FZ 20 - A Great Camera, But...

[24Peter]

I gotta say I love my FZ 20 - but, perhaps like many of you, I went to a New Year's Eve party last night and tried to take pictures of my friends in a darkened room and it was nearly impossible to see what I was shooting - either in the EVF or LCD (the LCD was slightly better.) Now from playing around with the camera the last couple of weeks and also reading all the posts on this subject, I knew what to expect. I practiced a bit and for the most part with the help of the AF assist, I did pretty well. But when I gave the camera to someone else so I could get in some of my own pictures, they had a pretty hard time. Things would kind of grind to a halt while I explained how to shoot without being able to see. All I can think is that those great engineers at Panasonic don't get out much with their cameras - at least at night. :rolleyes:

I had a similar problem with the DMC-LC20 I bought a couple of years ago. A great little 2MP camera but I could never get a decent party shot. In that case it was more because the auto focus did not work well (make that, at all) in low light (actually the light you'd normally find at a party, wedding reception, etc.) and it did not have manual focus or AF assist. It was because of that I was extremely hesitant to get another Panasonic camera.

So like I said, I'm very happy with the FZ 20 but beware if you do a lot of lowlight shooting or shooting at night time social events. I really hope they add a gain up feature for the viewfinders in future iterations of this camera.

[genece]

Yes if there is one thing I do not like about the FZ10 and 20 that is it.
It helps to shoot in aperture priority and If you have your exposure compensation set to -2/3 or so change that for flash pictures.
I really wish panasonic would give up on the Idea, thats a feature and fix it.

[shu246]

OK - i am one of those who believe the panasonic fz20 wysiwyg display is a feature and benefit, not a flaw and curse.

Ya can't have it both ways. If there is not light enough for the exposure, then there aint light enough either for the display. I place great value in the feedback of seeing the display darken/lighten as i set aperture and shutter speed in 'manual' mode for under/over-exposure; of seeing color shifts as i select or tweek white balance.

Being new (3 wk) with the fz20, having read the complaints about focusing in low light, but never having occassion to experience it myself, and finding myself awake well before dawn today, i decided to go liiking for trouble.

I selected as subject the alcove of my bedroom. the end wall 15 feet distant. Illumination was a single 40 watt bulb an additional 20 feet behind me. (yes we have a large bedroom, assembled from what was originally two bedrooms and a hall.)

I set iso 80, f/2.8, 8 seconds. I could not see squat-all through the display. However using the manual focus prefocus, i did find someplace in the scene (illuminated with the af assist light) which got me a good latch and steady green focus dot. (af area and ae area are menu selected to the smallest center area.)

Aiming was by using the camera evf display on the right eye, keeping left eye open, and superimposing the evf center dot on the desired scene center. Incredibly, hand held at 8 seconds gave me a very badly underexposed but useable image.

I repeated with 12x optical zoom with similar results; not surprisingly with amplified wobble of the 8 second hand held exposure. Yes, several tries were made, result reviewed immediately after each shot, to get a good keeper.

I then shifted to 'P' mode and repeated the two shots (1x and 12x optical zoom) with flash. The evf display was still (excepting camera-generated markings and information) blacker than the inside of a boot. I used the same techniques for focus and aiming. Results were as expected; two excellent well exposed shots.

So - yes, i agree there ain't enough image display in the fz20 to focus and sight well in low light. Focus is the more difficult problem. However these 'inconveniences' can be overcome. Immediate review of result (not possible with film camera) is a big help. But the benefits of wysiwyg display far outweigh these inconveniences.

[genece]

I think that is my point if your in shutter priority is at 1/2 a second and the viewfinder is dark and you change to 8 seconds the viewfinder should brighten.
They could ,I think, have a option to turn off that "Feature"

[24Peter]

Shu - your points are well-taken. But try to explain all that to someone at a New Year's Eve party, wedding reception, etc., who's trying to take a picture with you in it. My point was simply it's an obvious limitation that to me at least seems easily solveable: have an option to gain up the viewfinder. My eyes could see perfectly fine at the party the other night, but both viewfinders on my camera were black. Couldn't even frame a shot with confidence. You can still have the exposure meter pop up to tell you if you are exposing properly (see Manual camera setting) but at least you could confidently aim the darn thing. Personally, I don't really think it's a good idea to judge exposure by what you see in the viewfinder anyway. My experience is that like many other digital cameras, what you see in the viewfinder isn't always what you get with this camera.

[SoloWithOthers]

It would be nice to have a button under the thumb that would gain-up the image for aim and focus. Barring that maybe gain up when the flash is active or at least in P mode so you can point shoot and have a snootful at the same time.

Some of my early shots with this camera were ruined by not understanding the limitations of the displays.

Mike