FZ30 indoor pics w/o flash

Unlike my previous Lumix cameras, I cannot get the FZ30 to take accurate
pics without a flash indoors. If I have the flash on, then the autofocus
works great and I get a perfectly focused picture. If the flash is off, even
though the EVF shows a good focus, most of the time the picture is out of
focus. This seems to happen no matter what settings I use on the camera. Has
anyone else noticed this or did I get a lemon?

Thanks,

Dale

whats the shutter speed doing - if its staying open too long because you
arent using the flash , you'll get blur



--

http://photobucket.com/albums/b216/corks67/my-bikes/


"Dale Craft" wrote in message
news:HICAf.11476$Dh.651@dukeread04...
Unlike my previous Lumix cameras, I cannot get the FZ30 to take accurate
pics without a flash indoors. If I have the flash on, then the autofocus
works great and I get a perfectly focused picture. If the flash is off,
even though the EVF shows a good focus, most of the time the picture is
out of focus. This seems to happen no matter what settings I use on the
camera. Has anyone else noticed this or did I get a lemon?

Thanks,

Dale

Dale Craft wrote:
Unlike my previous Lumix cameras, I cannot get the FZ30 to take accurate
pics without a flash indoors. If I have the flash on, then the autofocus
works great and I get a perfectly focused picture. If the flash is off, even
though the EVF shows a good focus, most of the time the picture is out of
focus. This seems to happen no matter what settings I use on the camera. Has
anyone else noticed this or did I get a lemon?

Put up a sample someplace. The EVF shows what the sensor is going to
capture. It probably doesn't just go out of focus when you push the
shutter, and only when you're indoors without the flash. But if that
really is what's happening, it'll be easy to tell from a sample. Make
sure it's got its EXIF info intact.

Paul Allen

samples at http://dcraft.mysharegear.com/1/id/8167441917/ ... if you click
on each picture, there is a download icon on the lower right that allows you
to download the full image. Then you can see the EXIF data.

It appears that when the flash is off, my shutter speed drops to 1/5 sec
whereas with flash it is usually around 1/30. So I guess this is what the
reviews were talking about when discussing noise in lowlight conditions.

Does the fact that this camera is a high megapixal camera have anything to
do with not getting enough light in to get a good no-flash shot. My older
DMC-FZ1 was only 2meg and seemed to do much better on no-flash inside
situations.

Dale

"Paul Allen" "paul dot l dot allen at comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Dale Craft wrote:
Unlike my previous Lumix cameras, I cannot get the FZ30 to take accurate
pics without a flash indoors. If I have the flash on, then the autofocus
works great and I get a perfectly focused picture. If the flash is off,
even though the EVF shows a good focus, most of the time the picture is
out of focus. This seems to happen no matter what settings I use on the
camera. Has anyone else noticed this or did I get a lemon?

Put up a sample someplace. The EVF shows what the sensor is going to
capture. It probably doesn't just go out of focus when you push the
shutter, and only when you're indoors without the flash. But if that
really is what's happening, it'll be easy to tell from a sample. Make
sure it's got its EXIF info intact.

Paul Allen

Dale Craft wrote:
samples at http://dcraft.mysharegear.com/1/id/8167441917/ ... if you click
on each picture, there is a download icon on the lower right that allows you
to download the full image. Then you can see the EXIF data.

It appears that when the flash is off, my shutter speed drops to 1/5 sec
whereas with flash it is usually around 1/30. So I guess this is what the
reviews were talking about when discussing noise in lowlight conditions.

I notice that the focus appears off in the center picture -- the stack
of books looks sharper than the boy's face. Also, I suspect degradation
from camera motion, even with stabilization. The low light apparently
cranks up the gain, which shows as splotchy color areas.

Does the fact that this camera is a high megapixal camera have anything to
do with not getting enough light in to get a good no-flash shot. My older
DMC-FZ1 was only 2meg and seemed to do much better on no-flash inside
situations.

Yes. There are two ways to get more pixels: make the sensor larger or
make the pixels smaller. Although both might be used, pixels generally
have gotten smaller. Smaller pixels capture less light. Less light
means more noise. In general, the sensor integrates the amount of light
striking a pixel over the exposure time. Larger pixel means more light.
The principle is similar to that of film grain size: faster film uses
larger grain.

Having said that, I think software techniques could be use to combine
nearby pixels to reduce the noise in low light situations. You would
give up some resolution, though.

--
Thad

Dale Craft wrote:
samples at http://dcraft.mysharegear.com/1/id/8167441917/ ... if you click
on each picture, there is a download icon on the lower right that allows you
to download the full image. Then you can see the EXIF data.

The center shot was exposed at ISO 200 for 1/4 sec. It looks like both
the cute kid and the camera were moving.

It appears that when the flash is off, my shutter speed drops to 1/5 sec
whereas with flash it is usually around 1/30. So I guess this is what the
reviews were talking about when discussing noise in lowlight conditions.

Well, no, noise is the blotchiness you see in the no-flash shots. The
blurring is camera and/or subject motion caused by using too slow a
shutter. Without the flash, your shutter drops to whatever speed the
camera needs in order to get enough light.

Does the fact that this camera is a high megapixal camera have anything to
do with not getting enough light in to get a good no-flash shot. My older
DMC-FZ1 was only 2meg and seemed to do much better on no-flash inside
situations.

One of the FZ30 reviews (maybe Dpreview?) mentioned that the image
stabilizer was somewhat less effective than on the FZ20 because there
was less margin for error with the increased number of pixels.
Perhaps that's what you're seeing.

Just suck it up and use a tripod indoors. You'll still have subject
motion to contend with, but at least you can keep the camera still.

Paul Allen