Bob Alexander
New member
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
Fun to use, but colors disappointing.
First of all, I really enjoyed taking pictures with this camera. The zoom brings you incredibly close to distant subjects, and the stabilizers work well. It was a lot of fun to use.
However, the pictures, especially pictures of people, were just not alive. Indoor shots without flash were yellow, and with flash, they were too white. Outdoors, Fall in the Northwest so not much sunlight, colors were dull. Also, probably because it is Fall, point and shoot outdoors was normally at a shutter speed of 1/20 and f2.8. This made it hard to take sharp pictures. If I forced a faster shutter speed, the photos came out very dark. Some people gave this camera a 5.0 for image quality, so perhaps the fault is mine. But I experimented with settings to the tune of about 250 pictures without satisfaction.
I missed some features I had with my Minolta DiMAGE 7i which got stolen by some jerk. For example, you can not zoom when shooting movie clips, which seems to be the rule with electronic zoom. I also like manual zoom much more than electronic zoom for photos. It is easier to use and it does not make motor noise when you are trying to take a candid shot. Also, because my eyes are not so great, I use the ELV more than the screen, both for taking and reviewing pictures. The Minolta automatic switching from screen to viewfinder when you put the camera to your eye was sorely missed on the Panasonic.
The camera hummed, too. If I pointed it up or down for a picture, it had this weird, irritating, constant hum.
As other reviews point out, the camera has a lot going for it. I had ten days to evaluate it or I could not take it back. After agonizing for eight days, I returned it.
Problems:
Described above.
o Colors not alive.
o No zoom in movie mode.
o Difficulty with sharpness in low light.
o No auto-ELV switch.
o Hum.
First of all, I really enjoyed taking pictures with this camera. The zoom brings you incredibly close to distant subjects, and the stabilizers work well. It was a lot of fun to use.
However, the pictures, especially pictures of people, were just not alive. Indoor shots without flash were yellow, and with flash, they were too white. Outdoors, Fall in the Northwest so not much sunlight, colors were dull. Also, probably because it is Fall, point and shoot outdoors was normally at a shutter speed of 1/20 and f2.8. This made it hard to take sharp pictures. If I forced a faster shutter speed, the photos came out very dark. Some people gave this camera a 5.0 for image quality, so perhaps the fault is mine. But I experimented with settings to the tune of about 250 pictures without satisfaction.
I missed some features I had with my Minolta DiMAGE 7i which got stolen by some jerk. For example, you can not zoom when shooting movie clips, which seems to be the rule with electronic zoom. I also like manual zoom much more than electronic zoom for photos. It is easier to use and it does not make motor noise when you are trying to take a candid shot. Also, because my eyes are not so great, I use the ELV more than the screen, both for taking and reviewing pictures. The Minolta automatic switching from screen to viewfinder when you put the camera to your eye was sorely missed on the Panasonic.
The camera hummed, too. If I pointed it up or down for a picture, it had this weird, irritating, constant hum.
As other reviews point out, the camera has a lot going for it. I had ten days to evaluate it or I could not take it back. After agonizing for eight days, I returned it.
Problems:
Described above.
o Colors not alive.
o No zoom in movie mode.
o Difficulty with sharpness in low light.
o No auto-ELV switch.
o Hum.