Excerpt from Lumix LX3 Book
Contents
1. briefly to acknowledge the action If you leave the camera unattended for a period of time it au tomatically powers off if this option is set through the Setup menu We ll discuss the Setup menu in Chapter 7 but this op tion can be set to be off altogether so the camera never turns off just to save power or it can be set to turn the camera off after two five or ten minutes of inactivity You can cancel the Power Save shutdown by pressing the shutter button Record Playback Switch This switch is located directly to the right of the top of the LCD screen In the up position the switch puts the camera into Re cording mode in the down position it puts the camera into Playback mode I find that it can sometimes be a good idea to leave the switch in Playback mode to avoid the situation when you turn the camera on in recording mode without taking off the lens cap When you do that the camera balks and tells you to remove the lens cap and press the right cursor button before proceeding If the camera is in Playback mode you can turn it on with the lens cap on and it will be happy as a clam because the lens does not extend outward and hit the lens cap 126 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 Joystick O MENU AF AE a The little joystick on the back of the camera just below the Record Playback switch has quite a few functions of which we have discussed several It is used to adjust the focus when the c2. reading the manual or this book unless you are a very thorough ex perimenter Program Shift is available only in Program mode What this function does is let you take the camera s automatic settings for aperture and shutter speed and reset them to a dif ferent combination that yields the same exposure That is you can shift both settings the same amount in opposite direc tions For example if the camera computes the correct settings as 2 0 at 1 100 second you can shift those settings to any equivalent pair that would yield the same exposure such as f 2 2 at 1 80 second f 2 5 at 1 60 second f 2 8 at 1 50 second or f 3 2 at 1 40 second Why would you want to do this You might want a slightly faster shutter speed to stop action better or a wider aperture to blur the background more or you might have some other creative reason Of course if you really are interested in set ting a particular shutter speed or aperture you probably are better off using Aperture Priority mode or Shutter Priority mode However having the Program Shift capability available is a good thing for a situation in which youre taking pictures quickly using Program mode and you want a quick way to tweak the settings somewhat Here s how to use Program Shift When youre about ready to take a picture press the shutter button halfway to calculate the exposure Then release the button and you will see a yellow rectangle that outlines the values for shut
3. the entire area of the LCD screen choose 3 2 which is the aspect ratio of the screen With 4 3 there will be black bars at the sides of the screen as you compose your shot with 16 9 there will be black bars at the top and bottom of the screen Finally one other option for aspect ratio was made available with the upgrade to firmware version 2 0 although you cant set it with the aspect ratio switch Panasonic has provided a 1 1 aspect ratio yielding a square image which is accessible through the Recording menu on a new line below Digital Zoom Just navigate to that line and set the 1 1 Aspect item to On Then all images you take will be square This option can be useful if you know ahead of time that the image will be used in a square format Or you might just prefer the square shape for aesthetic reasons Of course you can always achieve a 1 1 aspect ratio after the fact using software such as Photoshop Autofocus Switch a Z Z The Autofocus switch is located on the left side of the lens barrel as you hold the camera in shooting position Its three selections are Autofocus Autofocus Macro and Manual Fo 122 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 cus I previously discussed Autofocus and Manual Focus but Autofocus Macro needs more discussion When you move the switch to select this mode focusing changes to a macro range So instead of the normal range of 1 64 feet 50 cm to infinity
4. PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 Chapter 5 Advanced Topics Other Controls ot all of the settings that affect the recording process are located in the Recording menu Several impor tant functions are controlled by physical buttons and switches on the camera We have already discussed some of these but in order to make sure all of the information about these controls is included in one place we ll go through each physical control some in greater detail than others Aspect Ratio Switch a wg E This switch located on top of the lens barrel has three pos sible settings 4 3 3 2 and 16 9 representing the ratio of the width of a horizontal image to its vertical height This setting does not affect just the shape of the image it also determines how many megapixels an image can contain When the aspect ratio is set to 4 3 the maximum resolution of 10 MP is avail able when the aspect ratio is set to 3 2 the greatest possible resolution is 9 5 MP at 16 9 the greatest possible is 9 Also the very lowest possible resolution 0 3 MP is possible only at the 121 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 4 3 aspect ratio So if for some reason you need to take thou sands of pictures and dont care if the quality is low you may need to set the aspect ratio to 4 3 to achieve the lowest pos sible resolution and the highest possible number of recordable images If you want your image to use
5. S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 SELELII The options available through the Quick menu vary by the mode the camera is in Not surprisingly the Quick menu of fers the most choices in Program Aperture Priority Shutter Priority or Manual mode It offers the smallest variety in In telligent Auto mode only AF Tracking on or off Picture Size and LCD power saving options There are a moderate num ber of choices in Scene mode and Motion Picture mode The Quick menu is not available at all in Playback mode Is the Quick menu preferable to using the Recording menu system It s a matter of personal choice You may find the Quick menu to be useful for choosing certain options such as ISO or White Balance It s a good idea to experiment a bit AF AE Lock Button lend AF AE oer Lock Button ae eae DISPLAY By ies os The AF AE Lock button is located just to the right of the 130
6. amera is in Manual Focus mode It is used to adjust shut ter speed and or exposure when the camera is in Aperture Pri ority Shutter Priority or Manual Exposure mode But it has many other duties as well described below Exposure Compensation with Joystick The joystick can be used as an alternative way to adjust ex posure compensation The standard way to dial in exposure compensation is to press the up button in the five button ar ray on the back of the camera the button that is marked with the dark plus sign and white minus sign Then you use the left and right cursor keys to set the amount of positive or negative exposure for the image To use the joystick for the exposure compensation adjustment you start by moving the joystick to the left At that point the joystick navigation icon a circle with protruding arrows in the bottom right corner of the screen will have its arrows turn red and point up and down indicating that you can now ad just exposure compensation by moving the joystick up and down You will also see the little icon for exposure compensa tion with the plus and minus signs in the lower left corner of 127 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 the screen Moving the joystick up and down at this point will raise and lower the level of exposure compensation Program Shift with Joystick Here is a function of the joystick that is not immediately ob vious I dont think youd find this one without
7. at wide angle the lens can focus as close as 0 4 inch 1 cm It is a good idea to set the flash to Off when using macro mode because the flash would not be useful at such a close range I ll discuss macro shooting in more detail in Chapter 8 Flash Switch 99FEN Danas 70 gt MDS TELG lt Niessen ania ae The flash switch is on top of the camera at the far left It has only one function to unlatch the flash mechanism so it can pop up and be available in case conditions call for its use If you the user do not manually pop the flash unit up using this switch it will not be available because the camera cannot pop the unit up automatically Mode Dial The Mode dial is on top of the camera to the right of the hot shoe as you hold the camera in shooting position We dis cussed this dial extensively in Chapter 3 Its settings move you between the various modes of shooting Intelligent Auto Pro gram Aperture Priority Shutter Priority Manual Custom 1 123 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 Custom 2 Motion Picture and Scene If you happen to leave the Mode dial in a position that does not select one of those settings the camera will display a message advising you that the dial is not in a proper position Shutter Button This control is quite familiar by now You press it down halfway to check focus and exposure and press it the rest of the way to record the image You can also pr
8. ess it to wake the camera up from Power Save mode The shutter button has a somewhat different use when you are making multiple exposures using that option on the Recording menu After the initial exposure is made you move to the next one by pressing the shutter but ton halfway down Zoom Lever The Zoom lever is a ring with a ridged handle that encircles the shutter button The lever s basic function is to change the lens s focal length between wide angle by pushing it to the left toward the W indicator and telephoto by pushing it to the right toward the T indicator The lever also has some other functions When you are viewing pictures in Play mode the lever enlarges the image on the LCD screen when pushed to the right and selects different numbers of images to view when pushed to the left In addition when you are playing a motion picture taken by the camera the Zoom lever can be used to raise and lower the audio volume Also you can use 124 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 this lever to speed through the menus a full page at a time Focus Button The Focus button is on the top of the camera to the right of the shutter button at the far right of the camera as you hold it in shooting position As we discussed earlier this button is used to move the focusing frame around the screen so you can focus on an object that is not in the center of the screen To do this you aim the camera press the Focus but
9. ter speed and aper ture at the bottom of the LCD screen Within a few seconds 128 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 press the joystick up or down to shift the values PO STD NDiro F4 0 You will see the new values within the rectangle and the Pro gram Shift icon a rectangle with a P and a diagonal two head ed arrow will appear at the bottom of the screen to indicate that Program Shift is in effect To cancel Program Shift use the joystick to change the settings until the Program Shift icon disappears Also turning off the camera will cancel Program Shift Getting Access to Quick Menu with Joystick The little joystick is not done yet it offers another complete set of tricks if you take it in another direction by pressing in on it This function getting access to the Quick menu is not en tirely obvious from the user s manual so let me emphasize that point You put your thumb on the joystick s knob and push in as if the joystick were a push button which of course it is You have to press fairly hard but once your press has regis tered a mini version of the camera s menu system opens up at the top of the screen You navigate right and left with the joy stick across the menus until you find the category you want then move up and down that category with the joystick until you hit the exact selection you want then you press in firmly on the joystick to select it 129 PHOTOGRAPHER
10. ton then use the cursor keys to move the frame to wherever you want it Then press the center button in the five button array Menu Set to set the location To return the frame to the center of the screen press the Focus button again then press the Display button on the lower left of the camera back s controls ASPECT 43 3 2 16 9 00 OB ees DN H CAML I Ihe Focus button has one other function that we mentioned briefly earlier When you set the camera to Manual Focus the standard focusing procedure is to use the joystick to adjust the focus until it looks the way you want it on the screen Howev er even with the camera set to Manual Focus if you press the Focus button the camera will attempt to focus automatically If you are faced with a tricky focusing situation such as a subject that has important points to focus on at various distances us ing the Focus button to pre focus the subject can give you a starting point from which you can take over with the joystick to fine tune the focus as you want it 125 PHOTOGRAPHER S GUIDE TO THE PANASONIC LUMIX LX 3 Power Switch There isnt a lot to say about the power switch but I didn t want to leave any controls out and this is a good opportunity to discuss the Power Save feature The power switch is on the far right of the camera s top You move it to the right for On and to the left for Off When you do either of these actions the little green status light blinks
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