TZ3 - Noise/Smearing & IQ (newbie)

I purchased a TZ3 from Costco last Sunday. My last previous camera was an $89 Kodak Easyshare C433 with 4MP, so I was expecting great things for something that cost me $279.

I took some pictures in my basement during the evening, but it was very well lit. The pictures I got were horrendous, our textured ceilings were all smeared over, the multi-tone fabric of our couches were smeared into looking like it was just one color and there was a moderate amount of noise that was smeared in with the rest of picture. The flash was on, IS set to mode 2, 16:9, intelligent ISO mode with 800ISO cap and on vivid color. If I set it on Auto ISO the pictures were all too dark if flash wasn't turned on. I'm sorry to say, but my $80 easyshare would've gotten much better IQ with barely any noise in those conditions, I was very disappointed.

The next day I took some outdoor shots at 4-5 in the afternoon ( http://flickr.com/photos/n0stalgia/sets/72157602329703911 ) which turned out great, but still needed some moderate PP to make excellent. Later that evening when it got a bit dark, the noise and smearing issues took hold again which led me to become very frustrated.

I am a photography newb so maybe I am just using the wrong settings, but I am seriously considering returning this camera if it can't take half-decent indoor pictures, since I'll probably be using it most at indoor parties.
Help?

I've searched all over this forum and others but I really couldn't find anything useful.

I don't own a TZ3, I have a TZ1 but the basic operation is the same. Auto ISO by itself (no flash) is limited by the slow shutter speed, its not long enough. Default is 1/8 second, I keep mine set to slow shutter, a full 1 second. This does require camera support without flash in most cases, but I have had about a 75% success rate strictly hand-held to 1/4 second. ISO above 400, will be accompanied by noise in shadowy lighted situations. And even sometimes at slower speeds.

The camera set to vivid causes the NR to work overtime, you might try standard, or soft at higher ISO's. You can always increase saturation, easier than dealing with smeared out noise. I don't have Intelligent ISO only auto. But in the flash setting I use auto ISO, and that is limited to ISO 200. Standard picture settings, auto white balance. I have no trouble with flash to around 15 feet, with these settings. Sometimes a little noise, but no color smearing.
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Steve Owen. (TZ1) (Two Fujis)
http://steveslandscapes.50webs.com
http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=5546

i think most of your pics turned out great...

You complained about terrible smudging and poor flash performance, yet you didn't post any examples! How can we give you any help unless we can SEE what you're talking about? If you look at the TZ3 photos in my TZ3 gallery, I've had NO troubles with the flash, in fact, I think it's a super thing, and I'm always impressed with the resulting images. Here's the gallery link:
http://john-reed.smugmug.com/gallery/2762845

From that gallery, here's an ISO 500 shot I printed at 8X10 without any post-processing other than a slight crop?



--
Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), Trizzy, Foxy50

I deleted all the extremely horrid ones, so these are the best from that series of shots





they are a lot better than the other ones, but there is still a tiny bit of noise and smearing.

I will stop using vivid and I set the cap for the ISO on 400... I'll test it out this weekend to see if I get better results. I'll also try to raise to raise the saturation and exposure time. From anyone's experience, does party mode work better than intelligent ISO for indoor shots?

I don't know just what you're looking for in your pictures. Photographs of empty rooms aren't my piece of cake, I'm usually shooting people with flash, and have had no trouble in that respect, as I already mentioned. If you want to see some low-light photos at high ISO without any smearing, my gallery also has some recent (no flash) stage shots at ISO 800:





--
Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), EffZeeEighteen, TeeZeeThree

I just made a comparison shot in about the same conditions, with my TZ1. ISO 400, flash exposure. I can't post it because my Grand-Daughter, who was lazing about the house in her PJ's forbade it.

I had really worse to work with, not evenly lighted as the room above, and more shadow areas. Results; were some fine grain noise, but otherwise sharp, no smearing or bleeding from my maroon leather couch. And no visible compression artifacts, as the photo above has.

A trip through Noise Ninja corrected the fine grain noise, still sharp, with no color bleeding. Saved at 1024 made a very acceptable picture, I couldn't expect more from ISO 400. Well; with a P&S camera anyway.

Leaves one to wonder? did you get a bad camera. My first TZ1 definitely had problems, I returned it, and the problem got fixed.

OR! is the TZ1, the dog everyone claimed it was?. hmmmmmm, scratching head in thought .
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Steve Owen. (TZ1) (Two Fujis)
http://steveslandscapes.50webs.com
http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=5546

Hmm, I looked at the clipboard and I think the Intelligent ISO chose ISO640 for both of those images, which I think is much too high for a well-lit room like that. I don't think vivid mode helped with the smearing/color issues either.

I never really thought about the possibility of getting a bad camera; I will experiment heavily this weekend with your suggestions and see what comes up, but I certainly hope I've just been using the camera wrong.

Thanks for the help!

n0stalgia said:

Hmm, I looked at the clipboard and I think the Intelligent ISO chose ISO640 for both of those images, which I think is much too high for a well-lit room like that. I don't think vivid mode helped with the smearing/color issues either.

Click to expand...

n0stalgia said:

I never really thought about the possibility of getting a bad camera; I will experiment heavily this weekend with your suggestions and see what comes up, but I certainly hope I've just been using the camera wrong.

Click to expand...

1. Beware of Intelligent ISO. It has a purpose, read the manual -- it'll bump up the ISO if it sees movement. If you're not shooting relatively high-ISO movement, get the heck out of there. If you go full zoom, it'll actually put you into TeleMacro mode, and you won't focus on anything, unless you're actually trying to get something like you would in TeleMacro mode. Beware!

2. You have high ISO noise, relatively distant objects, which the flash can only struggle to illuminate. Use flash for people relatively close up like the other shots that have been posted, and that's what the flash is best for. Basically, your indoor furniture shots are very good examples of how bad the image quality can be at high ISO settings. Not really indicative of much else than that.

3. Here's what you REALLY need to watch out for -- your "black and white" sunset picture. Oh, it wasn't shot in black and white mode? Could have fooled me. Here's a wee bit of post-processing I did on it.....



Maybe a hack job of post-processing, but a good example nonetheless. Have a gander at your original -- not much "color" in the sky, while the houses are all pitch black, eh? "Welcome to the Panasonic DMC-TZ3." Oh, it's quite common for point-and-shoot cameras to blow out highlights, but the TZ3 seems to do it in the neighborhood of four or five times worse than anything else I've ever seen. If you get a bit of cloudy sky in a shot, watch for it to turn white, while everything else goes pitch black.

The "Shadow and Highlight tool" is your friend. Get well acquainted with it. Crank the highlights way down and the shadows way up, and you'll find that there's actually some color to be found in those "black and white" overcast shots!

Othewise, it's a pretty cool camera. It won't take you long to comprehend what it does the best, and when it can use a little post-processing help. So long as you're not taking flash pictures of rooms full of furniture, I think you'll probably be happy with what you can do with a TZ3. Enjoy!
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Tom Hoots