Pictures - Human Rights Day March

This time, Panasonic FZ28 was used. Generally, it performed well. I could benefit from the zoom range: wide angle pictures along with far reached telephoto pictures. Exposure was good, where the camera exposed correctly subjects and throw out any background. Face detection was activated all time and assist setting the focus correctly. Some artifacts occurred when shooting with the sun - lens hood was not used. Auto focus was fast on wide angle and slower on telephoto.

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Selection was added to:
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http://picasaweb.google.com/gilshamiralbum/People

Pictures - Jaffa Flea Market and more

The second photography session (Following the Jerusalem session) is providing characters and objects, daylight, Jaffa, Israel. Same Panasonics travel companions - TZ5 and FZ28
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http://picasaweb.google.com/gilshamir61/JaffaFleaMarket112009

Pictures - Jerusalem Tour Album

Pictures from the recent one day Jerusalem tour (West and East city). All pictures were taken by compact cameras: Panasonic super zoom FZ28 and Panasonic travel zoom TZ5. It seems compact cameras can take great images...
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Links:
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http://picasaweb.google.com/gilshamir60/JerusalemTourTZ5112009
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http://picasaweb.google.com/gilshamir60/JerusalemTourFZ28112009

Camera - Panasonic TZ5

User review highlights:

[+] Compact, especially considering the 10x zoom range.
[+] Optimal zoom range, starting at wide angle (28mm) and provides a good telephoto (280mm).
[+] Intelligent Auto scene classification, works very well and adjust the camera setting properly.
[+] Very good build quality.
[+] High resolution LCD screen (Twice of the normal resolution) and visible at day light.
[+] Fast AF at the wide end.
[+] Tele macro mode provides background, out of focus blur, automatically.
[+] Lens does not extends much at the telephoto end.
[+] Face detection works very well and fast.
[+] Very good HD video quality.
[+] Good scene selection can handle almost any situation.
[+] Good battery life (300-400) pics.
[+] Flash is good enough for day light fill up to 1.5-2 m.
[+] Zoom and optical image stabilizer is working in video mode.

[-] Minimum focusing distance of focal lengths less then the maximum 280mm may be too long for small subjects. It is advised to use the wide end macro closeup option or the full 280mm tele macro.
[-] Motion JPEG video requires large capacity and fast card. Sandisk 8Gb Exterme 3 is suggested. It will provide about 30 minutes of video.
[-] HD video is 720p. Consumer HD camcorders are recoding at 1080.
[-] Bright subjects in the front of a dark background are overexposed. A -1EV compensation is suggested.

Camera - Panasonic G1

User review highlights:

[+] Sharp, edge to edge image.

[+] Fast AF.

[+] Small and compact by DSLR standards.

[+] Live view is well implemented - working from the back swivel screen and the viewfinder.

[+] Compact lenses.
[+] Manual AF is aided by automatic magnifier (Active during the manual adjustment and returns to normal image once the manual focus ring is dismissed).
[+] Very good build quality.
[+] Very good image stabilizer: 14-45 lens can be used, handheld, up to 1/8 sec.
[+] Intelligent Auto mode detects flawlessly the scene type and adjusts camera's setting automatically.

[-] Acceptable images up to ISO 800.
[-] Tele-macro with 45-200 lens may hunt if the subject distance is close to the minimum distance specified for the lens or the object is moving fast (Flower in the wind). Switching to Macro mode ensures fast AF performance.
[-] 14-140 lens, more flexible lens then the 2 kit lenses, is pricier and is sold only with the GH1.
[-] Wider zoom lens option is limited to the pricey 7-14.
[-] Camera tends to over expose bright subject that positioned in the front of darker areas (When the bright subject is up to 30% of the image). Exposure compensation of -1 EV is suggested.
[-] Viewfinder may be grainy and slower on the dark scene.
[-] Reflections may occur when shooting very bright objects.