Z series best shot

I hope this doesn't tread on anybodys toes but i thought it might be encouraging and fun to have a thread dedicated to your favourite pictures taken with the Minolta Z series cameras.

These cameras are often chosen by people entering the world of more serious photography for the first time and it is aimed at generating discussion about what can be achieved with these cameras rather than their limitations.
I have owned a Z5 for a year now and am enjoying it greatly.

Had a few things to learn before I was comfortable with it but it is surprising just how competent these cameras are.

Anyway, I will start the ball rolling in the next post and please feel free to join in

You may have seen some of these shots before but whatever...

Best regards,

Martin.

I envy the quality of these. Great show.

Great shot! How do you make the now look white? With my Z5, the cam makes the snow blue. Also I hate the high noise even at 50 ISO! The pictures taken indoor are way to reddish and has too much noise. The resolution is also not that good. Homever your shoots are quiet good, could you post some indoor shots too? Thinking I have a bad camera when I see your shots...My cam struggles with wb outdoor. I have to overexpose and set flash wb setting to get the snow look okay.

Sorry for misspelling! It´s supposed to be "How do you get the snow white"! Hate it why can´t edit you posts here!

ooooh, i can't decide. but here goes.

Yost,
Thanks for your kind comments.
Hoy did the lecture go?

Robert,
Could you post some of your problem shots and let us see if we can help.
It's always easier to see first hand rather than trying to describe.
Do you do any post processing?

I find that just a quick tweak on levels and a bit of unsharp mask in photoshop does wonders for the quality.

Here's the exif data for the Running dog pic

File size: 206271 bytes
File date: 2006:03:11 15:11:28
Camera make: KONICA MINOLTA
Camera model: DiMAGE Z5
Date/Time: 2005:12:28 11:21:13
Resolution: 800 x 600
Flash used: No
Focal length: 34.3mm (35mm equivalent: 209mm)
Exposure time: 0.0020 s (1/500)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv.: 50
Exposure bias: 1.30
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: center weight
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

And the sitting dog (her name's Tasha)

File size: 179754 bytes
File date: 2006:03:11 15:07:37
Camera make: KONICA MINOLTA
Camera model: DiMAGE Z5
Date/Time: 2006:03:04 09:00:56
Resolution: 800 x 600
Flash used: No
Focal length: 47.3mm (35mm equivalent: 289mm)
Exposure time: 0.0100 s (1/100)
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO equiv.: 50
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: center weight
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

Note that I didn't use exposure compensation on the second shot(sitting) because Tasha was filling a large area of the c\w metering area and this would have caused over exposure.

I used it on the first shot because the scene was mainly white and Tasha took up a smaller ammount of the metering area.

If you stick to one metering mode and get to know it well, you can start to predict the results with a bit more accuracy.

Hope this helps a bit.

Regards,

Martin.

Bugzie,

Absolutly stunning pictures.
The first is an absolute cracker.the more you look at it the more you see.
It would make a great album cover.
The colour suturation in the third gives me a warm feeling all over.
Brilliant.
Was there a polarizer involved there?

Martin.

Ok. Here´s one shot of my cat (Maine Coonie). To me, the image is far to red than it should be. I KNOW colours as I work on a photolab (why did I buy a cam we did not had in store!) Bought the Z5 from the net as its specs look good, and the review got recommend. When I look on my old G2 shots I miss my G2...

Here´s the pic:

And here is the same image corrected in Photoshop:



Of course, I could edit every single shot I take, but I mean that´s unessesary. A cam should have the right colours straight of! No color cast! It´s a shama that KM does not let anyone with some colour skills test their cameras. This would be easily avoided with some testing against a white wall or something. If they can´t see the images with internal flash from the Z5 has red cast, they are colour blind...

Hi Robert,

Do you think it looks unacceptable?
On my monitor it looks only very slightly on the red side.
Just as a test I've knocked the red back a bit to what looks about right to me.
What do you think.

Anybody else got an opinion on this?

What is funny is that the images look good on the LCD. Maybe I have a bad monitor? Why does my G2 shots look good then? Strange... I am using an external card reader. I will try to use the cable and Dimage viever that came with the cam and see if there is any difference! On my monitor, my cat is +30 to red (Adobe Photoshop). That is unacceptable to my! I know I am very critical, but I work with colours every day!

BTW: Sorry for spoiling your tread. Maybe I should start a new one.

Robert

robert, your monitor must be exaggerating the red cast. in your correction, there's now a clear cyan cast in the neutrals. i checked it in photoshop. in obelisk's correction, the neutrals are about right.

thanks,

in the third, polariser -- and fill flash. i wanted the colour to be insanely bright for the primary colours challenge. )

It was even taken with the first one in the series (Z1).
All preceding models improved as far as I know.



But still there are much more shots that proof the quality of the Z series.

Here are 2 others shots I like, taken with the Z1.





Great initiative to start these threads every now and then!

KeesZ1

More stunning pictures

I'm struggling to work out how the first one was done.
There is obviously a zoom exposure in there, but the rest ????

Martin.

Martin,

the recipe is in the comments on pbase (21:37 July 15th 2004).

http://www.pbase.com/mtf_foto_studies/image/31380573

KeesZ1

A great effect.
Nice one.

Best regards,

Martin.

I started with the Z1 and then traded it in for a Z3. Here's a few from the Z1: