FZ18 problems (1 Viewer)

Hi I have recently purchased a Panasonic FZ18 and after trying it out a few times become stuck with finding the right mode to photograph quick birds like blue tit etc can anyone tell me what mode or settings are best?

Cheers

You have a mode setting for "outdoor sports" which should provide a fast shutter and elevated ISO, if necessary. Actually, just using the intelligent mode should be fine. In any event, one drawback to this kind of camera is going to be a slight delay in the operating of the shutter after you push the shutter release. There's no way around this; you just have to anticipate and perhaps try using a burst mode to get several photos in succession (you can delete the bad ones afterward).

I tend to use P mode, with Intelligent ISO set to 400 max (in good light) and Mode 2 for the image stabilisation and then shoot in burst mode. More recently I have been experimenting with shutter priority mode and manually setting the ISO to as low as possible while still keeping the shutter speed above 100th of a second, but have not really achieved very good results with that so far, mainly because it is dull and grey here in Norwich.

I am still learning the camera, but have so far settled into using shutter priority mode and setting the shutter speed to 1/500 of a second in good light. This will not freeze a bird in the middle of fast movement, but seems pretty good at eliminating the effects of minor movements. However, annoyingly, auto ISO is limited to 200 in shutter priority mode, so you will have to "manually" adjust the ISO if the light is poor (as kittykat indicated). If the light is very good, you may be able to increase the shutter speed even more, which will of course stop the action even better.

I just tried the outdoor sports mode Doug suggested, but noticed there was no indication in the viewfinder of what shutter speed is being used, making it of somewhat limited use for these purposes IMO. Not sure if that can be changed. I have not tried burst mode yet.

I think with this camera your best shots are only going to come in good light; at other times you are going to have to resign yourself to some noise by using ISO 800 or higher (in number).

By the way, not to change the topic of this thread, but I cannot find on my camera the "zoom resume" feature, mentioned in the manual, in the menu system. If others are aware, I would appreciate a brief explanation or private message.

Jim

cheers

Cheers for the tips but i intend to use this camera is the summer mostly so hopefully there will be good light and as for zoom resume I do not know about that yet as I have not had this camera long

Zoom Resume

Its a feature I've not used but, in the menu, click on the spanner tab, then on the second page, just below "power save" is the zoom resume option. When you set to "On" if you have zoomed in on your last shot it will automatically return to that zoom position if your camera is turned off, then back on, or if it goes into power save mode, or if you review a picture in play mode and then take another shot. :t:

Incidentally, if you have a teleconverter attached and set the camera to conversion mode, it automatically zooms right in whenever you turn the camera on.

?

Does anyone Know how to activate this cameras macro or close-up mode I.ve tried every setting and i can<t figure it out.

john118 said:

Does anyone Know how to activate this cameras macro or close-up mode I.ve tried every setting and i can<t figure it out.

Click to expand...

if you mean using autofocus for macros, all you have to do is press the button closest to the shutter button titled AF/FOCUS (there is also a picture of a flower after the letters "AF").

Jim

macro

yeah i know about the AF button but what mode do i use intelligent IOS , portrait which one