Lumix FZ8-Macro Exposure help needed

[annie1931]

I figured out how to take a Macro pic, setting the camera on M, and finding the right place in the settings.

When I depress the shutter half way, a line comes up similar to the EV setting when you're on P, or Scenery, when you press the top button on the menu ring, but I can find no way of changing the setting for the Macro Exposure.

Right now it sits at -2, and the pics of course are black as sin. I used the flash for the pic I needed, and got an acceptable pic which needed work in paint shop.

How can I move the settings up to -0- (or wherever I require them)? I need step-by-step direction, as I am still learning how to work this camera (think fairly bright 7-year-old, please). Help would be appreciated.

[genece]

To use manual mode you really need an understanding of proper exposure.....The line at -2 is telling you there is not enough light....2 stops of not enough light.
There are 3 ways to get more light.....
The easiest is to raise the ISO....if its at 100 then 400 should make up 2 stops

The next is to lengthen the SS if its set at 1/8 second then 1/2 second would make up 2 stops.

the 3rd is to open the aperture.....If its at F8.....moving to F 4 will make up 2 stops..... or any combination of the above.......

If you are indoors the meter may say -2,
but thats as far as it goes so it may be much more than that.

get in some better light and play with the settings I mentioned ..you will see what I was talking about.

while I neither use a FZ8 or am I any good at macros.....I think it would be better for you to use aperture priority, setting the F stop to control the DOF and let the camera choose the SS and ISO.

But do not forget, it takes light to get photos and the three things I mention are how you control the amount of light you have to work with.

[annie1931]

I will copy your response, particularly for future reference, and with many thanks. The information will be very useful.

However, I really want to know how, with my Linux FZ8, precisely, I adjust the exposure using the bar that comes up when I am in the Macro mode . I am aware of the lack of light, but cannot find the place where an adjustment in that particular mode is possible.

I think I need a Linux FZ8 user to answer my question. Anyone out there?

I wonder if I can put the thing into manual mode at the same time it's in Macro...I will investigate that area - keeping in mind your, genece, instructions.

Thanks again.

[Mike63]

I too do not have this camera but after looking at the review I see that the "M" mode which you said the camera is in is not macro it is the Manual mode as Gene mentioned. When in manual all the settings of the camera can be individually adjusted to suite the users needs which require lots of practice.

Here is what I found about macro at Dpreview

Macro Focus
Macro performance is pretty much identical to the FZ7, and Panasonic has done away with the pointless macro scene mode and added an 'auto macro' option to the focus menu. This allows you to use the full focusing range of the lens (from 5cm at the wide end of the zoom and from 100cm at the long end), though leaving it turned can does slow down non-macro focusing a little. At the wide end of the zoom you're able to capture an area just over 4cm across; at the long end it's around 9cm - pretty impressive for a 432mm (equiv.) focal length.

Hope this helps

[annie1931]

Oh does it ever help, Mike! The moment I read your first few words I knew where I had started to go wrong ...........yes, I shall copy yours, too, and follow the path I should have in the first place.

Thank you both, you have been ever so helpful and I'm most grateful. I must seem awfully dumb, but though the instruction manual is pretty clear, it leaps about a bit with info from page, say, 24, to 48, and one gets a bit confused.

Gene, I understand better now what you were saying, too.

<If she were 7 instead of 76, she'd go off skipping>