Panasonic Lumix Help!

[dmac1969]

Hey all
          I have a Lumix DMC -TZ4 with 10 x Optical Zoom and the Leica lens , however I find it difficult to take decent pics at indoor car shows. I had to dump about 30% of the pics I took at the NEC National Classic Car Show last year due to blurring in the low light conditions. Using the flash seems to make it worse as they come out really dark , as if the flash is going off tooo early or late! I use the 'normal' mode mostly (pic of red camera) and occasionally the 'iA' setting but I'm not having much joy. Is the camera just not good enough for indoor low light situations , or am i missing anything? Tips would be most welcome people , especially as I fancy going to Ultimate Dubs and dont want to lose most of my pics!

Cheers

[Bane]

I have a Panasonic G1 and an the ancestor of your TZ10,the TZ5.
If you use the camera in iA(intelligent auto) mode,then it should compensate for low level light situatations by automatically adjusting the aperature and shutter speed.There should also be an exposure adjust button on the rear dial,but I'm certain that this is disabled when using iA mode.l think that if you half press the shutter release then the camera sets itself up for the shot,rather than fully pressing the button and hoping for the best.
If you use the flash,then it will over expose the shot of anything closer than about 6ft and cars on a show stand are highly polished and can reflect flashlight back into the lens,which doesn't help!
I'm sure that there will be others along to give you better advice as there are a few good snappers on here who know what they are doing!

[stealthwolf]

The first thing to do is take it out of Auto mode.

The second thing is to practise and fiddle with the camera. There are people who can take stunning photos with their iPhones so don't blame the camera.

Thirdly, did you read the manual?

[dmac1969]

Thanks for the replies , yes I will hunt the manual out , I know its in the house somewhere!

[diesel junior]

Dmac, dont worry you have got a top camera there, with a little bit of fine tuning and you will be ok. Car shows are not easy as the light can be a bit hit and miss and close in you get the reflection of the flash as said so stand a couple of yards back is rule number one. Have a look at the ones i took at Essen last year (go there if you can!) on my website http://www.flickr.com/photos/udaltea/sets/72157626285949243/ . I was using my 5 year old FZ8 and IIRC I set the flash to stay on and used AV (aperture value) mode and I think i would have upped the ISO to 400 which would have hit the image quality a little but that will be less of a problem on yours as its newer and will have more MP. One word of warning, make sure the battery is well charged as the flash will use it up....by the end of my session at Essen the battery was flatter than Holland, but what a great day!!! Good luck at the show!    PS Am just looking back at my photos at Essen and the specs via Photoshop, if you look at the photo of the Audi 100 coupe (252 i think.....) i shot at f2.8 and 1/30s ISO 100, hope this helps you in some way!

[dmac1969]

Dmac, dont worry you have got a top camera there, with a little bit of fine tuning and you will be ok. Car shows are not easy as the light can be a bit hit and miss and close in you get the reflection of the flash as said so stand a couple of yards back is rule number one. Have a look at the ones i took at Essen last year (go there if you can!) on my website http://www.flickr.com/photos/udaltea/sets/72157626285949243/ . I was using my 5 year old FZ8 and IIRC I set the flash to stay on and used AV (aperture value) mode and I think i would have upped the ISO to 400 which would have hit the image quality a little but that will be less of a problem on yours as its newer and will have more MP. One word of warning, make sure the battery is well charged as the flash will use it up....by the end of my session at Essen the battery was flatter than Holland, but what a great day!!! Good luck at the show!    PS Am just looking back at my photos at Essen and the specs via Photoshop, if you look at the photo of the Audi 100 coupe (252 i think.....) i shot at f2.8 and 1/30s ISO 100, hope this helps you in some way!

Thanks for that , nice pics by the way!

[diesel junior]

No problem, that's why this forum is tops! I have been to some classic car shows but believe me, Essen is just paradise. 13 halls of glistening metal, it's unbeatable! Last year drove there in my Corrado VR6 from Spain, got there and a German begged me to sell it to him so I flew back and bought a Golf gti dsg the next week. Regretted it at first but love the Golf now 

[dmac1969]

No problem, that's why this forum is tops! I have been to some classic car shows but believe me, Essen is just paradise. 13 halls of glistening metal, it's unbeatable! Last year drove there in my Corrado VR6 from Spain, got there and a German begged me to sell it to him so I flew back and bought a Golf gti dsg the next week. Regretted it at first but love the Golf now 

Haha nice one! There are some cracking cars on there - oh and the ICE!

[diesel junior]

The Audi 100 coupe was the dogs you know what but there was a lime green mk 1 Scirocco as well I think....with 5,000km on it, just beautiful. Look on my web there are the photos from the madrid show as well www.flickr.com/photos/udaltea they are there somewhere amongst pandas, footballers and f1 cars

[andygo]

I have one of these cameras. They are a damn good cam for the money though. I find not using the flash can get good results. Sometimes.....