I used to live near an industrial gas supply company, you know, the kind of place you take your gas grill propane tank to be refilled. Well, one hot summer day I was waiting in traffic and happened to be in front of this place. This company has a giant propane holding tank in front, painted to look like an enormous hot dog, complete with bun and mustard. I was in my convertible with my DSLR on the seat next to me. I don’t know about you, but as a photographer, I can’t avoid taking pictures of goofy thing, so I snapped a few. Without me realizing I was arousing anyone’s suspicion, an alert citizen took my license number and reported me to the Department of Homeland Security!

A couple days later and blissfully unaware that I’d been reported, I get home from work and grab mail out of the box. There’s a business card in there from an FBI agent, with a message scrawled on the back, “Please call me.” Not bad for a practical joke, I think, as I promptly forget the card. Next day, I get home from work and ask my son how school was. “Okay,” he says, then adds, “Two guys from the FBI were here looking for you.” Hmmm. Maybe I should call that number.

Now realize that I had no idea why the FBI would want to talk to me. I always try to cut the mustard legally, so I thought maybe this might be about the recent drug raid on the house next door. (Though I didn’t know the neighbors very well, it gave me an odd feeling to come home and see the head of household being led to a police car in handcuffs. As he sheepishly nodded to me and gave me a little wave with a cuffed hand, I felt like yelling, “I do not know this man!”)

But it wasn’t about drugs, it was about dogs—hot dogs, to be precise. I called the locally-based FBI agent and introduced myself. To the best of my recollection, here’s how the conversation went:

FBI: “Mr. Snyder, you were observed photographing something over the weekend.”
PHOTOGRAPHER: “Uh…. photographing what? I take a lot of pictures.”
FBI: “It was an industrial site.”

Normally I take a lot of pictures, so I really had no idea what he was talking about.

PHOTOGRAPHER: “Could you be more specific? I take a lot of pictures.”
FBI: “Do you” (he replies, in what appears to be the character of Mr. Bookman, the Seinfeld library detective).
PHOTOGRAPHER: (Pause while thinking) ”Where was this?”
FBI: “Near where you live.”

Hmmm, knows where I live…or he’s bluffing…then it hits me and I exclaim:

PHOTOGRAPHER: “Oh! You’re talking about that giant hot dog…?”
FBI: (Silence)
PHOTOGRAPHER: “At the propane place?”
FBI: “Go on…” (he said, in the manner of Sgt. Joe Friday from the old Dragnet TV series).At this point I rattle off my explanation that as an amateur photographer being stuck in traffic, I was unable to resist photographing this silly hot dog which was obviously put there for people to notice and be amused by…I start laughing and realize by his profound lack of emotion that I was just digging myself in deeper. Assuming I was either a lunatic, a terrorist, or both, he continues:

FBI: “The fact that you work for a hospital makes this even more suspicious.”
PHOTOGRAPHER: “Um…what? Why?” (I stammer, as I realized they’ve investigated me!)

Once you know what “it” is, you can commence to talk your way out of it—its just so much easier to get forgiveness than permission. This guy got the report of someone not-so-covertly photographing an industrial complex, but never actually went there himself! Not having seen the giant wiener, I guess he didn’t realize how silly this all sounded. So I offer:

PHOTOGRAPHER: “Look, its just that there’s this giant hot dog there smiling for all the world to see and…”
FBI: (Humorless, he says)”What do you plan to do with the pictures? Have you printed them?”

I didn’t want to broach the subject of digital cameras or JPEGS so I just said:

PHOTOGRAPHER: “I rarely print what I shoot because, well, I just shoot on impulse (perhaps a poor choice of words) and I have thousands of images—“
FBI: “If your story checks out, you won’t be hearing from us again. You will, however, be getting some calls from other agencies. Keep my card and when they contact you, just give them my name and tell them you’ve spoken to me.” (Hangs up—no fanfare, no twenty-one bun salute)

Conclusion

I guess my “story” checked out, as I was never questioned again. They must have verified the existence of the giant hot dog and determined that I wasn’t much of a threat to society. So the FBI has a file on me, due mainly to the paranoia paradigm shift of our post-9/11 world. At some point, I may have promised Sgt. Friday that I would not do anything with the pictures I took, and I’ve been true to my word. They are lost among the thousands of other nonsensical images I’ve captured over the years. So for your benefit, I went back and took other pictures for this article.

Since this all happened, I’ve been chased from other random sites by police and other defenders of our homeland—from refineries, power plants, even the Lincoln Tunnel! It seems I never learn from my mistakes—always crashing in the same car, to quote David Bowie. Last winter, I was clawing my way through traffic trying to leave Manhattan, when I got stuck at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Camera at the ready, I start snapping pictures of this great landmark when a police officer yells at me, comes over to the car and says, “Can’t take photographs of bridges or tunnels in New York City.” What’s this world coming to? Seemingly innocent actions at one time appear doubtful at another, like photographing children. Want to grab that photo op? Take a bite out of that hot dog with your name on it? Be careful my photographer friend, as it may bite back!

Paranoia Epilogue

As an aside, a few weeks after my run-in with the “Bureau,” I found this little squeak toy between the seats in my car. Now, here’s the deal: I only told the FBI story to a handful of people. A few of them know where I park my car in South Philly (I walk the rest of the way to work). Even fewer know that I leave my car unlocked (due to a break-in a few years ago which left my ragtop slashed). So, it follows that one of these people planted the item in question. Who was the perp? To this day, no one has fessed up to the deed, but it taught me something—it doesn’t take much to make you paranoid.

Currently, there is an undercurrent of clever and artistic prose, photography, and video hidden among the customer product reviews on Amazon’s site. These “Customer Reviews” can be submitted by anyone who registers with Amazon as a customer. Near the end of January 2010 it came to my attention that we are in the midst of a groundswell of creativity and cleverness with regard to these reviews. A few of the products with fictitious and/or hysterically funny reviews include a laptop writing desk you attach to a steering wheel, dead rabbits, milk, and Bic pens.

Customers can also upload photos (shown as thumbnails below the main photo of the product on that product’s main Amazon page), which are apropos of the product, in many wonderful and twisted ways. For example, these are some of the photos included in the review of the writing desk.

Now, you would assume the pictures would tell the whole story regarding this ridiculous product, but no. Customers describe their experiences using it as a mobile bar, changing table for baby, and work surface for model ship building!

The “Raven”-esque review of Tuscan Milk by “Edgar” of “Baltimore” is beautifully written and worthy of national attention. The review of rabbit meat “mistakenly” purchased as a children’s gift at Easter is pointed commentary on our gullible and litigious society (as is the Bic pen review by the dissatisfied customer who found the pen to only function as advertised if used in one hand, but not the other).

And then there was video! An astute consumer friend of mine steered me to the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt video review! Classic! If you’ve ever wondered who would actually wear a shirt like this, the review is a testimonial to the shirt’s power: “This video is living proof that you will get women, and fly.”

Certainly I don’t want to stem the tide of creativity by bringing Amazon’s attention to all this but it does beg the question, ‘who’s monitoring all the product reviews, videos, and photographs people upload?’ Can I add a review easily? Are the products real (a gallon of milk for $67.99)? Why are some “reviewed” products featured in the “reviews” of other products (product placement of Tuscan milk in the Three Wolf Moon review)? Are we on the verge of a conspiracy to overtake Madison Avenue? Are all the fake reviews written by one person, or a secret braintrust in some remote hideaway? What do the actual makers of these products think of the reviews, assuming they even know? Why am I going on and on about this? One thing is certain, there is no such thing as ‘bad’ advertising! If it brings attention to your product, it’s all good! Such creativity is sure to bring more traffic to Amazon’s site.

In conclusion, I’ve been wondering how to find the reviews that are worth reading. I haven’t searched them out myself–people send me the links (Special thanks to my astute observer friends, Tom, Patricia, and Mike). It seems just about everyone knows of one. How many are there? Dozens? Thousands?! So far, I’ve collected five. If you know of one, email me the link (via the “Contact” tab on this page) and I will compile a list for our collective enjoyment!

Photography Exhibit
by Ed Snyder

Exhibit Location:

Mugshots Coffeehouse
2100 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19130
Phone: 267.514.7145

(21st and Fairmount, across from Eastern State Penitentiary)

**Free Opening Reception: July 9, at 7 p.m.**

Ever come across some unexposed expired film? Instead of relegating it to a landfill somewhere, why not shoot it? You may be pleasantly surprised by the results!

Exhibit runs July 5 – August 1, 2009Old technologies never die when they get repurposed through artistic endeavor. I find new uses for outdated film, exploiting its degradation to give me a high-contrast effect not easily achieved in the exacting world of digital photography (to me this is more ecologically and artistically sound than burying the film in a landfill). Digging into antiquated film technology allows me to create some unpredictably unique imagery, especially when I shoot the film in a Holga (120mm toy plastic) camera and cross-process it. Often the colors shift and the world gets grainier—a virtual reality that I find more appealing than actual reality.

When does the “Decisive Moment” Happen?

Many great photographs were made in this manner, though not out of sheer luck. Usually, they’re pre-composed, i.e. the photographer was ready and waiting for the magic to happen. Whether a breaching whale or a baby staring directly at the camera, once you miss that fleeting moment, it’s gone forever. So important was the idea of the “Decisive Moment” that the great street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote an entire book describing it!

Anatomy of the “Jaws” Image

Note the determined look on the man’s face, which is not incongruous with the background image painted on the wall of the building. You’ll agree that this juxtaposition makes the photograph. Was it planned? Not at all. But I had to be ready for it if it happened! Therefore, for this kind of street photography to be a success, there’s obviously more involved than just being in the right place at the right time. You need to pick a location, a background or setting with which to work. Then you hope something magical happens.

I choose this mural and shot several images as people passed by. I got lucky with this particular guy, who looks so determined and in a hurry. The fact that his jaw resembles that of the mural skull was an added bonus! I shot the image from my car window with a Canon Rebel XT DSLR with a 28-135mm lens zoomed all the way out. The photo is uncropped. I decided ahead of time that I wanted the mural in focus rather than the passersby, since I didn’t necessarily want the people to be recognizable. Therefore I switched the lens to manual focus and preset it for the mural. (The fact that I was using a zoom forced me to use critical focusing, as a long zoom’s depth of field can be very shallow.) To further blur the person, I used a relatively slow shutter speed, 1/30 second.

Now, you can try just the opposite in your own experimentation with such photojournalistic street photography. Pre-focus on something closer in order to get the passersby crisp, which will cause the background to blur (assuming you’re using a zoom). Either is acceptable. If you’re shooting close to your subject (a la Gary Winogrand), perhaps you can just shoot with a wide angle lens. This way, everything from maybe four feet to infinity will be in focus.

Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, and Brassai

Many great photographs were made by pre-composing a scene, then shooting at the decisive moment. For further illustration (and much better examples of the genre than I can provide), please see the works of master photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Brassai. As you look at their imagery, notice how much of the composition is provided by the background, as opposed to the supposed “subject.” Realize that a true artistic composition is just that, a whole composed of lesser parts. Would my photo of the walking man be of any interest at all if not for the background? Would the background hold its own as a still life? Probably not.

Finding Your Own Way To Shooting the “Decisive Moment”

The photographers mentioned above are famous for capturing street scenes in imaginative and highly artistic ways. Studying their work can help add a new dimension to your own photography.

Realize that while emulation may be a sincere form of praise, people who practice specific techniques (as these folks do a la Cartier-Bresson) may achieve sadly derivative results. It’s really best to study the masters then find your own way. It’s been said that photography is like writing. Everybody can do it, but almost nobody should. If you want something more than a snapshot, concentrate on composition. You’ll also notice that very few of the examples I’ve shown are in color. That’s because black and white adds artistic abstraction to almost any image; color tends to make almost everything look snapshoddy.

Practice with your Digital Camera

You can shoot weddings with your point-and-shoot digital camera, but you should really practice ahead of time. Take pictures of your friends, and get good at being quick-on-the-draw. The action at weddings (and especially receptions) happens quickly and you need to be ready. You can easily miss that once-in-a-lifetime moment if you’re busy fumbling trying to get the red-eye reduction to turn off (and just flash, darn it!). This happened to a friend of mine who missed the moment his son was handed his high school diploma on stage! So if you don’t agree with author Salman Rushdie that it cleanses the soul to accept defeat, better learn how to use that camera!

Positioning yourself for the Optimal Photograph

A key element in getting a great photo is timing. Whether you want candid or posed photos, the advantage is yours if you know ahead of time what events will take place and when. You can then physically position yourself for a good shot of people walking down the aisle, cutting the cake, etc. It’s also good practice to realize that there may be solemn moments (signing the katubah, exchanging vows) when you should keep your camera off! Many times the professional wedding photographer will reenact certain scenes with the participants after the ceremony. This is a great time for the novice photographer to hang out, get some photos, and learn a few things about positioning, lighting, and the equipment involved in the real deal.

Lighting

No camera is smart enough to take great pictures under all conditions. All automatic cameras take great photos outdoors in the bright sunlight. The wheels fall off when the light becomes more challenging, i.e., when it is relatively dim, like in a church or synagogue. That being the case, you must decide whether you want to use flash or make available-light photographs. Flash is best for natural-looking illumination and stopping action, but it may be a no-no during the ceremony. You should check with the celebrants beforehand. Available-light photography demands high light sensitivity (camera with ISO settings upwards of 1600) and white balance control. Most cameras can adjust white balance for fluorescent or tungsten light (to avoid the respective greenish and orangey hues).

Most digital point-and-shoots have a high ISO limit of 400. Also, these cameras tend to produce noisy mottled images at high ISO settings. Here’s an example of an available-light photo made with a point-and-shoot camera. Just not sensitive enough to bring out much detail in this dimly-lit scene at left. You could do some work on it in a photo-editing program and make it look better (at right), but do you really want to be bothered with all that post-processing work?

What kind of camera is best for wedding photography?

A digital SLR would be best because of its high ISO (light sensitivity of 1600 or 3200), and better image quality at high ISO settings. The drawback with a DSLR is that you can’t really have much more than what amounts to maybe a X4 zoom. Still, some form of image stabilization is preferred. Point-and-shoot cameras boast X10 zooms, but as you’ll see, there are drawbacks.

Zoom in for detail!

Everyone loves to do this since we can’t always be where the action is. However, a X10 zoom requires some sort of image stabilization in the camera. Otherwise, your available-light images can easily be blurred. You’ll always get a better shot if you just walk right up to the person or object and shoot without using the zoom.

Catching the Action at Weddings

Under available light, you’re much better off with a DSLR. At a high ISO setting, you can shoot with aperture wide open and relatively fast shutter speed, say 1/125 second. If you can use flash, point-and-shoots work fine, providing you know how to use the different flash modes. One way to make the most of the “walking down the aisle” action is to shoot the procession head-on. Motion is stopped much easier if the person is walking toward you than across your field of vision.

Outdoor Wedding Photography

In the spring and summer, there’s generally lots of sunlight, so the amateur wedding photographer is in much better shape lighting-wise. Still, there are a few things to keep in mind– unless you’re in the open sunlight, whites will look blue in the shade, and you may still need to shoot at as high an ISO. Also, as you can see that this photo (w10) would have been better if some fill-flash had been used. Post-wedding photos are often shot outdoors in some park. While the professional wedding photographer is positioning people and shooting away, feel free to shoot the scenes from behind the pro. That person is doing a lot of the work for you, but do stay out of the way—someone’s paying the photographer a lot of money by the hour!

In Summary

Don’t be shy or self-conscious about taking pictures at a wedding. Everyone expects to be photographed!

The Mid-sized Digital Camera

First of all, consider buying a mid-sized fixed-lens camera like the Olympus SP-560UZ 8MP or theCanon Powershot G9. The former is built like a half-size SLR; the latter like an overgrown pocket camera. Both can be used as point-and-shoots, while delivering photo quality far superior to most smaller pocket cameras. While you will most certainly get better results with a DSLR (e.g. the Nikon D40 ), once you connect a good (but bulky) lens to it, you’re lugging around al of weight. The problem with most small and cheap pocket cameras? Picture quality stinks and they’re usually not smart enough to give you good results under poor lighting conditions. The mid-sized cameras above are very high quality and have both have long image-stabilized zooms.

Basic Rules

• Shoot with the sun at your back. This illuminates the subject. Otherwise, you get a silouette!
• Shoot at the edges of the day. Early morning and late afternoon provide the most dramatic lighting and colors.
• Know how to use the flash modes on your camera correctly. There’s nothing worse than missing your shot because you were in red-eye mode when you didn’t need to be!
• Minimize distraction in your photos, especially when it comes to background.
• Make your photos interesting by zooming in for detail or shooting at an odd angle (like the panorama beach scene of the happy family above). Otherwise your photos will just look like typical postcards.
• Shooting a sunrise or sunset? Bracket your exposures. Set your +/-EV or Av a couple steps to the “-“ side. This will keep the bright sun from washing out your photo.
• Trying to photograph someone against that sunset? Shoot with fill flash to light the foreground subject while keeping the sunset properly exposed.

Creativity

One of the best things about going away, anywhere, is that the new locale can spark creativity. Simply being in a new place makes things look more interesting than what you’re used to!

Shooting Scenery

Landscapes are generally shot horizontally, while most other images pack a bigger punch when shot vertically.

Shooting People

• Practice not chopping off their heads (unless your intent is to protect their privacy!).
• If shooting groups of people, make sure your camera has a wide enough angle lens to get everything in.



• Although it’s tempting to photograph the native people, be respectful of their privacy.

Shooting Yourself

Want a shot of your family in front of that landmark? Don’t be so quick to hand your camera to a stranger. You might consider using the self-timer (or invest in an IR remote) so you can set up the camera up a few yards away, then get yourself back in the picture.

Speaking of Safety

…
When getting off a subway train, keep the camera out of sight. A friend of mine had her camera strap cut and camera stolen just as she got off the train! Door closed, away went the camera. In fact, I had my first digital camera stolen at an outdoor rock concert. Had it hanging from my shoulder; next thing I knew, there it wasn’t!

Nothing provides new photographic opportunities better than a change of scenery. If you can’t afford a trip abroad, then a change of season will do. Springtime in the Northeastern United States is a good example. With azaleas, dogwoods, and cherry blossoms in bloom, the world just looks like a better place! And why not capture it in photographs?

Now, I know it’s very tempting to shoot the whole bush or tree to capture the grandeur in its entirety. But then you end up with something very snapshoddy like this photo at right. Instead, close in on some detail. Flowers are beautiful artistic creations in their own right. Consider using the camera to do more than document the obvious. Take the dogwoods above–their undersides were shot straight up with the sun illuminating the flowers from above!

Shooting in Macro Mode:

Following are some tips for shooting flowers. Since most are closeups, lets talk a little about the equipment required for this. It’s very simple: Point-and-shoot cameras work better than SLRs for close-up work. Their macro modes are usually so good you can usually get within an inch of your subject! The caveat is that depth of field is usually very shallow in macro mode. This makes your focus is very critical—the foreground may be sharp, but an object a few inches away will be blurred (like the flowers at left). The other thing to keep in mind is that most macro modes on point-and-shoots won’t work with the lens zoomed out, so keep it retracted. An alternative is to zoom in from a few feet away, but then you have camera shake to deal with. Either way, it’s a good idea to have image stabilization.

Tips for Shooting Flowers:

• Flowers are the one thing I shoot in color. Unless there’s a tremendous amount of contrast in the shades of the flower itself, or between the flower and its background (see the Black and White flowers above) – shapes, contrast, and compositional elements like the rule of thirds are all more critical when shooting black and white. (Notice the commanding presence offered by the larger flower in the right third of the frame.)
• Get close – Bees and bugs give scale to your flower. They also add an additional element of interest to your composition!
• Shoot up – Simply place your camera in macro mode and lay it in the grass facing up at the flowers. No, you don’t need to look through the viewfinder. Take a few shots at slightly different angles. (Make sure you keep the camera steady.) Review your work after a few shots and adjust your controls as necessary to get some cool shots.
• Shoot at the edges of the day. See how the sun creates shadows and adds depth to the dogwoods above? With a lot of contrast, you may have to play with your +/- Av or Ev setting here.
• As with any photograph, consider your background. It can add or detract from your composition. Occasionally, a curiously juxtaposed background or other picture element can really give your photo punch! (You don’t often see roses growing through razor wire.)

Finally…

Springtime can be breezy. Be aware of your camera’s shutter speed! On a windless day, you can shoot at slow speeds (though you’d need a small tripod for anything less than 1/60 second. Windy days are generally not good for flower shots. Consider plucking a few and putting them in a vase. Shoot them on your windowsill from inside your house!

The alien life form the girl is holding happens to be an Egyptian hairless cat (a breed made popular as “Mr. Bigglesworth,” Austin Powers’ cat). I happened to walk into a pet supply shop last summer (which will forever puzzle historians, as I do not own a pet) and saw this creature slinking around (the cat, that is, not the girl). Amber, an employee, offered to hold the cat so I could get a photo. Always carry your camera—you never know when an opportunity might present itself! We went outside in the sunlight so I could use a slow ISO for a sharper image. The image was captured with a Canon Rebel XT armed with a Canon image stabilized 28 – 135 mm zoom.

Why Pet Photography is Easy

• For the most part, animals don’t require model releases.

• We don’t perceive them to have a “good” side, like people do.

• Most pets are cute, and therefore photogenic. Try to catch them doing something cute (like this chihuahua drinking water), and the cuteness factor increases exponentially.

• Unusual pets make for unusual photographs. Imagine my surprise when I saw this cockatoo sitting on the side view mirror of a pickup truck parked in a convenience store parking lot! Pet owners are usually quite proud of their pets and are often flattered when you ask to photograph them. You might possibly offer to email the owner a copy of the photo as a JPEG as a gesture of good will. Many owners like to have photos of their pets.

Why Pet Photography is Difficult

• Unless you’re photographing a well-trained beast with its human handler by its side, you’re not going to be able to control your subject very much. That’s why you need to know how to use your gear correctly and quickly. Animals move without much warning!

• Some pets may try to eat you. You might need to befriend the animal’s owner before you can get the photo you desire. Still, be careful—don’t poke the bear.

• If you’re after more than a snapshot, creating an artistic composition requires more skill. The image at left depicts a cat with sutures–post-cancer surgery—and its loving owner. When creating a black and white image, it helps to have a subject with varying contrast. This photo would have had nowhere near the impact had the cat been totally black. Dark haired or dark skinned animals are more challenging to photograph; lighting becomes critical for bringing out detail.

All the images you see here were captured with existing light. Flash and studio lighting are topics unto themselves.

So you’re looking for a camera more sophisticated than a pocket-sized point-and-shoot, but don’t want to deal with the big bucks and big size of an SLR? This camera may be for you. The Panasonic DMC-FZ30 falls into the category of mid-sized, fixed-lens digital cameras—a bit more camera than a pocket point-and-shoot, yet smaller than an SLR. Price-wise, the FZ30 falls between the two: around $500 for the FZ30S (silver body) and $900 for the FZ30K (black body).

Mid-sized Digital Cameras: Are They Worth the Money?

Before we get into the technicalities, let me just say a few things about this genre of camera. It’s very easy to be awestruck by the bells, whistles, and super-long zooms typical of these cameras. But at the end of the day, you’ve bought yourself either a huge glorified point-and-shoot, or a pseudo-SLR without the associated image quality and the flexibility if interchangeable lenses.

They’re tempting, let me tell you! I believe these cameras exist for two reasons:

1. It’s physically impossible to put a X12 zoom on a little pocket point-and-shoot.
2. It’s extremely expensive to get a DSLR with a X12 zoom.

Life is all about compromise, isn’t it?

Light Sensitivity and Image Quality

The other major technical difference between the mid-sized digitals and the other two types is the size of the image sensor. Mid-sized Digital Cameras have image sensors similar in size to point-and-shoots. Image sensors in DSLRs are much bigger, thereby producing greater light sensitivity and better image quality. This means, that with a DSLR, you can take pictures in dim light and overall, the resolution of all your images will be better.

Mid-sized digitals share a major drawback with digital point-and-shoots
Due to their small sized image sensor, these cameras seldom have light sensitivity greater than 400 ISO (a DSLR will be 1600 or more). Also because of the small image sensor, picture quality of these cameras is about the same as that of a point-and-shoot (inferior to that of a DSLR).

Comparing large image sensor pixel count to small image sensor pixel count

But wait—these days you can get digital point-and-shoot cameras as well as mid-sized digital cameras with 10 Megapixel resolution. Surely the images acquired by these cameras must be better than those shot with a lowly 7 Megapixel DSLR? Ah, the ad campaigns would certainly have you believing this, now wouldn’t they? Unfortunately this is comparing apples to oranges. It is simply incorrect to compare large image sensor pixel count to small image sensor pixel count! Partly because the actual pixels are bigger in an SLR-sized image sensor, they can hold more information and are more light-sensitive. So for instance, you would get better image quality with the 7.5 MP Panasonic DMC-L1K DSLR than you would with Panasonic’s 10.2 MP Panasonic DMC-LX2S point-and-shoot.

When considering the Panasonic DMC-FZ30 for purchase:

Aside from all that esoteric squitter above, there are a few more things to consider when contemplating this particular camera for purchase. They’re not necessarily good or bad, but they are worth noting:

• Being a crossover camera (between a point-and-shoot and an SLR), the FZ-30 shares some advantages of both. For instance, you get movie mode and a live view LCD display like a pocket camera, yet superior lens quality and manual focus like an SLR.

• The camera is relatively light, yet large and bulky.

• There are many preset auto exposure modes–like portrait, snow, and sports–typical of any automatic camera. However, the FZ-30 has some quirky modes, e.g. food, panning, starry sky, fireworks, and baby. Virtually useless, since if you really don’t understand how a camera works, and the best you can do to photograph fireworks is to flick to “Fireworks” mode, you’re sure to be disappointed.

• There is no power zoom; you have to rotate the lens barrel to change focal length.

• The X12 lens is equivalent to that of a 35 mm film lens having a 35 – 420mm zoom. This is an enormous focal range and is one of the FZ-30’s most tempting attributes. It’s a relatively fast lens (f2.8) and is made by Leica, one of the best lens makers in the known galaxy. However, we forget the old rule of thumb about hand-holding a camera. With a 50mm lens, we can effectively hand-hold at shutter speeds above 1/50 second (the inverse of the lens focal length). If we try to hand-hold it at a shutter speed of 1/30 second, it’s likely the camera will move during exposure and we blur the image.

With the zoom of the FZ-30 fully extended to 420mm, we can only effectively hand-hold the camera during exposures at shutter speeds above 1/420 second (the camera has a shutter speed of 1/400 second). Image stabilization helps somewhat, by allowing you to shoot at one or two shutter speeds slower, perhaps at 1/250 second). So unless you have the camera mounted to a tripod, you need to be aware of your shutter speed. Luckily, even in Auto mode, The FZ-30 displays aperture (f-stop) and shutter speed on the LCD display.

I’ve used the FZ-30K several times over the past couple years; here are the highs and lows in my opinion:

The Good

• The fast (f2.8) X12 Leica zoom lens is one of the highest quality lenses I’ve ever seen on a fixed-lens camera.

• The ability to manually focus the lens (through the LCD display) is very easy and highly useful. Quite unusual to be able to do this with anything less than a DSLR.

• The lens’ macro mode is simply a joy to use. It can focus down to an inch!

• Controls and menus are relatively easy to operate and navigate. For instance, if you’re in Manual mode, front and rear thumb wheels control aperture and shutter speed, with both displayed on the LCD. This is way easier than on any DSLR I’ve used (such control being next to impossible on most point-and-shoots).

• Monochrome (black and white) image capture is available.

• Camera has a hot shoe for a larger flash unit

• Flip down, rotating viewing screen

• “Mode I” stabilizer works, “Mode 2” makes no perceptible difference.

• Did you know that one of the advantages of having an exposure “Burst” mode is that it gives the camera’s auto-focus system a couple chances to get it right? Burst means a few rapid succession exposures are acquired during the time you hold the shutter release button down. Some cameras adjust their focus point for each exposure. So you can look at three nearly identical images, and pick the one that looks the sharpest!

The Bad

• Time lag exists between when you push the shutter release and the image is captured, but this is true of all non-SLR digital cameras.

• Time lag at power-up, same reason as above.

• Light sensitivity is only 400 ISO max.

• Unwieldy, due to its bulk. Difficult to single-handedly operate the FZ30’s controls.

• Relatively small 2 inch image display – many digital cameras today boast a larger 2.5 inch display.

You know, the Panasonic DMC-FZ30 is not an SLR. It pretends to be one, but don’t be fooled. Like a digital point-and-shoot, this camera is essentially a video camera with still image capture. That’s why there’s a time lag between when you push the shutter release and the image is captured. If this camera had greater light sensitivity (1600 ISO) and an SLR-sized image sensor, it would be a terrific camera. But there are always compromises—you’d pay an arm and a leg for a DSLR with this kind of a lens!

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