Advice needed ref Panasonic Lumix camera please.

[Manks]

Hi All

I have bought a cheapish Panasonic Lumix DMC FS10 camera, mainly for carrying about in my briefcase for work stuff. It has on it "intelligent auto".

I have taken a few snaps using intelligent auto and they come out okay, but the resulting photos are a bit lacklustre colour-wise. The colours are a little paler than in real life and not vivid. The photos are not that crisp either.

My old digital camera was about 4m pixels and 10 years old. This one is 12m so I presumed that it would take a much better snap (technological advances and all that)

Can anyone advise please whether this is just what to expect with such a camera and "intelligent auto" or whether there is something wrong / something else I need to do? Am I expecting too much for a camera costing £120?

Many thanks.

[andy-xr]

From the destructions:

Modes
Using these modes, the pictures can be made sharper or softer, the colours of the pictures
can be turned into sepia colours or other colour effects can be achieved.
Applicable modes:
Note
• When you take pictures in dark places, noise may become visible. To avoid noise, we recommend setting to [NATURAL].
• You cannot set [NATURAL], [VIVID], [COOL] or [WARM] in Intelligent Auto Mode.
• In Intelligent Auto Mode, you can set this mode separately.
[DIGITAL ZOOM]
[COLOR MODE]
[STANDARD]: This is the standard setting.
[NATURAL]: The picture becomes softer.
[VIVID]: The picture becomes sharper.
[B/W]: The picture becomes black and white.
[SEPIA]: The picture becomes sepia.
[COOL]: The picture becomes bluish.
[WARM]: The picture becomes reddish

[Manks]

andy-xr said:

From the destructions:

Modes
Using these modes, the pictures can be made sharper or softer, the colours of the pictures
can be turned into sepia colours or other colour effects can be achieved.
Applicable modes:
Note
• When you take pictures in dark places, noise may become visible. To avoid noise, we recommend setting to [NATURAL].
• You cannot set [NATURAL], [VIVID], [COOL] or [WARM] in Intelligent Auto Mode.
• In Intelligent Auto Mode, you can set this mode separately.
[DIGITAL ZOOM]
[COLOR MODE]
[STANDARD]: This is the standard setting.
[NATURAL]: The picture becomes softer.
[VIVID]: The picture becomes sharper.
[B/W]: The picture becomes black and white.
[SEPIA]: The picture becomes sepia.
[COOL]: The picture becomes bluish.
[WARM]: The picture becomes reddish

No mention of colour intensity.

I am also not sure what it is saying about the ability to set "vivid" in IA mode. "In Intelligent Auto Mode, you can set this mode separately." But which mode?

[Simpo Two]

Vivid = Sharper? Dear god.

[flat-planedCrank]

Simpo Two said:

Vivid = Sharper? Dear god.

Perhaps its like photoshop's 'vibrance'? Like a by-word for localised contrast or 'pop' (which is also annoying )

[andy-xr]

Manks said:

No mention of colour intensity.

I am also not sure what it is saying about the ability to set "vivid" in IA mode. "In Intelligent Auto Mode, you can set this mode separately." But which mode?

Vivid, it turns everything up. Contrast, Saturation and Sharpening etc. From memory (I gave my Lumix away to the O/H's mother) it's either in the Menu setting or on the Up arrow button

[Simpo Two]

'Real' would be good... like, you can take a photo and it actually looks like what you're photographing... How random is that?

[Manks]

Simpo Two said:

'Real' would be good... like, you can take a photo and it actually looks like what you're photographing... How random is that?

Yes. That is what I want. I want my photos to show, broadly speaking, what colours were in the original scene.

My old Nikon Coolpix 885 had only a handful of megapixels but the photos it took are better than the Panasonic.

I am beginning to think I was being naive to assume that the new camera would be better because it is newer.

[Simpo Two]

Manks said:

Yes. That is what I want. I want my photos to show, broadly speaking, what colours were in the original scene.

My old Nikon Coolpix 885 had only a handful of megapixels but the photos it took are better than the Panasonic.

I am beginning to think I was being naive to assume that the new camera would be better because it is newer.

It's nothing to do with Mp, although that will hinder the low-light performance. I think what's messing you up is this Intelligent Auto thing, which you think - as they wanted you to think - will make everything perfect. It won't, it will apply a set of algorithms to the starting image and simply mangle it from there, making a JPG that is clearly not you want.

Only you know what you want; you will have to stop the camera doing so much thinking for you. Try turning IA off then go through all the menus setting everything to default, normal or 0. Then go from there. I'm sure there is a perfectly good camera in there, you just have to find it!