This is incredibly helpful. I have owned my ZS7 for almost 3 years and I love it, but I had no idea how to do any of this with it. I feel like I just bought a brand new camera! Thank you so much for your videos.
This is a great series of videos! I bought this camera for my wife and after using it for a little while I'm loving it (more than my Nikon DSLR!). Your videos are teaching me a ton of stuff I didn't know about this wonderful camera. THANKS!!!
Hi Graham, Thanks for the wonderful tutorials. Your hint on Focus Pulling was just awesome, I would have never found out on my own. At the same time I am loving taking stills (using touch) while shooting the videos. Hope to learn more powerful techniques from you.
Graham... thanks very much for this series on the ZS20. It is an excellent tutorial with straightforward instruction on how to use the camera, its functions, and guidance to achieving the results wanted. Bravo!
Hi thanks for the comment, appreciated. The TZ series doesn't feature program shift as in the FZ series so the P mode is essentially iA without the camera applying all the other digital effects. You can download a manual from Panasonic wed site they are all there and of course free.
Just bought a TZ30 and your videos are so useful...thanks very much. Look forward to progressing with them! It's disappointing that when you pay £200 for a camera, Panasonic only give you an operating manual on disc - it's so much easier to sit and fiddle around with a book on your lap! Thanks again!
Great tutorial Graham - I was slightly disappointed with my iAuto pictures on my TZ27, but after watching your video, the picture quality has improved a great deal. Thank you!
Hi Graham, this is superb! There are features on compact cameras that I've never understood but you are covering them one by one in this series... much appreciated. The histogram now makes more sense. Might be worth changing the series title to 'Understanding the compact camera (TZ30/ZS20)' to reach a wider audience since many of these features are universal (I changed to the Sony HX20 but these videos are still relevant). Thanks again.
Thanks, Graham... I thought that might be the case. It seems that Panasonic would have provided a way to turn the touch to focus feature off so. I called tech support, got a guy who had to go check with someone else and the best answer was to select another of the five auto focus modes but none of them allow you to simply disable the touch feature.
thank u for the advice mr graham it helps me a lot but to be hones while ive been on holidays i didnt have time to change the settings all tyhe time so i was takng pics on auto and during daylight the pics r superb especially when u watching them on full hd 50* tv i dont regret even a penny which i sent on this camera :)
Hi, as I said in the video the iA mode gives superb results in most instances, and in some lighting gives the best images. It is only when the scene is wrongly recognised that the other manual modes might give better IQ. This is a great compact travel camera. thanks for the comment.
Hi Ian, yes I use spot AF as this allows me to chose more precisely the point I want to be in focus. In general I use full area metering unless the subject is not normal and then use centre weighted. I use digital zoom but limit it to about x 1.5 ( say x30 on the scale. The image quality is very usable in this case.
Hi thanks for the question. This is down to what's called the 'format' of the image. The 3 main formats are 3:2 (which was the 35mm film standard) 4:3 (film/television) and 16:9 (HDTV). When I take images mostly they are used in HD projects so 16:9 is the best choise as it gives full frame compatible high resolution images. If you shoot the 4:3 format 14M image it doesn't fit a 16:9 format HD project so it has to be 'letterboxed' and you end up with black bars on either side of the image. ..cont
Thanks for the comment, appreciated. This camera is limited to 8 seconds exposure in the night scenery mode so I guess this would be insufficient to record what you want. I cannot think of a work around for this at the moment, sorry can't help you here.
Hi Richard, the touch to focus is always enabled it is the touch to shoot which you can turn on and off. I don't have this camera now so I can't check if there are anyways of turning that feature off.
I was a bit baffled by the bracketing capabilities, this video explained it perfectly. Thank you, have now subscribed and look forward to your videos in understanding the TZ30 Regards Gary.
Hi the photofun studio disk which comes with the camera offers a facility to make DVD and to edit (basic) the avchd footage and also it has a decent avchd viewer. I use it all the time to imprt and view my stills and video. It is also a good catalog system for your pc images and video
Hi thanks for the comments. There is no "fade to back" in these simple cameras. I do all the fades in the editing program. The GFS video mode gives you geo-tagged 1080i video clips. The PSH is non tagged progressive recording which gives the best video quality from this camera - both bit rate and definition.
Hi the histogram shows yellow if you have EV adjustment. Learning to read the histogram takes some practice. Not all scenes have a full tonal range. For example a snow scene would be all whites so the histogram will only show the peaks on the right and no central grey tones. Similarly night scenes would show a left biased distribution. If you can spot medium grey tones then these should lie halfway on the curve and adjusting the EV to get them there should help overall exposure
The tz30 has a lot more manual adjustments available to use for some creative work and it produces marginally better stills. Low light video is slightly better on the Sx260 but otherwise there is little to choose between thm
Thanks for the feedback, i have done a mini series on the HX9v which is similar to the HX20 - that might be more relevant to you. You will find them in the HX9v playlists. Graham
I don't think you can turn image stabilisation off in the tz30. If you are taking indoor pictures without the flash the exposures will be longer than normal hand held shots you may need to support the camera on something to get blur free images. try the hand held night shot int the scene menu as this will give better results.
In very low light you are best leaving the camera in iA mode as it will revert to candlelight mode which is the most sensitive mode. Otherwise you might try the hand held nite shot which will take a series of images, process them into 1 image and apply some noise reduction. However don't expect the camera to perform very well in this low light situation
I'm, preparring the next stage of the tutorial and it will show you how to use filters fairly easily with this great camera, should be available shortly.
You will need to use the M mode, set it to wide angle and use the camera on a firm surface ( if you have no tripod) you can experiment with shutter speeds up to 15 seconds in this mode. Use the self timer to take the shot to prevent any shake as you press the shutter button
Excellent videos. You've opened up my camera knowledge to a while new level. Off to try my skills now. Thanks. Are you from Bolton? I recognise a lot of scenery!
..cont. So it really choose the right format for the output device. If you want prints from images use 3:2 or 4:3 depending upon the format of your paper 4x6 inch (100x160mm) would use 3:2 for example. For anything that is hd related such as playing still on your tv or editing into a hd video for youtube then use 16:9. The crops are from the same sensor so there is no change in quality from a 14M 4:3 or a 16:9 10.5m image. Hope that helps.
There is a microsoft free program called ICE an Image Composite Editor ( google microsoft ice) which allows you to assemble images together so it might be worth downloading.
Thanks Graham,wanted to use more than just the IA setting so started to use P mode using exposure compensation and iso settings and found results better .. when the histogram turns yellow after compensation etc does that mean it does not recommend that setting that's been manually put in..and does white mean ok?..also on the histogram is it better to have even balance of blacks and whites in the centre of the histogram display .. .. thanks again for your help.
Hi again Graham,firstly thankyou for all your advice about this great camera..i noticed you use spot AF,would you say this gives the best AF results in terms of speed and results?.which metering would be best when using spot AF in the p mode or is it a case of adjusting it to multi for landscape type and centre weighted for portrait shots and close ups of a particular subject...Finally I noticed when using digital zoom the quality deteriorates,so is it best just to stick to the 20x zoom instead.
hello mr graham i wondered when u were using tz30 in automode why youre not using 14m? only 10.5m mode? whats the different between them? im guessing that 14m is better quality of pic or not? and why by 10.5 there is no frame when i put the pic on the tv and by 14 there is? anyway thanks to u mr graham im slowly starting to understand my new camera and im looking forward to next episodes. i really appreciate your hard work which youre putting in those videos :)
Very instructive And you use plain English! Good work! Please may I ask a question? I have no manual with my s/hand TZ10: In P mode can shutter speed and aperture be linked like in the FZ28? The TZ30 seems similar to the TZ10 in case your wondering why I'm asking the question here.
Graham... why does the focus point change when I accidentally touch the screen even with the touch screen feature turned off? I experience this problem when I'm carrying the camera, turned on, in my hand and my thumb unintentionally touches the screen thereby moving the focus point from the center. Thanks for any help on this.
Hello Graham! I live in Norfolk where we have big skies. I used to use a polarising fliter to emphasise the clouds. How can I achieve this on the TZ30? Is it to be found in one of the scene settings? Michael
Hello, I hope this message finds you in good health. I've just purchased a tz30 and would like to know if you can focus it manually? Any pointers would be great. 🙏
Hi Graham thanks for this video..I am confused with buying TZ20 & TZ30. I not a professional photographer. I need only for family function & travel. I my country I can buy a TZ20 less by USD150. If there is big difference in quality and function than I will go for TZ30. What is your suggestion?
can i ask something about cam.....where can i turn on/off the O.I.S on my tz30??? bcoz i get some trouble while taking pictures inside the church,with flash the background gets dimmed or under xposure....thankz again.. :(
I was really enjoying this P button video, until the moment you said, 'lets take a meter reading' after you'd set 800, so we can make sure it never goes below 1/16 of a second. It looked from the video as if you were pressing the quick menu button again at bottom right to do this. Only when I did that on my TZ30 (having also selected 800 to keep up with you) it just keeps going back to the list, with no sign of F or speed at the bottom? What have I missed?
If only it was that simple a choice. the sony video is much better however the stills are better on the TZ30 in my opinion. I guess it depends now on which is the primary use - stills or video
There have been hundreds of messages to Panasonic regarding their manuals. It seems they are not that interested in making life easy for new camera owners :(
Your videos are helpful but seems like you would have to have an encyclopedic brain and great memory to be able remember all the details in these videos just to be able to understand and remember all the very complicated technical features of this camera !! Much prefer the older and far simpler 35 mm SLR's of the 1980s, got far better results as well ! Little wonder that the vast majority of camera owners dont even use 95% of these features on these modern digital cameras, just stick them on auto or video record. The manual is 196 pages long and much of it is complete gobbledygook !
Super..
After all this years, I couldn’t find any one explain that so clearly, so useful like yours..
Many many thanks
This is incredibly helpful. I have owned my ZS7 for almost 3 years and I love it, but I had no idea how to do any of this with it. I feel like I just bought a brand new camera! Thank you so much for your videos.
This is a great series of videos! I bought this camera for my wife and after using it for a little while I'm loving it (more than my Nikon DSLR!). Your videos are teaching me a ton of stuff I didn't know about this wonderful camera. THANKS!!!
Hi Graham, Thanks for the wonderful tutorials. Your hint on Focus Pulling was just awesome, I would have never found out on my own. At the same time I am loving taking stills (using touch) while shooting the videos. Hope to learn more powerful techniques from you.
Graham... thanks very much for this series on the ZS20. It is an excellent tutorial with straightforward instruction on how to use the camera, its functions, and guidance to achieving the results wanted. Bravo!
I am still new to this. Can not wait to try this out. Thank you
Hi thanks for the comment, appreciated. The TZ series doesn't feature program shift as in the FZ series so the P mode is essentially iA without the camera applying all the other digital effects. You can download a manual from Panasonic wed site they are all there and of course free.
Just bought a TZ30 and your videos are so useful...thanks very much. Look forward to progressing with them!
It's disappointing that when you pay £200 for a camera, Panasonic only give you an operating manual on disc - it's so much easier to sit and fiddle around with a book on your lap!
Thanks again!
Thanks, appreciate the feedback on the series and hope you enjoy the remainder.
Great tutorial Graham - I was slightly disappointed with my iAuto pictures on my TZ27, but after watching your video, the picture quality has improved a great deal. Thank you!
Many thanks for the feedback on this series of videos. I hope you enjoy the rest of the tutorials.
You are welcome, thanks for the comment.
I still come back to these videos, cause I'm still using this camera, and I sometimes leave it so long I forget how to use it
Graham thanks again these tutorials are fantastic.
Hi Graham, this is superb! There are features on compact cameras that I've never understood but you are covering them one by one in this series... much appreciated. The histogram now makes more sense.
Might be worth changing the series title to 'Understanding the compact camera (TZ30/ZS20)' to reach a wider audience since many of these features are universal (I changed to the Sony HX20 but these videos are still relevant). Thanks again.
Thanks, Graham... I thought that might be the case. It seems that Panasonic would have provided a way to turn the touch to focus feature off so. I called tech support, got a guy who had to go check with someone else and the best answer was to select another of the five auto focus modes but none of them allow you to simply disable the touch feature.
thank u for the advice mr graham it helps me a lot but to be hones while ive been on holidays i didnt have time to change the settings all tyhe time so i was takng pics on auto and during daylight the pics r superb especially when u watching them on full hd 50* tv
i dont regret even a penny which i sent on this camera :)
Hi, as I said in the video the iA mode gives superb results in most instances, and in some lighting gives the best images. It is only when the scene is wrongly recognised that the other manual modes might give better IQ. This is a great compact travel camera. thanks for the comment.
Hi Ian, yes I use spot AF as this allows me to chose more precisely the point I want to be in focus. In general I use full area metering unless the subject is not normal and then use centre weighted. I use digital zoom but limit it to about x 1.5 ( say x30 on the scale. The image quality is very usable in this case.
Hi thanks for the question. This is down to what's called the 'format' of the image. The 3 main formats are 3:2 (which was the 35mm film standard) 4:3 (film/television) and 16:9 (HDTV).
When I take images mostly they are used in HD projects so 16:9 is the best choise as it gives full frame compatible high resolution images. If you shoot the 4:3 format 14M image it doesn't fit a 16:9 format HD project so it has to be 'letterboxed' and you end up with black bars on either side of the image. ..cont
Thanks for the comment, appreciated. This camera is limited to 8 seconds exposure in the night scenery mode so I guess this would be insufficient to record what you want. I cannot think of a work around for this at the moment, sorry can't help you here.
Dear Graham
Superb and very detailed information.
Hi Richard, the touch to focus is always enabled it is the touch to shoot which you can turn on and off. I don't have this camera now so I can't check if there are anyways of turning that feature off.
I was a bit baffled by the bracketing capabilities, this video explained it perfectly.
Thank you, have now subscribed and look forward to your videos in understanding the TZ30
Regards
Gary.
Thanks Gary for posting a reply to the series, appreciated
Hi the photofun studio disk which comes with the camera offers a facility to make DVD and to edit (basic) the avchd footage and also it has a decent avchd viewer. I use it all the time to imprt and view my stills and video. It is also a good catalog system for your pc images and video
Hi thanks for the comments. There is no "fade to back" in these simple cameras. I do all the fades in the editing program.
The GFS video mode gives you geo-tagged 1080i video clips. The PSH is non tagged progressive recording which gives the best video quality from this camera - both bit rate and definition.
Hi the histogram shows yellow if you have EV adjustment. Learning to read the histogram takes some practice. Not all scenes have a full tonal range. For example a snow scene would be all whites so the histogram will only show the peaks on the right and no central grey tones. Similarly night scenes would show a left biased distribution. If you can spot medium grey tones then these should lie halfway on the curve and adjusting the EV to get them there should help overall exposure
Many thanks for the comment.
Thank you, I appreciate this comment as it is what the channel is all about.
Super hepfull keep doing more videos like this dude!
Thanks Graham! Fantastic explanation of things! Appreciate your effort
Thanks Richard, may be they will think of this feature in the next version ( after the ZS30 (TZ40) just announced
Yes I can recommend the ZS20 (TZ30) the camera has now become a very strong contender in the pocket/travel zoom class.
The tz30 has a lot more manual adjustments available to use for some creative work and it produces marginally better stills. Low light video is slightly better on the Sx260 but otherwise there is little to choose between thm
Thanks ! That was a great vid ! Looking forward to the next !
Thanks for the feedback, i have done a mini series on the HX9v which is similar to the HX20 - that might be more relevant to you. You will find them in the HX9v playlists. Graham
I don't think you can turn image stabilisation off in the tz30. If you are taking indoor pictures without the flash the exposures will be longer than normal hand held shots you may need to support the camera on something to get blur free images. try the hand held night shot int the scene menu as this will give better results.
In very low light you are best leaving the camera in iA mode as it will revert to candlelight mode which is the most sensitive mode. Otherwise you might try the hand held nite shot which will take a series of images, process them into 1 image and apply some noise reduction. However don't expect the camera to perform very well in this low light situation
I'm, preparring the next stage of the tutorial and it will show you how to use filters fairly easily with this great camera, should be available shortly.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciated
Thanks, appreciate your comment.
You will need to use the M mode, set it to wide angle and use the camera on a firm surface ( if you have no tripod) you can experiment with shutter speeds up to 15 seconds in this mode. Use the self timer to take the shot to prevent any shake as you press the shutter button
You need to select the MP4 video recording mode and 480p is available as the last option in the menu.
Excellent videos. You've opened up my camera knowledge to a while new level. Off to try my skills now. Thanks. Are you from Bolton? I recognise a lot of scenery!
No problem, thanks for the reply.
I hope you find that using this mode will help you create better images with this camera.
..cont. So it really choose the right format for the output device. If you want prints from images use 3:2 or 4:3 depending upon the format of your paper 4x6 inch (100x160mm) would use 3:2 for example.
For anything that is hd related such as playing still on your tv or editing into a hd video for youtube then use 16:9. The crops are from the same sensor so there is no change in quality from a 14M 4:3 or a 16:9 10.5m image. Hope that helps.
There is a microsoft free program called ICE an Image Composite Editor ( google microsoft ice) which allows you to assemble images together so it might be worth downloading.
Thanks Graham,wanted to use more than just the IA setting so started to use P mode using exposure compensation and iso settings and found results better .. when the histogram turns yellow after compensation etc does that mean it does not recommend that setting that's been manually put in..and does white mean ok?..also on the histogram is it better to have even balance of blacks and whites in the centre of the histogram display .. .. thanks again for your help.
your comment is appreciated, thank you.
That's correct it stands for Optical Image Stabilisation.
Thank you for your videos.
Armando
Mexico
There is a miniature mode but not time lapse on the TZ30
Hi graham,
Have you decided against doing a tutorial or two for the SX220 Canon? It would be nice if you could do one.
Hi again Graham,firstly thankyou for all your advice about this great camera..i noticed you use spot AF,would you say this gives the best AF results in terms of speed and results?.which metering would be best when using spot AF in the p mode or is it a case of adjusting it to multi for landscape type and centre weighted for portrait shots and close ups of a particular subject...Finally I noticed when using digital zoom the quality deteriorates,so is it best just to stick to the 20x zoom instead.
hello mr graham i wondered when u were using tz30 in automode why youre not using 14m? only 10.5m mode? whats the different between them? im guessing that 14m is better quality of pic or not? and why by 10.5 there is no frame when i put the pic on the tv and by 14 there is? anyway thanks to u mr graham im slowly starting to understand my new camera and im looking forward to next episodes. i really appreciate your hard work which youre putting in those videos :)
Now re-watched the beginning, and it reminded me I need to half press shutter button, so all is well now :)
Thanks Alison for the comment, and yes I'm a Horwich lad.
Very instructive And you use plain English! Good work! Please may I ask a question?
I have no manual with my s/hand TZ10: In P mode can shutter speed and aperture be linked like in the FZ28? The TZ30 seems similar to the TZ10 in case your wondering why I'm asking the question here.
I'm afraid it is limited to just cuts, titles and picture in picture at the moment.
@Graham Houghton oh man.....thankz a lot for helping en xplaning me..i really really appreciate it... ;-)
Graham... why does the focus point change when I accidentally touch the screen even with the touch screen feature turned off? I experience this problem when I'm carrying the camera, turned on, in my hand and my thumb unintentionally touches the screen thereby moving the focus point from the center. Thanks for any help on this.
Hello Graham! I live in Norfolk where we have big skies. I used to use a polarising fliter to emphasise the clouds. How can I achieve this on the TZ30? Is it to be found in one of the scene settings? Michael
Hello, I hope this message finds you in good health.
I've just purchased a tz30 and would like to know if you can focus it manually?
Any pointers would be great. 🙏
I really rate this camera, its a great compact! Thanks for this video its really helpful :-)
Hi Graham,
A dumb question :)Just got this a week back. I am not able to figure out how to shoot videos in very low light.
Hi Graham thanks for this video..I am confused with buying TZ20 & TZ30. I not a professional photographer. I need only for family function & travel. I my country I can buy a TZ20 less by USD150. If there is big difference in quality and function than I will go for TZ30. What is your suggestion?
can i ask something about cam.....where can i turn on/off the O.I.S on my tz30???
bcoz i get some trouble while taking pictures inside the church,with flash the background gets dimmed or under xposure....thankz again.. :(
Thanks, How do I find the miniture mode?
Thank you in advance
Hi no its still on the list, just wanted to finish a few other projects first.
Hello Sir,
Is there a minture/time lapse on my TX 30?
Thanks.
Thank You
I was really enjoying this P button video, until the moment you said, 'lets take a meter reading' after you'd set 800, so we can make sure it never goes below 1/16 of a second. It looked from the video as if you were pressing the quick menu button again at bottom right to do this. Only when I did that on my TZ30 (having also selected 800 to keep up with you) it just keeps going back to the list, with no sign of F or speed at the bottom? What have I missed?
Hello Sir,i need your help.I want a buy Panasonic TZ30 or Canon SX260HS,so witch one it's better ?
Hi Graham,can you help me in my choice,Panasonic TZ30 or Canon SX260HS,thank you very mouch.
Thank you.
Hello Sir How do I find the minture mode on my TZ30 please.
Thanks very much :) :)
Hey. Can you tel how I record video in 480p pls
u mean o.i.s is stabilization for hand shaking????
am i right?? :)
Really please i could help you with your camera, thanks for the comment.
Hello Graham
I am confused in between sony HX20v and panasonic TZ30(ZS20).
which camera is better in image and video quality?
If only it was that simple a choice. the sony video is much better however the stills are better on the TZ30 in my opinion. I guess it depends now on which is the primary use - stills or video
There have been hundreds of messages to Panasonic regarding their manuals. It seems they are not that interested in making life easy for new camera owners :(
Your videos are helpful but seems like you would have to have an encyclopedic brain and great memory to be able remember all the details in these videos just to be able to understand and remember all the very complicated technical features of this camera !! Much prefer the older and far simpler 35 mm SLR's of the 1980s, got far better results as well ! Little wonder that the vast majority of camera owners dont even use 95% of these features on these modern digital cameras, just stick them on auto or video record. The manual is 196 pages long and much of it is complete gobbledygook !