I bought Panasonic FZ30 about one year ago in China, for the purpose of taking celebrities’ pictures, for I am a movie reporter in China. I chose this camera because it has a new “extended optical zoom” function which can zoom in for 19.1 in maxium and an “unlimited continuous shots” function which is good for sports shot.
However, I never carefully read the introduction of the camera. So, when I did my first photo assignment on a UF student’s campus life, it’s quite like the first time I try to explore the different functions of my camera, to see which mode I should use when I am in a specific location.
Still, I have many questions. I cannot keep stable though my camera has the “remain stable” function. I cannot deal with the corelation between aperture and shutter. As FZ30 is an automatic digital camera, I can only choose ” aperture priority” or “shutter priority”, but it’s hard for me to make the choice when I am facing a specific situation. For example, I went to the band performance in downtown Gainesville last Friday. But the light is not bright enough that the picture seems blurry, because my hands were a little bit shaking. Then I chose the “shutter priority”, the pictures turns out to be clear, but they seemed to be underexposure. It’s really difficult to be familiar with all the functions of my camera and make a quick and correct dicision when I want to take a picture.
Following are the pictures I took last Friday on the band’s performance in downtown Gainesville. Please express your opinions if you think there’s any thing I can do to make the photos better.
One strong piece of advice: Disable the “digital zoom” if your camera has it. Turn it OFF. The OPTICAL zoom is good, but the digital zoom is bad.
It is possible that a technical book about digital photography will help you if the camera manual is not enough. Possibly “Introduction to Digital Photography” (2nd ed.), by Joseph Ciaglia. Maybe “The National Geographic Field Guide to Photography: Digital.” Take a look and see if one of these might be helpful.
It is definitely harder to get a non-fuzzy shot if you are zoomed in, or if the light is bad. I try not to use the zoom unless I can brace the camera — for example, set it on a wall.
Shifen – I can relate to your confusion with your camera. I also was challenged during shooting for my Photo 1 assignment because at times I couldn’t get my camera to do what I thought it should be doing. I think the best way to overcome this is just to take more photos in lots of different settings – experiment with different features, apertures, exposures, etc. I have to say, though, your photos don’t look too bad to me.
Laura