LX3 - best settings for street photography?

[mike in london]

I own an LX3 and would like to ask what people have found to be the best settings for street photography which would enable me to bring the camera up to my eye quickly and shoot with as little delay as possible.

I am thinking setting manual focus/exposure/RAW/high-ish ISO, anything else?

But what aperture? Whats the DOF like on the LX3?

Regards

Mike
--
http://www.mikecurryphotography.com

 

[palincss]

IWhats the DOF like on the LX3?

Considerable, at all apertures and focal lengths. It is, after all, a small-sensor camera. You'll probably be using it at 24mm max wide angle, too.

 

[Guy Parsons]

I own an LX3 and would like to ask what people have found to be the best settings for street photography which would enable me to bring the camera up to my eye quickly and shoot with as little delay as possible.

I am thinking setting manual focus/exposure/RAW/high-ish ISO, anything else?

Not particularly a street shooter but I find that for just about everything now I leave my LX3 in P mode with Auto ISO range 80-200, exposure compensation usually sits at minus 0.33EV.

Sharpness at minus 2 and Noise Reduction at minus 2 yields clean jpegs, but I seem to also mostly take RAW+jpeg now just in case. Colour to taste but for me it's Standard film at Saturation minus 1 and Contrast minus 1. That yields easy to post process jpegs that leaves me hardly ever needing to use the RAW backups.

Auto focus set to centre area only so always focus on interesting bit and recompose to shoot. Some say the LX5 is a faster to act camera but I have never ever found the LX3 to be slow.

Some leave the camera in manual focus and then use the little top panel 'focus' button to AF on the subject and leave it there while taking a few shots.

But what aperture? Whats the DOF like on the LX3?

Depth of field is large even at f/2 so that's why I let it do what it likes in P mode. Check http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html and use the real focal lengths to see what happens. If really must use A mode then I probably leave it on f/3.5 or f/4 for no particular reason. If a serious pixel peeper then you should avoid f/5.6 and f/8 as diffraction does start to lower the quality a tiny bit.

More of much the same on my suggested settings page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/15-settings.html

Regards............ Guy

 

[Ray Sachs]

I shoot with an LX-5 but I think the two cameras are fairly similar in how you'd set them up for street photography. I tend to use manual focus with a hyperfocus setting so that I get the greatest range of DOF possible because, as others have noted, these cameras have a TON of DOF. I tend to put it in step zoom and leave it at about the 35mm equivalent, put it in manual focus, find an aperture that will allow for a decent shutter speed for the circumstances, and set the hyperfocal. With the LX cams in manual focus mode, you'll note that as you adjust the focus, you'll see a bar along the bottom of the screen that indicates your range of focus. Just adjust the focus until the right edge of that bar just barely touches the infinity point on the right and you're set for hyperfocal shooting. For me, in decent light, this usually ends up being something like f4 or f5, which gives you focus on everything from about 3-4 feet out to infinity. Then I don't worry about focussing and just aim and shoot. I often don't even bring the camera up to my eye, having gotten reasonably good at instinctively framing shots from chest level. And you don't have to worry about perfect framing because its not like the AF point in the center is gonna grab something in the distance and screw up the focus on the foreground - the beauty of hyperfocal. If I decide to zoom out to 28 or 24mm, I know the focal range is only gonna get bigger so I don't bother to adjust it, and then when I come back to 35mm, its still set perfectly. And the LX5 has a feature (not sure if the LX3 shares this or not) that will make the camera remember the manual focus and zoom settings when you turn the camera back on, so you can set it up and turn it on and off as you would and know its gonna be right each time you turn it on.

I've heard the LX5 is a bit quicker and more responsive than the LX3, but I've seen some great street photography done with the LX3 and manual focus will probably make it as quick as it can get. So that's my recommendation, fwiw.

-Ray

 

[rkhndjr]

I'm with Guy all the way on these settings. They require some PP but I like that rather than having the camera do the edit.
--

 

[DezM]

All good suggestions above but I'll make it simple with these settings. I had the LX3 for a couple of years and now use a LX5.

My LX3 & LX5 samples: http://dezsantana.com/lumix

• Aperture mode, f/4 or f/4.5 in day light. ISO 100, EV at - 2/3, AF to Auto-Area or Center AF. Auto White balance. I.Resolution at Standard. i.Zoom set to OFF. Stabilizer on Auto.

STD Film Mode:

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

I like shooting Raw + Jpeg and I usually use the Jpegs. If I need more dynamic range, I'll use the Raw file.
---
Dez

http://dezsantana.com

 

[Guy Parsons]

STD Film Mode:

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

Sharpness at anything other than -2 makes for more noise and edge halos.

This does not matter with normal to small prints or the usual web sized images but with very large prints or savage crops then they will be objectionable problems. That's why I settled on -2 for Sharpness and sort it out later in post process to suit display or print size.

Or use RAW and sort it all out later.

Regards............ Guy

 

[Sye68]

I shoot RAW then you will always get the shot right with no messing on the street

Aperture priority f4, auto AF high speed centre point and lastly 3.2 aspect ratio for stills and 16.9 for movie.

 

[DezM]

STD Film Mode:

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

Sharpness at anything other than -2 makes for more noise and edge halos.

This does not matter with normal to small prints or the usual web sized images but with very large prints or savage crops then they will be objectionable problems. That's why I settled on -2 for Sharpness and sort it out later in post process to suit display or print size.

Or use RAW and sort it all out later.

Regards............ Guy

Guy, I've never noticed halos in my images or at the edges. I think your statement may be dependent on one's post processing and/or editor they use. As for noise, I'll run selective NR on some that need it.

The settings above are what I used with the LX3 and it worked great for me, so I am using the same on the LX5.

I have printed a few night images from the LX5, up to 11" x 14" and do not see halos in any of them.
--
Dez

http://dezsantana.com

 

[DezM]

Also from http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/LX5/LX5A5.HTM

Intelligent Resolution

Like other recent Panasonic models, the Lumix LX5 offers three levels of "Intelligent Resolution", which essentially sharpens fine detail while leaving areas with little or no detail (such as a cloudless sky) untouched to keep visible noise to a minimum.
--
Dez

http://dezsantana.com

 

[dasrocket]

Street shooting is probably what I do most, and the 24mm f.2 lens of the LX3 has roved to be the FL I use for 95% of my shots.

For me, 24mm at f.2, auto ISO on aperture priority might as well be glued into place. I don't mind the speed of the AF so I keep it there. I will only change this setting if I need a specific shot, otherwise it works best for me.
--

'...In order to get what you want in life, you have to get rid of what you don't want!...'

 

[snapshot09]

Tried and true!

All good suggestions above but I'll make it simple with these settings. I had the LX3 for a couple of years and now use a LX5.

My LX3 & LX5 samples: http://dezsantana.com/lumix

• Aperture mode, f/4 or f/4.5 in day light. ISO 100, EV at - 2/3, AF to Auto-Area or Center AF. Auto White balance. I.Resolution at Standard. i.Zoom set to OFF. Stabilizer on Auto.

STD Film Mode:

Contrast: 0
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: 0
NR: -2

I like shooting Raw + Jpeg and I usually use the Jpegs. If I need more dynamic range, I'll use the Raw file.
---
Dez

http://dezsantana.com

 

[Lng0004]

Does IR actually work?

 

[Guy Parsons]

Here's an image with a resized crop out of it to show the halos at the default 0 Sharpen that I used in Japan with my LX3....



(Hmmm something crazy, the image is not showing for me right now....)

When printing very large or taking a savage crop for more zoom the boy's face for instance is a lot smaller than that shown (that's a nearest neighbour 4x interpolation of the crop) but at 200 dpi that halo is still a disturbing thing to me. So I choose to make blunt jpegs and sharpen them later.

Regards............ Guy

 

[mike in london]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Dont you get shutter lag with the LX3 if you leave the AF on rather than set the hyperfocal distance?

Doesnt the same apply for exposure too?

I am after as quick an action as possible. Sure I will test it first but you guys seem like you done lots of this.

Mike
--
http://www.mikecurryphotography.com

 

[Ray Sachs]

AF speed and shutter lag are two different things. The LX5 is very quick in both regards, but skipping the AF step by using hyperfocal makes it that much quicker. I've heard the LX3 is not as fast, but I don't know if its slower in AF, shutter lag, or both. I can't see using hyperfocal being any slower but it may or may not be faster. I know with the Canon S90 I used to use, street photography was very frustrating because the shutter lag was slow enough that it didn't seem any faster without AF than with it. But speed aside, hyperfocal is advantageous because you don't have to frame the shot as precisely and get the focus point in the AF box, which allows for much quicker shooting.

Give all options a try, but the hyperfocal setup is the beauty of these little cameras to me. I have two m43 cameras and for low light street work, I prefer them. But for decent light, I actually much prefer the LX5 because of its ease of hyperfocal setup and the wide DOF the small sensor gives you. And the IQ is more than good enough...

-Ray

 

[DezM]

Guy, I see it in that image but I just checked a few of mine and looked at people's heads at 100% and don't see halos at all.
--
Dez

http://dezsantana.com

 

[stefaan]

I have been using Guy's settings for quite some time now (Leica D-Lux 4) and never saw reason to change.
The 'STD' colors (JPEG) colors are, IMHO, not great though.

It would be interesting to test similar settings with Nostalgic film mode where saturation +1 might be needed ?

NR / Sharpness -2 does produce nice pictures though and is much better for video too.

With settings that way I still see quite some noise (stills @ 80 + video: picking higher ISO), even ISO 80 pics!, especially in darker parts of pics.

 

[Guy Parsons]

Guy, I see it in that image but I just checked a few of mine and looked at people's heads at 100% and don't see halos at all.

Heh, heh, I must have some aversion to angels!

I see edge halos readily in LX3 default settings and also in my E-PL1 jpegs so that also runs now with reduced sharpness.

As I said, it only causes a real issue when printing a savage crop for more zoom or just to isolate some feature, or for a really big print. I'm looking at a postcard print right now of that same Japanese scene cropped and printed at 201 dpi via Qimage and that little boy's head has that annoying halo glow around it. Even though his head is only about 3mm (1/8") wide in the print, the halo effect still annoys me. The original is 3968 pixels wide so printing at 201 dpi equals a print width of about 19.7" and done via Qimage the print is very good indeed (except for the edge halos).

I guess it's my aversion to the "digital look" where everything sometimes looks over-sharp and "gritty". I saw way too much of that in my days in the camera clubs in handling thousands of prints from all over the world when we accepted major competition entries at the time film was changing to digital.

To avoid that look I work from RAW sometimes, but mostly use my minus 2 Sharp jpegs and then re-sharpen in post process to suit the display size or the print size. Of course Qimage does its usual auto sharpen to suit print size so I leave my jpegs usually looking a tiny bit soft before sending them to Qimage.

Maybe in the past I spent too much time doing 35mm film scans and getting used to the soft look of film and now in digital I'm trying to make the results look as much like film as I can.

Soon I'll have lots of time to wander around at home avoiding light or heavy work, so I then might make up a web page to cover this halo issue that annoys me. And of course also find exactly at above what print size the halo effect has that annoying quality.

Regards............. Guy

 

[Guy Parsons]

Funny, I've never found the LX3 to be slow in any way. Usually using P or A mode and centre area AF is always fast enough for me, no annoying delays at all. I have never even felt the need to try the so-called fast AF option, which I guess would be basically less accurate at times.

As for shot to shot times, I have always used a Class 6 card that actually tests as a Class 10 speed and have had no problems with write delays. I never use burst, only ever single shots.

Regards.... Guy

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Dont you get shutter lag with the LX3 if you leave the AF on rather than set the hyperfocal distance?

Doesnt the same apply for exposure too?

I am after as quick an action as possible. Sure I will test it first but you guys seem like you done lots of this.