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I also have a Panasonic FZ8.
I am very happy with it. :thumb:
I'm no photographer and never really no what I am doing but it always seems to take nice photos.
As said in an earlier thread this winter while I have more time I am on a mission to learn how to use it properly. :D
Although it is straight forward and easy to use for a beginner like me.

 

OK. heres the story. Being a rainy day I decided to do some testing on the ISO settings of my Panasonic camera. You know the sort of thing you see in the mags with pictures of the same subject with a range of ISO settings.
I hope the mods dont condemn me for using space to discuss photographic issues here on this wonderful G.C.....
Anyway, I set everything up in the conservatory with same rather grey Yorkshire light. Camera on tripod with target subject about 6 feet away.
Camera set to Normal with ISO settings manually adjusted.
Zoom set at the max x10 optical. Each picture was then cropped just to show the label. I consider this to be a quite servere test of any lens/camera.
First image is none cropped at ISO 100, OPtical zoom at x10 Others are as titled, going to 200/400/800/1250


ISO100 cropped F4.9 1/30sec auto flash fired- yes


ISO 200 cropped F4.9 1/30 auto flash fired-yes


ISO 400 cropped F4.9 1/60 auto flash fired-No


ISO 800 cropped F4.9 1/125sec Auto flash fired-No


ISO 1250 cropped F4.9 1/160 Auto flash fired-No

 

Interesting Robert.
I found it quite difficult to discern much significant difference, though there is certainly more noise apparent in the final ISO 1250 image.
The bar code provides a very good way of assessing sharpness and to me it looked like the ISO 200 photo was just a bit sharper than the ISO 100.
You say you had the camera set to 'normal mode', does this mean that aperture will be automatically adjusted? If this is the case it could account for what I perceive as the slight improvement in sharpness as the lens is stopped down.
I tried to check this from the EXIF data, but it isn't there.

 

Dave
If amended the images with the EXIF data for your info.
Notice that the auto flash fired for the 100 and 200 ISO settings
robert

 

Aperture seems to be the same throughout at f4.9. So it doesn't explain the slight increase in sharpness in the ISO 200 pic over the ISO 100. I couldn't see shutter speed in the EXIF data in either PSP or PS.

 

With those indicated F stops it suggests to me that the camera was using shutter priority rather than exposure and with the dim conditions the stop was at its widest. with adjustments being made to shutter speed. Does that make sense? I might just repeat this test when theres some much improved light around. Would be interesting to compare the results.
robert

 

Yes that makes sense Robert. It would be interesting too if you could try using aperture priority with it set at about f16 as I'm fairly sure it would improve dof and overall sharpness.

 

Dave. theres two much auto on this Panasonic DMC-TZ3 camera to enable aperture priority. so thinkng about it again and it been a "sunnyday"yes I did say "sunny" I set up outside in full sun to repeat the test. This should give me a smaller F stop and improve the images.
Set up was on a mini tripod, camera in auto with each image taken at 28mm wide wih varying ISO settings as before.
100-200-400-800-1250
First image is the full size at the 28mm
I have then heaverly cropped the following increases in ISO images hard back to the Bar Code only.
Dave; take a note of the different f stops and shutter speeds as the ISO increases. not very linear as expected.
You can form your own opinions. Mine? I reckon its stunning for a compact camera.
First image is Full size 28mm at 100 ISO


ISO 100 f3.3 1/1000sec


ISO 200 f3.3 1/1000 sec


ISO 400 f8 1/320 sec


ISO 800 f8 1/1300 sec


ISO 1250 f8 1/1300 sec

 

Robert I'm VERY impressed with the detail in the cropped bar code!
I've just been reading the review in DP-Review the camera looks a very nice piece of kit.