Panasonic ZS100 - Black & White quality

[mortstiff]

I'm fairly satisfied with the quality of my color shots, but my monochrome photos are dull and not sharp. I'm certain the camera is capable of taking clearer b&w photos, so I think it's a question of settings. I would appreciate recommendations in this regard, because I am primarily interested in taking b&w photos. Thanks.

[TCav]

Any chance you could post an example, both reduced and a 100% crop, to illustrate what you mean?

[mortstiff]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxH8f-BiPOTJT3NRYXhyN3oyTzQ

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx...25CMEwwZ3FVRW8

(This is the best I know how to do in terms of posting examples.)

[TCav]

Thanks.

This photo is of a storefront display and was taken through a pane of glass (Your reflection is visible in the upper left.) that isn't particularly clean, so the dirt and dust on the window could be messing with the AF, so this may not be the best example of what you're describing. In addition, the book spines are sharper for the books closest to the window, while the book spines of the more distant books are less sharp. This reinforces the possibility that what you're experiencing is more of a focus problem than one specific to a B&W conversion. The camera focused on the dirt on the glass, not on the books, and while the closer books were within the Depth of Field, the books that were farther back were not.

And while a B&W conversion could result in an image that is visibly less sharp, I don't think that has the biggest impact with this image.

[mortstiff]

There was a second photo that I uploaded that is not a reflection.

You may be right that focusing could be a large part of the problem. I find it very difficult to focus the camera - this could be a problem with my eyesight and the fact that I wear contact lenses. Also, many of the outdoor shots I take have to be captured quickly, with little time for fussing around with the focus ring. I was hoping there was some setting on the camera for high contrast that might improve the clarity of the images, but I haven't been able to figure out (yet) where that is.

[TCav]

You're right. I missed the link for the first photo.

That one is a bit more complex. The only things in it that are sharp are the left edges of the vertical strokes of the letters in the signs. What's puzzling is that the right edges are blurred though. My initial guess is that it's motion blur due to camera shake on embossed letters, but I don't have much to back that up.

JOOC, are your color photos similarly out-of-focus? That is, does this problem only appear in B&W photos?

[mortstiff]

I tend to have better luck with the color shots, which is why I was thinking that I'm not using correct settings for the b&w. I did get some advice about setting the ZS100 on 'creative control mode --> monochrome (or dynamic monochrome)' and just playing around with some indoor shots, it seems to make a difference. I'm looking forward to checking out how it performs outdoors. Camera shaking is something I'll also have to keep in mind. Thanks for your comments.

[Arsen01]

Panasonic Corporation, formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan.