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| Juvenile Oriole |
Now we move the Mode Dial onto P and the setting up process starts to get more interesting and complex with more decisions to be made.
Touch screen Almost every camera reviewer whose reports I have read offers the opinion that touch screen operation is desirable and the lack of it is a deficiency to be remedied.
This is not my experience at all.
I can see that there is a case for touch screen control when shooting video with the camera on a tripod.
But for hand held work I just don’t get it, particularly with a bridge style camera like the FZ300 where only the far right edge of the screen is easily reached by the right thumb and none of it by any finger of the left hand.
In addition if Touch Settings are ON I find I am forever brushing against the screen and activating something unexpected like changing the position of the active AF area when that was not my intention or worse touching one of those little soft Fn button icons on the right side of the screen and sending the camera off on a tangent not of my desire.
The options for Touch Settings are found on screen 9/9 in the Custom Menu and pages 52-55 of the
Operating Instructions for Advanced Features.
[Touch Settings] must be ON for the other touch functions to operate.
[Touch Tab] brings up the soft Fn buttons. I avoid these like the plague. They are too small and fussy and fiddly to operate.
[Touch AF] can be set to AF or AF+AE at the touched area of the frame.
[Touch Pad AF] is a Panasonic feature which allows you to move the active AF area by touching the monitor while looking through the viewfinder.
The [Offset] option is the one to select. You can move the active AF area all around the screen while touching just the right half of it.
I have found this reasonably useful on compact cameras where it is easier to get one’s right thumb onto and moving around the screen, but I find the cursor buttons easier to use on the FZ300 and larger models like the FZ2000. The FZ1000 does not have touch controls and I never miss them.
There is just one thing I find works better with touch. That is setting up a Custom Q Menu which is easy to do using drag and drop with [Touch Settings] ON but clumsy and awkward with the cursor buttons.
Autofocus (AF) Mode With [iA] on the Mode Dial [49-Area] is automatically set as the AF Mode. But this gives you no control over the selected focus area.
For all normal photography I find [1-Area] the best option giving the best control and best results.
Sometimes I set [Pinpoint] when I want to focus on a small object surrounded by competing subject elements. This is the classic “bird in a bush” situation.
You need reasonably quick but not immediate access to the AF Mode.
By default, AF Mode is accessed via the Left Cursor button, but see Direct Focus Area below.
I put it on a Custom Q Menu. You can also allocate AF Mode to a Fn button, just be aware there are only 4 hard Fn buttons and one of them is required for the Q menu.
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| QVB hand held FZ300 |
Direct Focus Area See Custom Menu screen 3/9 and pages 137 and 148 of the Instructions.
The default way to move the active AF area by hard controls is
Step 1, press the left cursor button to bring up the AF Mode screen
Step 2, press the down cursor button to enter AF area control mode shown by the AF area box changing color to yellow surrounded by four yellow arrows
Step 3, press any cursor button to move the active AF area to any position on the frame
Step 4, press the Disp button once to return the AF area to the center of the frame
Step 5, press the Disp button again to restore the AF area box to default size
Step 6, rotate the rear dial to change the size of the AF area box
Step 7, half press the shutter button to return to shooting configuration.
All this is much faster to do than read.
If you set [Direct Focus Area] ON the first two of these steps is eliminated.
The advantage of this is faster access to moving the active AF area.
The disadvantage is you have to find somewhere other than the cursor buttons to access ISO, AF Mode, Drive Mode and White Balance.
Fortunately this is quite easy on the FZ300.
For the record I have
* ISO (Sensitivity) on the Q Menu
* AF Mode on the Q Menu
* Drive Mode on Fn2
I shoot RAW so I don’t adjust White Balance but if I did that would go on the Q Menu.
Q Menu Custom Menu screen 8/9 and Instructions page 60.
You can leave the Q Menu at default but quicker access to your own preferred settings is gained with a custom Q Menu.
There are 37 functions which can be allocated to a custom Q menu and each individual will have his or her own ideas about what to assign to this button and which button to assign to the Q menu.
I leave Q Menu on the Fn 3 button where I can reach it easily but not as easily as Fn1.
As a guide I prefer to locate items requiring adjustment in Prepare Phase of use to the Q Menu and those required in Capture Phase to the Fn buttons which provide more direct access.
A maximum of five items can be viewed at any time so that is the optimum number of items for the Q menu.
For the record I have Touch Settings, Sensitivity (ISO), Quality and AF Mode on the Q Menu.
Function buttons See Custom Menu screen 7/9 and Instructions pages 61-63.
Fn buttons can have different functions in Record and Play modes. This makes sense as the functions required when capturing images are completely different from those required in playback.
There are 55 items available for allocation to Function buttons which might create a daunting overchoice scenario for newcomers to the Panasonic way of doing things.
Just work through the options thinking all the time…”which functions do I need in Capture Phase of use > Fn buttons, which do I need in Prepare Phase > Q Menu and which in Setup Phase > Main Menus.”
I have
Fn 1, Stabiliser
Fn 2. Drive Mode
Fn 3, Q Menu
Fn 4, Macro Mode
You might change these selections several times as experience with the camera is gained and something you thought you needed frequently turns out to be little used.
Dial settings This is where things get a bit complicated. See Custom Menu screen 8/9 and Instructions pages 41-44.
The options are
* Rotation. I leave this at default which provides for ‘value up’ when the rear dial is moved to the right with the thumb and the side dial is rolled upwards. This is the way I expect and I suspect most people would expect the dials to turn.
If your brain is wired up the opposite way you can reverse the rotation direction.
* Exposure Comp (EC).
The FZ200 has a submerged ‘push-click’ control dial allowing this dial to be used for changing aperture and shutter speed and also exposure compensation after push-to-click.
But the FZ300 has an open control (rear) dial which does not push-click. So they had to find some other way to control exposure compensation.
You can assign exposure compensation to the rear dial or the side dial.
The advantage of the rear dial for EC is that it is clicky which makes accurate EC settings easy.
The side dial turns smoothly which is not very suitable for EC and is more difficult to access than the rear dial.
But if you put EC on the rear dial then the side dial must be used to change aperture in A and shutter speed in S modes. Unfortunately it is not very conveniently placed for this duty especially in portrait orientation.
One way around this is to use P mode most of the time, which I do.
Operation of the side button Pressing the side button changes the function of the little roller dial (side dial) above it.
This is described on pages 41- 44 of the Instructions which I find difficult to understand.
The text says “Calling the function for supporting the focus operation”.
Whatever that means. I think it means MF in AF with MF assist. This only works if you set [AF+MF] ON at screen 3/9 in the Custom Menu.
After fiddling around with the side button and dial for a while I think I have figured how they work.
In the basic state:
The rear dial changes aperture in A Mode and shutter speed in S Mode.
The side dial does exposure compensation if you set it to do so at [Dial Set] on screen 8/9 of the Custom Mode.
You can switch these functions so the side dial changes aperture in A Mode and shutter speed in S
Mode and the rear dial controls exposure compensation.
If you press the side button and half press the shutter button with the Focus Mode lever at AFS , the function of the side dial changes to manual focus with peaking and PIP (picture-in-picture) assist.
With the Focus Mode lever at MF then the MF assist PIP window comes up even if the shutter button has not been pressed.
Confused already ??
Yes folks it’s an ergonomic mess. The relevant menu items are all over the place and the control systems on the left side of the lens barrel are poorly conceived and implemented.
To make matters worse the side dial is poorly positioned for use in any configuration other than landscape orientation and ‘left hand under’ position. I am constantly bumping the zoom lever just in front of the side dial when I reach to turn the side dial.
What they really need is either a return to the ‘push-click’ rear dial or a twin dial setup like that used on the FZ2000 plus a proper focus ring on the lens barrel. I guess that would cost a bit more but the ergonomic improvement would be considerable.
Notwithstanding the confusion and poor ergonomic design I find that after using the camera regularly for a while I can operate it reasonably efficiently by training my fingers where to go and what to do.
Dial Operation Switch Setup This is a submenu under the [Dial Set] tab in the Custom Menu.
You can read about it on page 42 of the Instructions.
If you thought the stuff above about dial functions was confusing wait till you try to get your mind around the dial operation switch feature.
Actually I have a much better idea. I recommend you totally ignore the dial operation switch material and get on with taking pictures.
The idea of dial operation switch is to extract a selection of functions from each dial, the switch being made by pressing a Fn button.
Problem is the dial functions are already difficult enough to comprehend and remember to the level of ergonomic engagement required to operate the device smoothly.
Adding another layer of different functions is a step too far.
Read about it….shake head…….who the heck dreamed up that little scheme ……? …..Oh..yes…it was someone over at Olympus…..must be good,..right..?….all the Olympus-fanatics say so and they are not to be contradicted under any circumstance or they will pour verbal vitriol on the hapless critic.
OOPS, I did it.
That’s enough for this post.