom option displays the captured image for one second, then zooms it 4x for one second.
• Play on LCD: If enabled, this function automatically displays captured images in the LCD monitor whenever the down arrow button is pressed in record mode to preview the most recent image. If disabled, the camera will display the image in the electronic viewfinder if it was in use for image capture
• Power Save: Lets you enable or disable the camera's auto power off feature, and change the time before the LCD display "sleeps" to 1, 2, 5, or 10 minutes.
• Beep: Turns the camera's beep sound on or off, with low and high volume settings.



• Shutter: Turns the shutter noise on or off, with low and high volume settings.
• Volume: Adjusts volume of recorded audio played back through the camera's speaker, with seven steps of adjustment available.
• Clock Set: Sets the camera's internal clock and calendar.
• No. Reset: Resets file numbering with each new SD/MMC card (Yes setting), or continues file numbering from card to card (No setting). (Continuous file numbering is very handy to avoid accidentally overwriting images you've previously copied to your computer's hard drive.)
• Reset: Resets all record-menu settings to their factory defaults.



• USB Mode: Sets the USB mode to PC or PictBridge (PTP).
• Highlight: Turns the blinking highlight display on or off in Playback mode.
• Video Out: Sets the video output timing to NTSC or PAL. (NTSC for the US and Japan, PAL for most of Europe.)
• Scene Menu: Options are Off or Auto. If Off, the camera automatically reverts the previously used Scene selection when the Mode dial is turned to SCN. If set to Auto, the Scene menu automatically appears when the mode dial is rotated to the SCN position.
• Language: Changes the menu language to one of seven languages. (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese Traditional, or Japanese.)

 

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