These are my FZ30 setting what are yours?

[LoveLife]

MY FZ30 settings



This sounds like a lot of stuff to deal with but it gives me control and consistently sharp and well-exposed images.

I use W/B 1 click to the red in sunlight. The white balance setting is remembered when using manual ISO and changing from bright sun to clouds which is standard W/B.

W/B standard all other times

Sharpness high and Noise low the rest standard .

Exposure bias +2/3 almost a requirement.

Aspect Ratio 3:2 35mm format

Picture size 7MP

Jpeg Quality High

Metering Mode ( )

Auto focus center regular and spot on close-ups

Monitor +1

MF assist MF1 this would be great if they employed OIS.

OIS mode=2

I shoot aperture priority except for fast action shots then I use shutter priority.

I have the switch on the barrel set to MF and use the button below for focusing. If necessary for fine-tuning, I use the focus ring. This reduces the half depressed shutter to exposure and locks in the focus when I shift the camera for composition.

Be careful of vertical linear areas behind your subject in landscape mode, in portrait mode look out for horizontal areas. The focus system locks on this and it ruins many pictures. I have the elastic band of my cap keeper pressing against the focus ring it is too soft and the slightest nudge shifts the focus.

[genece]

LoveLife wrote:

MY FZ30 settings



This sounds like a lot of stuff to deal with but it gives me control and consistently sharp and well-exposed images.

I use W/B 1 click to the red in sunlight. The white balance setting is remembered when using manual ISO and changing from bright sun to clouds which is standard W/B.

Never touch it the WB

W/B standard all other times

Sharpness high and Noise low the rest standard .

all standard but NR low
All standard but noise is on low

Exposure bias +2/3 almost a requirement.

I seeI see no need for no need for that on the FZ30 even though I used it all the time with the other FZs

I see no need for that on the FZ30 even though I used it all the time with the other FZs

Aspect Ratio 3:2 35mm format

4/3 and at time 16:9

Picture size 7MP

Jpeg Quality High

Metering Mode ( )

Auto focus center regular and spot on close-upss

Same

Monitor +1

0

MF assist MF1 this would be great if they employed OIS.

OIS mode=2

Same

I shoot aperture priority except for fast action shots then I use shutter priority.

Program 99% of the time

I have the switch on the barrel set to MF and use the button below for focusing. If necessary for fine-tuning, I use the focus ring. This reduces the half depressed shutter to exposure and locks in the focus when I shift the camera for composition.

Be careful of vertical linear areas behind your subject in landscape mode, in portrait mode look out for horizontal areas. The focus system locks on this and it ruins many pictures. I have the elastic band of my cap keeper pressing against the focus ring it is too soft and the slightest nudge shifts the focus.

Autofocus 99.9% of the time

[squirl033]

makes sense, except the comments about the focus lockingontovertical or horizontal areas in the background. the FZ's focusing system doesn't rely on lines in any particular direction, it works on contrast. if there's no contrast, it won't focus. if you have multiple parts of an image with significant contrast, and your shots are not focusing where you want them to, use spot focus to narrow the area the camera "looks" at; if you can't get enough contrast in your subject, switch to 1-area focus to include more of the image and get some contrast. worst case, focus on something at the same distance as your subject, half-press the shutter to lock the focus, then recompose and take the shot. i have never had any need to use the 3-area or 9-area focus options.

[boyzo]

After 7 days still learning, I use close to factory defaults
WB auto
ISO 80
4:3
3MP ... but will use 5/8 MP if required
JPEG High Quality
Metering (.)
AF (.) H
cont AF off
OIS2
EXP BIAS -1/3
I ALWAYS USE aperture PRIORITY
MF1

[boyzo]

oops double post

[LoveLife]

genece wrote:

LoveLife wrote:

Never touch it That's OK but most of the pictures I see on the forum have a blue-grey cast and my 20 inch glass monitor is working fine.

all standard but NR low

I seeI see no need for no need for that on the FZ30 even though I used it all the time with the other FZs I used - 1/3 on the FZ10.

4/3 and at time 16:9

Same

0 Meaning you do not use MF asist?

Same

Program 99% of the time

Autofocus 99.9% of the time

[LoveLife]

squirl033 wrote:

makes sense, except the comments about the focus lockingontovertical or horizontal areas in the background. the FZ's focusing system doesn't rely on lines in any particular direction, it works on contrast. if there's no contrast, it won't focus. if you have multiple parts of an image with significant contrast, and your shots are not focusing where you want them to, use spot focus to narrow the area the camera "looks" at; if you can't get enough contrast in your subject, switch to 1-area focus to include more of the image and get some contrast. worst case, focus on something at the same distance as your subject, half-press the shutter to lock the focus, then recompose and take the shot. i have never had any need to use the 3-area or 9-area focus options.

I have had camera freeze problems using spot focus on 300 plus zooms and many focus failures and this is my second FZ30. This picture is not sharp.



This is sharp.

[HarjTT]

Jerry

I see what you mean about the sharpess in the shots - the second shot is tack harp and very good andn on my laptop screen the expusore looks spot on. The first is soft and out of focus - looks as if the 30 focus locked on the wall behind the kid.

HarjTT

[anomaly]

Hi all! Still using a FZ10 here, but I think it's still applicable...

To all you people using EV+2/3, surely you mean EV-2/3 ?! On my FZ10 blown highlights are very common unless I do this. And by a "highlight", I mean an entire shirt if it happens to be white. (PS: I'm experimenting with "contrast low" as a different way around this problem. Seems to help a bit without degrading the image.)

To LoveLife, yes the 1st picture has focussed on the background. I find that happens all the time with my FZ10. People are soft and smooth, but fences and other grid patterns show strong contrast. Whenever I'm in that situation I double check the focus, and sometimes resort to manual.

Oh, and that "sharpness high" setting seemed more trouble than it was worth when I tried it on my FZ10. It made the picture a bit sharper, but caused halos and other image defects (not horribly obviously, but enough to make me not do it). On the flip side, when I tried "sharpness low" it was really soft. This is probably a good setting to use if you will always post process though.