New FZ30 User - Some question

[shakey]

Just bought an FZ30 after woning a very basic and cheap point and shoot, i wanted to upgrade and get myself a digital camera which will last the distance both in photo quality and in features

Just basically starting by getting used to the camera itself and have a few questions about it if any of you can help

1) Sometimes when the camera is on or i am taking a picture there is a clicking noise, not a constant click, just on and off,notsuper loud. It looks like the screen is 'refreshing' - anyone know what this is and if it is normal

2) the Autofocus, for example focusing in ora playing card, can't do it - normal ??

3) Staying with the playing card, if you then try to manual focu at low zoom ranges it is fine, for a more detailed soom, i.e. on the JO of JOKER it can't focus on the letters properly, you turn the dial to focus but there seems to be a range of focus, like it will go a certain amount and then won't go any further - again is this normal

4) last thing (for now), i have put a new MMC card in, unbranded one i had lieing around, and the pictures save fine, but when taking burst photo's, it stops after maybe 5 or 6 and a red dot appears on the screen flashing as does the symbol for saving images to the card. Is this the slowness of the card that is not allowing me to continue taking more than 5/6 pictures ??



Any help appreciated.

I have read the manual, can't find the answers for the above in there

[genece]

shakey wrote:

Just bought an FZ30 after woning a very basic and cheap point and shoot, i wanted to upgrade and get myself a digital camera which will last the distance both in photo quality and in features

Just basically starting by getting used to the camera itself and have a few questions about it if any of you can help

1) Sometimes when the camera is on or i am taking a picture there is a clicking noise, not a constant click, just on and off,notsuper loud. It looks like the screen is 'refreshing' - anyone know what this is and if it is normal

There is some noise if you are in a very quiet place and the screen does refresh and while I hardly notice it, some people think its anoying

2) the Autofocus, for example focusing in ora playing card, can't do it - normal ??

There is a minimum focus distance with the FZ cameras , 1 ft at wide angle and 7 ft at tele and if you use macro mode you can cut the WA to about 2 inches but the tele end remains 6 or 7 ft. You need a macro lens to do macros.

3) Staying with the playing card, if you then try to manual focu at low zoom ranges it is fine, for a more detailed soom, i.e. on the JO of JOKER it can't focus on the letters properly, you turn the dial to focus but there seems to be a range of focus, like it will go a certain amount and then won't go any further - again is this normal

About the same answer

4) last thing (for now), i have put a new MMC card in, unbranded one i had lieing around, and the pictures save fine, but when taking burst photo's, it stops after maybe 5 or 6 and a red dot appears on the screen flashing as does the symbol for saving images to the card. Is this the slowness of the card that is not allowing me to continue taking more than 5/6 pictures ??

Yes mmc cards are very slow you want to get a SD card that writes at 10mb/s or usually marked as 66X or faster. With a card that fast you can fill a card with no pause.



Any help appreciated.

I have read the manual, can't find the answers for the above in there

Seems you need a better card and a macro lens.

[Stump1000]

shakey wrote:

Just bought an FZ30 after woning a very basic and cheap point and shoot, i wanted to upgrade and get myself a digital camera which will last the distance both in photo quality and in features

Just basically starting by getting used to the camera itself and have a few questions about it if any of you can help

1) Sometimes when the camera is on or i am taking a picture there is a clicking noise, not a constant click, just on and off,notsuper loud. It looks like the screen is 'refreshing' - anyone know what this is and if it is normal

2) the Autofocus, for example focusing in ora playing card, can't do it - normal ??

3) Staying with the playing card, if you then try to manual focu at low zoom ranges it is fine, for a more detailed soom, i.e. on the JO of JOKER it can't focus on the letters properly, you turn the dial to focus but there seems to be a range of focus, like it will go a certain amount and then won't go any further - again is this normal

4) last thing (for now), i have put a new MMC card in, unbranded one i had lieing around, and the pictures save fine, but when taking burst photo's, it stops after maybe 5 or 6 and a red dot appears on the screen flashing as does the symbol for saving images to the card. Is this the slowness of the card that is not allowing me to continue taking more than 5/6 pictures ??



Any help appreciated.

I have read the manual, can't find the answers for the above in there

The Clicking noise and screen refresh thing is normal. Dont worry about it, all fz30's do it.

The autofocus will focus close up if you'll use the AF Macro switch on the side.

The last one, sounds like your memory is too slow. Im not sure on that one though.

[shakey]

thanks very much for the replies

Think i'll get fully used to the carmera itself before purchasing any accesories, apart from a new memory card

This weekend going out to get some pictures taken, so far it just been garden shots

[difliz]

Thank you for your question, Shakey, and all the answers. I also have sometimes problems with the FZ 30 to focus; could you, Stump 1000 and Genece, please agree on the following: Do I really, in addition, need a macro lens? Or is the AF Macro enough? An additionalMacro Lens, do you know, how much thatwould befor the FZ 30?

[squirl033]

the big advantage of a macro lens like the Nikon 4T is that you don't need to be right up on top of your subject, but can focus from up to a foot away, and still use the full 12x zoom. gives you more flexibility, and also helps with subject lighting... no shadows from the camera.

a Nikon 4t costs about $36, and a 55-52mm step down ring is probably about $10 more.