Hi, I'm new!

[purpsurfer]

How much fun to find this forum!
Just thought I would introduce myself before bombarding you all with pictures and questions!
I just got my brand new FZ30 to replace my FZ5 today! I haven't even turned it on yet but I am anxiously awaiting that battery to be charged!

I am a serious ameteur. I take pictures of my family, of course and I also do a few weddings here and there (film SLR that I don't want to use now that I have this FZ30). I plan to go out tonight for the Quantaray Sunpak flash so that I can snap away in lower light situations.

Oh my gosh, I am going to LOVE this camera! :p

[genece]

Hello Sara and I am sure if you liked the FZ5 your going to love the FZ30...I just wanted to let you know you can use the FZ5 battery in the FZ30 at least until the other battery charges.

And you may want to hang onto the film camera for the low light shots.
But if you have an understanding from the FZ5 you may be fine.

[purpsurfer]

well, the battery charged up in about 2 hours! I took some shots, including low-light and in my opinion, the FZ30 is performing BETTER than the fz5 in lowlight. I am, however, getting more red-eye when using the flash than I did on the 5. Haven't noticed much noise AT ALL in the 30 or so shots I have taken. I will playaround later and blow them up to inspect further.

[genece]

I think your assessment is correct the FZ30 handles everything a little better, but low light is still its weak point , very usable but its the part that could use help. I am not sure why you feel the redeye is a little worse it should be better keep in ind it is stronger and if you use more zoom you are reducing the angle between the flash and the lens thereby increasing the chance of redeye.

And I also think you will find in normal viewing or printing 8 X 10 or so the noise is not noticeable it is people that insist on viewing the photos at much larger than full screen are the ones that complain about noise.

The FZ 30 is really a great camera.

[eddiekirst]

Sara,

I try to use the Sunpak in bounce mode when I'm shooting people indoors. You get beautiful, evenly lit subjects with no redeye and no harsh shadows.

There is some difficulty using the flash outdoors as a fill flash. I find that I'm better off to shoot in Manual exposure mode so that I can reduce the exposure from the normal preset external flash mode. (The manual explains it but I had to read it several times to fully understand). You'll see but just wanted to point that out.

I also find that I'm using manual focus more and more to avoid those inevitable shots where the auto focus chooses the wrong subject. Manual focus is so easy, quich and accurate on this camera. I love it.

Have fun,

Ed