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Taken with Lumix Lz8k prior to owning K-50
Lens: n/a Camera: Panasonic Lumix Lz8k Photo Location: Prince Gallitzin State Park 
Posted By: Auzzie-Phoenix, 10-01-2014, 01:46 AM

Here are a few photos I took over this year and last year with my panasonic lumix lz8k, prior to owning my Pentax K-50. The ISO settings, fstop settings, camera modes, color modes, etc... all vary, but I'll at least attempt to fill in whatever details about the shots that I can remember. Or at least a small story behind the shot. I did have these all printed via online print service, though.



A sunset shot taken on my very first outing in my kayak, first week of July 2013. Camera mode was set to auto, vivid color mode selected. Had this one printed on fuji pearl for that metallic shine when the light catches it.



Another automode shot with vivid color selected. On one of my trips to the lake still early on in my kayak ownership, I was paddling to the main marina to see if they sold better lights to mount on my kayak for night paddling when I ran across this blue heron sitting on the remains of a downed tree not far from the muskrat beach fishing/swimming area. I got this shot in, but when I attempted get a bit closer it flew off and I ended up with a picture containing only the back 1/3 of the bird. Taken in July of 2013.



This shot was taken June 16th, 2014. After the prior excursion on 6/13/14, and having my settings all wrong I managed to capture this. Shooting mode was manual exp. with a shutter time of about 60s. Color mode for this shot was set to cool, as natural and vivid tend to turn out red/orange. Fstop setting for this image, according to the exif data is 5.6. The ISO is at 100 as anything higher with this camera at night results in almost nothing but grain. My favorite aspect of this shot is that with the nearly full moon behind the tree, the branches stand out in high contrast and clarity (for the camera's capabilities). It showed up a bit dark when printed, but with enough lighting the image still looks great on photo paper.



My favorite image of the bunch. This one was also printed on fuji pearl, and is currently hanging above my monitor. Taken on 6/16/14, at approximately 2am EDT. Shooting mode was manual with a shutter time of 60s, fstop 4.0, ISO 100. The moonlight illuminating the small section of dock in the bottom corner, flare from the moon above in left top 1/3 of image. Focal point was the land past the water. The mist rising from the water adds to the image as well as the reflection of the land and trees on the opposite shore. It has a completely surreal feeling to it.

I hope you enjoy looking at these, even if they weren't taken with a pentax. I certainly enjoyed taking them.
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10-04-2014, 12:32 AM   #2
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<crickets chirping>
10-04-2014, 03:14 AM   #3
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They're good! I have a kayak that's really for fishing so it's got plenty of cargo capacity. I must try to take my K-30 and lenses instead of NEX7.
10-04-2014, 04:13 AM   #4
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I love my kayak... shame the weather wasn't very agreable this year. Bit too small to fish from comfortably. Definitely won't take my k-50 out in it since it won't fit in the drybag. At least not until I can find a larger drybag just for the dslr (and about 5,000 silica gel packets to put in with it.).

10-04-2014, 11:38 PM   #5
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I really like the moon shot and light but wondering why such a long SS?
10-04-2014, 11:58 PM   #6
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The Lumix cameras are plagued by really small sensors. Anything less than 60s at night and you tend to have nothing but a black blob. In fact, without a full or nearly full moon, the cheaper models of lumix (like the lz8 that i have) can't really capture anything at night even with a 60s exposure. You have to really have a ton of light with these cameras. The bridge models such as the DMC-GH3 do a bit better, but the point and shoots are hopeless without that moonlight or plenty of artificial light (parking lot, streetlamps, etc...). Also, the best you can do for iso at night with a point and shoot lumix is 100... excessive grain in any other iso setting.

However, that extra shutter time can sometimes create a nice effect as well sometimes. So you do have the option of leveraging that shutter time if you really want to get a surrealistic shot. I'll have to go through and upload one of the failed settings images to my photobucket, to give an idea of what happens (even on a full moon) when you don't have a maxxed out or nearly maxxed out shutter time (this will have to wait until after work on sunday, it's too late in the AM and I have to get to bed).

Last edited by Auzzie-Phoenix; 10-05-2014 at 12:04 AM. Reason: adding info.
10-05-2014, 03:26 PM   #7
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D-50 and your whole lens collection can go in this, Auzzie ...


OverBoard Waterproof Kayak Deck Bag 20 L (Yellow) OB1094Y B&H

10-05-2014, 06:34 PM   #8
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Follow-up post: an example shot of lumix without correct settings, and one with better, but still not quite right settings.

Incorrect settings: 15s exposure, f8, color mode vivid. There would have been better examples if I hadn't deleted them (ones with 45s exp, and f4.0, etc...) even in the good shots, with iso 100 you can still see a fair amount of grain.



Same settings as the lake shot in OP post: iso100, 60s exposure, f5.6



Slight variance to settings, big variance in lighting: iso 100, 60s exposure, f4.0- moon is coming up over horizon. location of pic is the same as all of my night shots.



As you can see, even with the lower fstop, the camera has serious issues with the lighting. It's only when the moon is near full and right overhead that the camera is able to take images like the ones in op post or right above. The date of this particular image was almost exactly one month from the dates of the other images. In this case 07/15/2014, whereas the others were taken 06/13/2014, and 06/16/2014. Please don't get me wrong though, I do love my lumix camera for what it is, a low budget point and shoot. Great daytime images, excellent color, fairly easy on battery consumption with lithium, nice sdhc capacity support. But in the end, I ended up needing something a bit more robust for the type of images I wanted to take.

Also, thanks for the link to that drybag, clackers. I'll have to look into it. My current drybag is just a simple H2Zero pouch, which while nice and compact to fit into my kayak, isn't large enough to fit the camera (plus i question HOW waterproof it is at times). I'd really have to see the drybag on the link in question up close to figure out if it would fit in my kayak with all of my other things: flotation vest, mini backpack cooler, etc. I have a small 8ft. sit-in recreational kayak which doesn't have much space, and no proper deck to set that on/strap to. For reference, it's the Sundolphin Aruba 8 SS.

Last edited by Auzzie-Phoenix; 10-05-2014 at 06:39 PM. Reason: typo correction.
10-05-2014, 07:08 PM   #9
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You'd put it or something like it on top of the cockpit, wouldn't you, with its opening towards you? I have a sit-on and a surf-ski that could probably work this way.
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