Cameras: Panasonic Lumix LC1

[911hillclimber]

Thanks Mike, makes quite a difference in B&W.
I'll try it on the camera as it is easy to do.
B&W adds a serious challenge to get it contrasting and vivid.
spent a long time in the darkroom when young trying to catch the print in the developer/fixer, but never had the money (schoolboy) to get deeper into the task!

Mike:
Lola is running even better now, but kissed the Shelsley banks twice in the green greasy runs yesterday...stupid driver.

[Bruce M]

Any updates gents?

A pic from the weekend (straight from the D2 with no post twiddling):

[911hillclimber]

That looks good!
All shot on auto or with apperture selected etc?
I've taken a few on mine sine setting everything to 'Neutral' with White set on Sunny, but not had the chance to download yet.

Also tried the Nikkormat...funny having to remember to set everything and remember to wind it on...

[Bruce M]

Tend to select apertures between f2-f5.6 (depending on DOF needs) and have the shutter on auto. Tweak the F setting to adjust the histogram (fancy light meter) as the shutter is only full-stop adjustment & aperture is 1/3 stop. If the auto shutter gets confused by the scene, I switch to manual shutter but mostly it is fine.

Still getting my eye in but my framing is much improved and I crop much less than before. Composition still needs lots more practise.

I found that if I made the viewfinder slightly too bright, I miss less details in the scene. However, it makes a big difference if you check with your other eye before you click, as the electronic viewfinder is not as clear/bright as an optical viewfinder.

[911hillclimber]

Interesting.
I tend to set the speed as fast as I dare and keep F4's ish for a bit of depth and let it auto focus/auto apperture.

I think I hold cameras too tight as shake can show at 125 and I think the shake come from a heart beat!!

I'm trying the same shot on fully auto, then high speed auto everything else to see if quality improves.
Getting far more used to the camera. It is a quality piece of kit.

I need to crack it for Classic Silverstone.

[911hillclimber]

Not sure if this is good or bad, but from the camera now 'in neutral' fully auto, obviously on a sunny day..



And Auto on an overcast day...



The images are on 100 ISO etc (as advised above a few posts) hand held, and reduced on my Tinypic provider to 'Large Web site' so quite a drop in pixel count.

Nowhere near as sharp as I expected, but this will be the pc processing?

[911hillclimber]

And no pc / Tinypic re-sizing:

[Bruce M]

The image is 1600x1200 pixels, so not full size if the camera is on max. Tiny pic limits the file size of images and resizes if too large.

The bonnet of the 911 is "blown". In other words it is "maximum" white so details are lost as the sensor has hit the limit in that area. Negative film is more forgiving of highlights and compresses them so detail is still captured. A digital sensor is more like slide film, the white limit is a hard ceiling.

It is hard to tell where the camera is focused as some areas look sharp (rear tyres on Lola and the monblocks in front) but others might be a touch soft. Did you focus lock by 1/2 pressing the shutter and then recompose? If not it will have focused on the centre area somewhere between the two cars. The houses on the far side look sharp but might not be (details are smaller and so is the blurring - it is more obvious with a longer focal length as the background is magnified). It might be helpful to read the exif data (records the camera settings in the image file) but I can't get that via tinypic. Even if you can take a camera phone pic of the camera LCD displaying the image (playback mode), with maximum info on the screen by clicking the "display" button (above right hand corner of LCD).

It might be usefull to do some test shots with a simpler scene and see what the results are like.

[Bruce M]

Managed to read the exif data for the large image.

28mm (35mm eqiv, not actual FL)
1/1000
F2.8
Shutter priority
Centre weighted auto exposure
Auto WB, Sunny (auto or set)
100 iso
Low compression (8bitsperpixel)
Near focus (ie not infinity)

seems fine, although I tend to use the std metering mode most of the time.

Given the focal length (7mm) & the aperture (f2.8 ), as long as you focused at least 2-3m away, it should appear sharp to infinity.

[911hillclimber]

Thanks for taking a good look for me.
I '1/2' set the camera on the button to the 911 drivers side windscreen pillar so it could look at a defined 'line' then shifted the view slightly to the left to compose the cars full in the viewfinder. (I don't get on too well with looking at the camera back screen esp in strong sunlight).

Would I get greater clarity increasing the pixel count for such a small picture 'on screen'?
ie the number of shots reduced to a minimum on the 1Gb card.

I will try a shot of the Lola similar to the blue F1 car above so to see a comparison more directly with max pixel count.

I wonder if I'm expecting to see too much detail via the Tinypic/pc screen, but there is an appreciable detailed difference of my pic to the blue F1 car I think.

Thanks again, I'm starting to warm to this camera!

[johnfm]

I had a digilux 2 a while ago.

The lens quality really is something special.

Took some portraits of the kids with it and they really standout as being shot with superior glass.

Stupidly, I sold it a while back as I wasn't using it (or any other camera) all that much.

[Bruce M]

I would stick with the max res at all times. You get 400ish shots on a 2gb card.
You can get two 2gb cards for under a tenner (free delivery)... See LINK . So it seems silly not to, as it does help even when downsized later (& the lens is probably good enough for a 10mp sensor)

You might also want to try photo bucket or Flickr for picture storage as they have a better service although they are more complex to use.

Good luck

[Bruce M]

This might help.

Another from the weekend, downsized here but the details are all there. See the wires holding the lighting bars?

[911hillclimber]

Indeed!
Tinypic is very simple and quick to use, although it's been slow/not available recently.
It is part of Photobucket and share the same help line who do actually email you back(!)

I was a 'member' some years ago but they kept changing the format and it was just too fussy.
Keep it Simple works well.

Will try again though as I'm not such a numpty on pc things today (ish)

Thanks,
Graham.

[911hillclimber]

Now have the camera on RAW. Tinypics will not open them!?

A few from today searching for the quality that alludes me.
Fully Auto 28mm



Fully Auto/90mm
I think this one is ok; the scene was dark and was 125/F4 iirc



28mm/Auto with monopod