The street reporter

I have not posted anything for a while but I have been out there shooting.  Sometimes, it's lugging my two DSLRs around, and sometimes, it's just--wait a second, something just dawned on me ... did I miss the Henry's Exposure photo show this fall or maybe they cut the show down to only one per year--about running into something interesting while biking around.  And for that, I need something light, like my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 that I purchased a while ago for $70.  The built-in telephoto lens on this camera is perfect for the ride-about that I do from time to time or the ride to work that I do everyday.

Just yesterday, I ran across an area cordoned off by police.  It was on my usual, daily bike route.  Some car was pulled over earlier in the day (apparently not by random chance) and some small explosive was found in a gym bag in the trunk.  The event had already unfolded by the time I got there but I got a glimpse of the scene.  It would have been more interesting had I witnessed the detonation of the explosive that the police had set off--well, maybe they would have cordoned off a bigger area so I might not have been able to capture anything then.  Anyways, I feel like an amateur street reporter with a cheap camera on hand.

It's almost 8am.  I gotta start preparing to go to work.

Lumix DMC-FZ30 flash broken?

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz30-review/

WTF!  That slider below the popup flash of the DMC-FZ30 is stuck on my camera!  It is stuck at the close position so I cannot pop the flash up.  This is odd.  I guess something inside the camera is preventing the physical mechanism from working.  This is odd.  Very odd.

Maybe I accidentally dropped some Krazy Glue into the crack of the popup flash?  When I took it out of my knapsack the other day, I noticed there were some gluey substance on top of the flash part.  Maybe it's the juice from some fruit I might have forgotten to eat and was rotting in my bag and oozing out its juice into my camera.  Eww.

[20 minutes after my initial post...]  Well, I was right.  It took some elbow grease from my finger nails to pry the flash open.  There was some sugary glue on the underside of the flash and there was something else inside the slider mechanism.  I managed to clean most of the sugary glue underneath the flash but the slider mechanism is still very stiff but works.

BTW, this camera used to cost $600+ in 2005.  Wow.

Your best camera is ...

The best camera is the camera you carry with you.  Who said that?  Chase Jarvis?  Anyways, I always carry a Panasonic DMC-FZ30 in my backpack when I go to work.  It's a light camera with fair image quality.  It's one camera that has kept its battery charge for months and has an electronic viewfinder.  I take it out of its backpack from time to time, and catch some few interesting things on the streets of Mississauga and Toronto from time to time.

Camper in Toronto.

Camper in Toronto.

XX0 6TE

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 in the field, part 3

I had a chance to bring out the FZ30 one more time, this time, to the Henry's Exposure 2011 photo show at the International Centre in Mississauga, ON.  The event was a bit more special that the other years.  Les Stroud was invited to speak (and promote a Slik tripod).  I am a big fan of "Survivorman" so this was a no-brainer.  I had to go (and it's unfortunate Chris could not.)

I decided to bring a light camera and hoped that there would be enough light to take some pictures of the Survivorman.  And so I did.  There were some pictures taken at a book signing booth with Cesar but I'm posting below those more public photos only.  It's not too bad.  Grainy and fuzzy but not too bad for a $65 camera.  Both at ISO 400, no flash.

 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 in the field, part 2

I decided to bring the Lumix to interior camping this past weekend.  I used to bring a DSLR with a couple of lenses but considering that we were going to portage, a little less load would help.  I also brought along my old Canon SD110 point-and-shoot as it is easier to carry around (your neck) and also the battery on the Lumix is not that great.  Between the two cameras, I managed to take over 500 shots.

In any case, the Lumix performed great in some cases but really poor in others.  As I expected, with enough light, the pictures came out great.  I have to say however that I am a bit confused how it decided to expose the shot.  In two similar shots, one got exposed for the sky while the other got exposed for the trees.  Now, in the dark shade, it had trouble capturing details.  It is as expected very grainy in poor light conditions.  Perhaps I should have put the camera on automatic mode so it would pop the flash in the dark shade.  I had the camera on aperture-priority mode, the way I have it on my DSLR's.

Here is an example where it totally failed me:

It looks like it exposed for the trees in the background.  As a result, the subject became totally black and there are not enough details to brighten up the subject with.  I did not get a chance to re-shoot unfortunately.

Had I shot this in automatic mode, it would have turned out better.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 in the field

Here are the first few shots I took with this camera. One thing I noticed immediately is how much lighter it is than the D7000--a good thing I guess. The second thing I noticed is how weird it is to use an electronic viewfinder. The third thing I noticed is how annoying it is to take a picture and not be able to view it immediately after with the push of a button--you have to dial to the preview mode before you can review any photo. The fourth thing is, the photos are sharp when the camera locks on its subject. Lastly, and this is to confirm many complaints, is that it is a bit noisy but it's really not all that bad during the day. There is enough light to fill every pixel with a vast amount of light, except in deep shadows.

The following photos were unprocessed, except that they have been resized (I uploaded them to Flickr) so you don't really get to see 100% of the pixels.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30

Well, I just purchased a used Panasonic DMC-FZ30 "bridge" camera. Why would I do that, you might ask, given that I already have a Nikon D7000 and a bunch of lens and gears that come with DSLR's. Well, I decided that the 35-420mm (35mm equivalent) superzoom lens of the DMC-FZ30 would be great for camping and the everyday photography I cannot do with my old Canon Powershot SD110. My DSLR gears are a bit heavy for the sort of camping I like to do and the Canon is just not far reaching enough for the normal daily needs and my Canon batteries are nearly dead. This "bridge" camera will do well for most of my camping purposes and will serve well in my daily trips into and out of Toronto.

Some nice features of the DMC-FZ30 that I like are:

- the 12x zooming happens internally inside the lens barrel, so the lens does not extend in and out
- optical image stabilization
- the camera with the lens is lighter than the D7000 alone
- it handles a bit like a DSLR and has a dial mode for aperture-priority along with the other modes found in DSLR's
- supports an external flash (I wonder if any of my flash guns will work with it)

Now, this camera is not the best camera you can find. The main problem that many people have raised is the picture quality in low light conditions--it can get noisy. Well, it's not going to be much of a problem for me. I am basically replacing my other point-and-shoot with this so it is a step up any way I look at it. Also, it was dirt cheap. I picked it up for $65 with a UV lens filter and two batteries--the camera used to be $700 six years ago. For what it can do and for the price I paid for, I think it's worth every penny I spent.