Opinion on Z3 photos

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Darin Kaloyanov wrote:
> Hi, guys! I have a new Konica-Minolta Dimage Z3 and decided to share
> some of the photos I have taken during the last week and hear what some
> other photographers think of my work.
>
> Take a look here, there are three categories, "Color Photos", "B&W" and
> "Nature, Animals." Feel free to post comments under the corresponding
> photo (not sure if it requires annoying registration), or here, in this
> thread.
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/hex/
> Have a happy new year, hope you had a great party!
>
The pictures are too small to render a meaningful critique on the image
quality of the camera
The EYE picture looks pretty sharp but the portraits of the young girls
appear a little soft.
Perhaps that was an effect you were trying to achieve or perhaps
downsampling the image so drastically degraded its sharpness.
Bob Williams

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

> The pictures are too small to render a meaningful critique on the
image
> quality of the camera
> The EYE picture looks pretty sharp but the portraits of the young
girls
> appear a little soft.
> Perhaps that was an effect you were trying to achieve or perhaps
> downsampling the image so drastically degraded its sharpness.
> Bob Williams

Actually there is a buton on the left of the image, where you can view
it at 1024x768.

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"Darin Kaloyanov" <dkaloyanov@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104671322.498500.222470@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>> //snip//>
> Actually there is a buton on the left of the image, where you can view
> it at 1024x768.


I agree that some of the images appear a little soft. I assume these are the
complete images, and not enlargements of cropped portions. I also have a Z3,
and have seen the same softness in some of my photos. Were you using
autofocus or manual focus?

RWP

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Darin Kaloyanov wrote:
>>The pictures are too small to render a meaningful critique on the
>
> image
>
>>quality of the camera
>>The EYE picture looks pretty sharp but the portraits of the young
>
> girls
>
>>appear a little soft.
>>Perhaps that was an effect you were trying to achieve or perhaps
>>downsampling the image so drastically degraded its sharpness.
>>Bob Williams
>
>
> Actually there is a buton on the left of the image, where you can view
> it at 1024x768.
>
AH! That is much better.
However, the Princess' eyelashes and lips are still a bit soft.
Probably a Depth of Field problem at such a close distance, because some
of the hairs on her head appear quite sharp.
If you used the Z3's famous f2.8 setting, I would expect the DOF to be
very shallow and that could explain the slight softness in parts of the
image.
Composition-wise and artistically, you did a great job.
To check the lens sharpness, mount the camera on a tripod and shoot a a
flat subject with lots of detail. A $20 bill or similar currency is
usually a good test subject.
I suspect that your lens will be tack-sharp because the Leica Vario
Elmarit's quality is legendary.
Bob Williams

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@Bob Patton, I was using autofocus and some of the photos are cropped,
not scaled down to size, which should explain the bad quality of some
of the photos.

@Bob Williams - please do explain the problem with the f2.8 on the Z3,
I bought this camera several days ago, and I am both an unexperienced
photographer and unfamiliar with the camera. Does the Z3 have a Leica
lens?

I would appreciate any further comments and links to Z3 sites, etc.
Thank you!

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Darin Kaloyanov wrote:
> @Bob Patton, I was using autofocus and some of the photos are cropped,
> not scaled down to size, which should explain the bad quality of some
> of the photos.
>
> @Bob Williams - please do explain the problem with the f2.8 on the Z3,
> I bought this camera several days ago, and I am both an unexperienced
> photographer and unfamiliar with the camera. Does the Z3 have a Leica
> lens?
>
> I would appreciate any further comments and links to Z3 sites, etc.
> Thank you!
>


This site explains the relationship between Depth of field and aperture
number,
focal length and camera-to-subject distance.
http://www.azuswebworks.com/photography/dof.html
You can enter Depth of Field into Google and find lots more info.
Bob Williams

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This is something that I hope that I already understand, but thanks for
the site - it is always good to refresh your memories. Did you have
anything special in mind, when mentioning the f2.8 on the Z3? Can any
of you show me some nice Z3 photos?

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Images are indeed a bit soft, when using the telephoto, otherwise the
camera is great for macro work. Thanks for the links too!
Would you describe the Z3 as a semi-professional camera?

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In article <1104768589.609796.139410@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
dkaloyanov@gmail.com says...
> This is something that I hope that I already understand, but thanks for
> the site - it is always good to refresh your memories. Did you have
> anything special in mind, when mentioning the f2.8 on the Z3? Can any
> of you show me some nice Z3 photos?
>
>
have you looked at www.dpreview.com ?

try the "panasonic talk" forum. You will get lots of links to Z3 photos
of all qualities there.

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"Bruce Graham" <jbgraham@nowhere.com.au> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c44c87ebd6256099897f4@news.optusnet.com.au...
> In article <1104768589.609796.139410@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> dkaloyanov@gmail.com says...
> > This is something that I hope that I already understand, but thanks for
> > the site - it is always good to refresh your memories. Did you have
> > anything special in mind, when mentioning the f2.8 on the Z3? Can any
> > of you show me some nice Z3 photos?
> >
> >
> have you looked at www.dpreview.com ?
>
> try the "panasonic talk" forum. You will get lots of links to Z3 photos
> of all qualities there.
>

I think the OP was taking about a Konica-Minolta Z3, not a Panasonic
DMC-FZ3. The Z3 has an OIS, 35-420mm, F/2.8-4.5 APO DX lens; not the Leica.
There have been some reports of soft images at full tele in some of the
reivews I've read. Even so, I like some of the macro pics - especially the
eye.

ECM

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Hmm.... depends on how you define "semi-professional". No offense, but
I see the K-M Z3 as a lower-end prosumer, or maybe an upper end
consumer camera. "Semi-professional", to me, means either a
professional would use it as a second camera, or a budding photog would
use it to hone skills on their way to becoming a pro. At some point,
semi-professional would also imply that the user would use the camera
to make money with it's output. I don't think this camera's up to that
standard.

Bluntly, I think that most pros looking for a cheap second camera would
pass over the Z3 for a better lens/better camera, like the Panasonic
FZ-20, the Nikon 8800, the K-M A2/A200, even the Oly C-8080 (no IS, but
the best lens in the bunch). More probably, a pro would pick the Canon
EOS 300D with a good IS lens as a backup camera.

OTOH, if you're just starting out, using this camera will teach you a
lot. Remember that it's the trained and experienced brain behind the
equipment that makes a true professional.

ECM

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I guess you are right, but at this time, this is my financial reach -
here, in Bulgaria, it cost me about $700 to get the camera with a 512MB
SD card, along with eight Ni-MH batteries (4x2100 and 4x2300mAh) - this
is about $200 more, if I had had it ordered from Amazon, for example.

I was thinking about the nice Canon EOS 300 film camera (hope I am not
mistaking the model), which costs only about $300 with a lovely
telephoto lens, but decided that I want a digital camera, as that would
certaily lower my costs while learning different photographic
techniques.

ECM, do you have a more experience with a Z3?

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Darin Kaloyanov wrote:
> This is something that I hope that I already understand, but thanks
for
> the site - it is always good to refresh your memories. Did you have
> anything special in mind, when mentioning the f2.8 on the Z3? Can any
> of you show me some nice Z3 photos?

Don't know whether they are nice or not, but here are a couple:
http://webpages.charter.net/rwpatton/images/new_page_1....

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@ECM - Yes, I did understand that you had in mind the Digital rebel, I
just mentioned that a KM Z3 is quite expensive for me here, so the DR
is quite out of my range   But thanks for the useful info!

@RWP - Really nice photos, but they seem to be a bit soft and blurred -
did you move or/and was it shot at a telephoto setting? What firmware
are you using?

I see that both photos are using ISO 50 - do you always use ISO 50 for
low noise, or is this a coincidence on those shots?