A Night Photo with my FZ-15

[emalvick]

Ok, Last Wednesday I was in San Francisco for a baseball game. After the game as I walked back to the transit station, I decided to take a gamble of getting a good shot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Here is a shot I took with ISO 100, f2.8, and shutter speed 1/4... More amazing, this shot was hand held.

As a result it isn't fully sharp, but it is much sharper than I've ever gotten at that slow of a shutter speed. I'll attach a couple more similar shots and crops to follow.

I haven't done any processing (except resizing to fit on this page) and the shot was taken at 4MP (FZ15 max).

Erik

[emalvick]

Similar shot taken at a wider angle. I cropped it top and bottom to give a panorama look. To the far right you can see the Oakland side of the bridge. Same settings for this shot... By the way, I used automatic focus for these shots utilizing the bridge lights as my focus.

Erik

[emalvick]

I thought I'd post a close-up on the tower from the first shot. At ISO 100, you don't see any noise in the sky. That is partially because the shot is underexposed, but without a tripod, I know the shot would have really blurred. I did try other ISO settings, but my luck of holding still ran out after the two shots I posted.

You can also see that the image is not really that sharp in the blow up. 1/4 of a second is definitely a challenge for me to hold still at 1.5 zoom. However, shots like those make me happy that I have the FZ15 (or any FZ camera if I had the others). The prints look sharp on a 4 x 6 too.

Erik

[John_Reed]

I had a similar shot (with FZ10) from about the same spot from SBC Park last year, but it was darker than yours, taken at 1/20, around 7X zoom (pre-cropped?). But while we're in that locality, here's a couple more I took at that game:
Here's one at 1/4 second, but full wide-angle:
http://john-reed.smugmug.com/photos/7483747-L.jpg
Here's one at 1/20, ~7X zoom:
http://john-reed.smugmug.com/photos/7420877-L.jpg

[vedanthi]

Reed, liked the first shot a lot. What colors! Great pic.

[emalvick]

John,

Those are great shots. I didn't actually get much more for the night time. That was the first night game I've been to at SBC. I tried some earlier shots at faster shutter speeds, but they came out too dark (again at between 1-2X zoom). I was trying to get the whole bridge (Oakland and SF sides included). However, Oakland always turned out dim.

The first shot was cropped much at all. I mostly resized to fit the page. Perhaps the added light was from the slight out of focus I had at 1/4 of a second. Although, the foreground seems like it isn't too bad considering that even the pedestrian motion isn't blurred.

I am still impressed with your ability to hand hold a shot. It is rare that I could hold a 1/4 second shot. I attribute the two shots in a row to a good beer during the 5th inning... ;)

By the way it is a beautiful stadium, inside and out... I took some great action shots, and even played with the digital zoom rather successfully. I normally don't use digital zoom, but the seats weren't great and memory is cheap. I also want to compare the digital shots I did get to the non-digital cropped and enlarged using photoshop. I haven't done it yet though...

Erik

[jcon]

Erik and John, great pics, I think they show the great ability of the FZ cameras. I have found a little luck aswell at the slow speeds. I am particularly amazed with the night shots that you 2 have posted here, amazing! Erik, could you share some of the action shots? I went to a cubs game and had little success with my FZ20 and wouldlike to see what you were able to do. Maybe next time Ill try using beer as aiming fluid too ;)

[emalvick]

I'm in the process of moving, but I had some great day game shots a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I won't be able to show those until a couple of weeks...

However, I did get some shots at the night game that those bridge shots came from.

The one below was of a hitter getting a double. The shot was at about 18X and then I cropped it. I am aware that digital zoom is not the ideal way to go, but I don't mind in this type of situation where I am really just shooting for fun and at the most a 6 x 4.

The shot also shows the limitation of shooting at a night game with a lot of zoom. While the stadium lighting is good, it still needed a 1/20 shutter speed (I was under the overhand in right field) and you lose the bat in the shot (blur). It still looks good and the player mostly sharp. What is not sharp makes it a great action shot from my perspective.

The shot is of Todd Linden, a rookie.

[emalvick]

This is a shot at a zoom of 8X (cropped the bottom off) of Jason Schmidt in the bullpen before the game. The shot was at 1/30s here, and you still get some of the motion blur (see the arm). Again, I don't think that takes away from the shot as the blur is oviously from the motion (rather than shakiness and too much zoom).

[emalvick]

Here is a shot taken at 12x zoom, f2.8, 1/50s shutter speed. This gives a better idea of where I was sitting as this is a 12x zoom and the action looks far off.

The ability of this camera still amazes me. I hope Panasonic keeps it up for any new cameras in the future.

Erik

[jcon]

Excellent pictures Erik, thanks for sharing, they are better than what I was able to do at the Cubs game, it was my first try with the FZ20 at a game, so I didnt expect much, My problem was I was using to fast of a shutter, around 1/100th at F 2.8. Here is one of the better ones...

[OxyBaseball8]

This is my attempt w/ an FZ-20...12X zoom, a little color adjustments with elements 3.0....let me know what you think

[Stepank]

Could you please provide EXIF information.