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ZS3 in low light

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kc571

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My wife is not happy with her new ZS3. She took it to our son's school to take some pictures, and they all were out of focus, and just not good. I know that no camera is that good indoors, and in bad lighting, but what do you think could be wrong? Are there any fail safe recommend settings? I.E, should you set it to IA and forget it?
 
Should you set it to IA and forget it?

In this case, I would say certainly.

But you have to realize that the built in flash is just not going to have much reach, and subjects should be within the proper range, i.e., not too close and not too far away, if using the flash.
--
Peter
 
Can you post sample images or provide more details such as distance from subject, type of lighting, camera mode, etc?
 
I haven't used my ZS3 much, but I quickly found out a few things.

1) The flash range is very limited. In my experience, you need to be no more than about five or six feet from your subject (at full wide-angle setting) to get a good exposure.

2) If you have your lens zoomed all the way out (300mm), unless you're outdoors under bright skies, you'd better use a tripod ... or at least have something to lean on. The slightest shake of the camera will cause a blurry picture (yes, even with image stabilization). So, if you're taking pictures of kids in a play and you're zoomed all the way out, be sure the camera is braced on something sturdy.

Note: My comments are based upon ISO 80 -- which is what I try to use 95% of the time for the best image quality.

--StevenN
 
Another thing that would be helpful to eliminate blurry photos indoors would be to go into the menu and set the minimum shutter speed to something like 1/8th or a little slower or faster depending on how steady the photographer can hold the camera and how much movement there is going on with the subjects. If there is a fair amount of subject movement, a faster minimum shutter speed will be helpful. Of course, the faster the minimum shutter speed is set, the higher the ISO will have to be raised to compensate and provide a proper exposure, which increases noise (grain) in the image. So you just have to play around with these settings to find what combination produces images you find most pleasing (or least unpleasing).

--
Peter
 
I would say the problem would be zooming into 300mm from across the room and expecting to get a bright clear photo.

One solution if you only wanted to print 6x4 photos or view small photos on the net would be to choose 800 ISO with forced flash.

A more practical solution would be to get a slave flash set the ISO to 100-400 which will solve all of you weak flash problems. You can either use the bracket and mount it to the tri-pod mount or I just hold it in my hand and bounce the flash off the ceiling or a nearby wall.

The final solution would be to practice, practice, practice with the camera. Digital is free, find a setting that works for you and set it to one of the on dial positions........or just set it to iA. :)
--
http://www.pbase.com/reelate2
http://www.pbase.com/relate2
What flying means to me.
http://vimeo.com/2598837

 
A slave flash is a flash usually pretty small that is triggered automatically by the flash from the camera. It does not have to be physically attached to the camera it can actually be placed anywhere in the room where it will receive the camera flash that gets bounced off the subject.

If you have a camera where you can adjust the flash output you can turn the camera's flash output down to just enough to trigger the more powerful slave flash so you do not overexpose your photo. Or with the TZ7/ZS3 you can manually choose a lower ISO with the same effect. Again you would have to practice to find the setting that works for you.
--
http://www.pbase.com/reelate2
http://www.pbase.com/relate2
What flying means to me.
http://vimeo.com/2598837

 
I use slave flash with both my ZS-1 and FZ-35 cameras. The issue is this: you must use a powerful Slave Flash unit like the Digislave-3000. I have an even more powerful slave flash that I created as a DIY project. It uses a Nikon SB-20 flash that I purchased on E-Bay for $25. Both of these two slave flashes will work with any digital camera that has a built-in flash unit which acts as the "trigger." Both slave flashes have tilt able heads allowing to enjoy the excellent benefits of bounce flash.

Sarah Joyce
 
Anchor72 said:
I use slave flash with both my ZS-1 and FZ-35 cameras. The issue is this: you must use a powerful Slave Flash unit like the Digislave-3000. I have an even more powerful slave flash that I created as a DIY project. It uses a Nikon SB-20 flash that I purchased on E-Bay for $25. Both of these two slave flashes will work with any digital camera that has a built-in flash unit which acts as the "trigger." Both slave flashes have tilt able heads allowing to enjoy the excellent benefits of bounce flash.

Sarah Joyce
--
Click to expand...
Sarah, is there any reason why you need such a powerful slave flash?

I use a small Sunpak remote lite II which works well. I don't need to shoot something 50 feet away.

http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/prodinfo.php?prodid=9365&start=0&thislist=3~35~526

--
http://www.pbase.com/reelate2
http://www.pbase.com/relate2
What flying means to me.
http://vimeo.com/2598837

 
Richard-

Yep, I take an initial photo with the stickers in place to use in the Digital Camera classes that I regularly teach. The stickers clearly tell the students stuff they want to know and it save me some questions. Then the come off immediately.

The next photo was taken with my FZ-35, using my DY slave flash that is powered with a Nikon SB-20 tilting flash, at a distance of 27 feet in the bounce flash mode.

Sarah Joyce
 
Flickr did not want to work, so I just uploaded the needed photo to my smugmug account. Here is a photo of the DIY slave flash.

Sarah Joyce

 
OK, that finally worked. Here is the photo I took with the DIY slave flash and the FZ-35 at a distance of 27 feet from my husband.

Sarah Joyce

 
Anchor72 said:
OK, that finally worked. Here is the photo I took with the DIY slave flash and the FZ-35 at a distance of 27 feet from my husband.
Click to expand...
Thanks but a photo with some moving objects would be great. Your husband doesn't look like very much moving so you will get him focussed sharp even with long exposure and without any slave flashlight. ;
--
My Panasonic Lumix TZ7/ZS3 HD video footage:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Morzg
Some of my photos made with TZ7 & iPhone camera, oldtimers etc. ;-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihabakuk/
 
Nope, no school plays or fast action on a Sunday night at home at 10:30pm. I will try to set up an action shot for you. BTW the slave flash (the Nikon SB-20) is very easy to adjust and to use for both direct and bounce flash as well.

Have a great day.

Sarah Joyce
 
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