Panasonic Dmc Fz20 Operating Instructions Manual

							Recording pictures (basic)
31
Recording pictures (basic)
Taking Pictures
∫The Mode Dial
This camera has a mode dial to suit for recording of many kinds of scenes.
Select the desired mode and enjoy the variety of recording.
Rotate the mode dial slowly and securely. 
: Program AE mode (P32)
The exposure is automatically adjusted by 
the camera.
: Aperture-priority AE (P51)
The shutter speed is automatically 
determined by the aperture value you set.
: Shutter-priority AE (P52)
The aperture value is automatically 
determined by the shutter speed you set.
: Manual exposure (P53)
The exposure is adjusted by the aperture 
value and the shutter speed which are 
manually adjusted.
: Macro mode (P56)
This mode allows you to take a picture 
closely focusing on the subject.
: Motion image mode (P56)
This mode allows you to record motion 
images with audio.: Scene mode 1
: Scene mode 2 (P58)
This mode allows you to take pictures 
depending on the recording scenes.
This mode also allows you to set [SCENE 
MENU] (P27) on the [SETUP] menu to 
[OFF] and set the scene modes which are 
frequently used to [ ] and [ ] on the 
mode dial.
It is convenient because you can select the 
scene mode quickly and minimize the 
operation.
: Playback mode (P46)
This mode allows you to play back 
recorded pictures.
MS
A
SCN
1
SCN
2
P
SCN1
SCN2
SCN1SCN2
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							Recording pictures (basic)
32
∫Program AE
The camera automatically sets the shutter 
speed and the aperture value according to 
the brightness of the subject.
 Insert the charged battery. (P15)
 Insert the card. (P16)
 Remove the lens cap.
1 1 Turn the camera on.
2 Set the mode dial to program 
AE mode [ ].
3 Slide the focus switch to [AF]. 
 The power indicator (green) lights. 
When it blinks, the remaining battery 
power is low. Insert a fully charged 
battery.
2 Aim the AF area  1 to the point 
you want to focus and then press 
the shutter button halfway. 
 A: Press the shutter button halfway to 
focus.
 The focus indication  2 is lit and then 
the aperture value  3 and the shutter 
speed  4 are displayed.
3Take a picture. 
B: Press the shutter button fully to take 
the picture.
OFF ON
OPEN
FOCUSAF
MF
MSA
SCN1SCN2P
When the 
subject is not 
focusedWhen the 
subject is 
focused
Focus 
indication Blink (green) On (green)
AF area Turns from  white to red Tu r n s  f r o m  
white to green
Sound Beeps 4 times Beeps 2 times
1/25F2.8
1/25F2.8
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							Recording pictures (basic)
33
∫AF/AE Lock (AF: Auto focus/
AE: Auto exposure) 
When recording a picture of people with a 
composition as the above picture, you 
cannot focus on the subject because it is 
out of AF area in usual operation.
In this case,
1Aim the AF area at the subject.
2Press the shutter button halfway to fix 
the focus and the exposure.
3When the subject is focused, the focus 
indication lights.
4Keeping the focus and the exposure 
fixed, move the camera as you compose 
the picture.
5Press the shutter button fully.
 You can repeatedly retry AF/AE lock 
before pressing the shutter button. ∫Correct posture for taking good 
pictures
To take pictures without blurring:
 Hold the camera gently with both hands, 
keep arms stationary at your side and 
stand with your feet slightly apart.
 Make sure that camera shake does not 
occur when pressing the shutter button 
halfway.
 After pressing the shutter button, keep the 
camera stationary until the picture 
appears on the screen.
 In the following cases, keep the camera 
stationary for a longer time.
– Slow sync./Red-eye reduction [ ] 
(P39)
– When you set to a slower shutter speed 
(P52, 53)
– [NIGHT SCENERY], [NIGHT 
PORTRAIT], [FIREWORKS] and 
[PARTY] in scene mode (P58) 
 Hold the camera firmly with your right 
hand.
 Do not cover the microphone or the AF 
assist lamp with your finger or other 
objects.
 Do not touch the lens.
256019
1/25F2.8
1/25F2.8
When recording 
with LCD Monitor
When recording 
with Viewfinder
Position of feet
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							Recording pictures (basic)
34
∫Focusing
 The focus range is 0.98 feet (30 cm) – ¶ 
(Wide), 6.56 feet (200 cm) – ¶ (Tele).
 If you press the shutter button fully without  prefocusing, pictures may be blurry or 
unfocused.
 When the focus indication is blinking, the  subject is not focused. Press the shutter 
button halfway and focus on the subject 
again.
 If the camera will not focus after a few  tries, turn it off and on and try again.
 In the following cases, the camera cannot  focus on subjects properly.
– When including both near and distant 
subjects in a scene.
– When there is dirt or dust on the glass  between the lens and the subject.
– When there are illuminated or glittering  objects around the subject.
– When taking a picture in a dark place.
– When the subject is moving fast.
– When the scene has low contrast.
– When jitter occurs.
– When recording a very bright subject.
We recommend taking pictures using 
manual focus (P65), prefocus (P66) or
AF/AE lock (P33). In dark places, the AF 
assist lamp (P74) may turn on to focus on 
the subject.
 Even if the focus indication appears and  the subject is focused, it is canceled when 
you release the shutter button. Press the 
shutter button halfway again. ∫
Jitter (camera shake)
 Be careful of jittering when pressing the  shutter button.
 When jitter could occur, the jitter alert  1 
appears. 
 When the jitter alert appears, we  recommend using a tripod. If you cannot 
use a tripod, be careful of how you hold 
the camera. (P33)
∫ Exposure
 If you press the shutter button halfway 
when the exposure is not adequate, the 
indication of the aperture value and the 
shutter speed turns red. (However, the 
aperture value and the shutter speed do 
not turn red when the flash is activated.)
 The brightness of the screen may differ 
from that of recorded pictures. In 
particular, when taking pictures in dark 
places with slow shutter speed, the 
subject looks dark on the screen, but the 
actual picture is bright.
 When most of the subjects in the screen 
are bright (e.g. blue sky on a clear day, 
snowy field, etc.), the recorded pictures 
may become dark. In this case, 
compensate the exposure value on the 
camera. (P43)
1/8F2.8
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							Recording pictures (basic)
35
 When you press the shutter button, the screen may become bright for a moment. 
This function allows easy adjustment of 
focus and the recorded picture will not be 
affected.
 We recommend setting the clock again 
before taking pictures. (P22)
 When the time for power save is set (P24),  the camera is automatically turned off if 
you do not operate within the set time. 
When operating the camera again, press 
the shutter button or turn the camera off 
and on.
 In some cases, if the distance between  the camera and the subject is beyond the 
recordable range when you use the 
camera, the picture may not be properly 
focused even if the focus indication is lit. ∫
Program shift
In Program AE mode, you can change the 
preset aperture value and the shutter 
speed under the same exposure. This is 
called Program shift.
By this function, you can make the 
background more blurred (by decreasing 
the aperture value) or record the moving 
subject more dynamically (by setting to 
slow shutter speed) in Program AE mode.
 Press the shutter button halfway and then  press the [EXPOSURE] button while the 
aperture value and the shutter speed are 
displayed on the screen (for 10 seconds). 
Then press  2/1  to activate the Program 
shift.
 When the Program shift is activated, the  Program shift indication  1 appears on 
the screen.
EXPOSURE
1/30F4.0
256019
PROGRAM SHIFT
1/60F2.8
256019
PROGRAM SHIFT
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							Recording pictures (basic)
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∫Example of Program shift
(A): Aperture value
(B): Shutter speed
 Program shift can be set in Macro mode 
[] too.
 If the exposure is not adequate when 
pressing the shutter button halfway, the 
shutter speed turns red.
 When Program shift can be set, you 
cannot switch the flash mode or set the 
self-timer. Press the [EXPOSURE] button 
to cancel.
 When 10 or more seconds have passed 
after the Program shift becomes effective, 
the status to activate the Program shift is 
canceled and returned to the Program AE 
mode. However, the setting on the 
Program shift is memorized.
 Program shift is canceled when turning 
the camera off.
 The Program shift may not be activated 
depending on the brightness of the 
subject.
2  3 4  5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
0 1
/
2 1
/
4 1
/
8 1
/
15 1
/
30 1
/
60 1
/
125 1
/
250 1
/
500 1
/
1000 1
/
2000
2 
2.8 
4 
5.6 
8 
11
(B)
(A)
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							Recording pictures (basic)
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Checking the Recorded Picture (Review)
1Press 4. 
 The last recorded picture appears for 
about 10 seconds.
 Press the shutter button halfway or  4 
to cancel the review.
 You can check the previous or following  picture with  2/1.
 When the recorded pictures are too 
bright or dim, compensate the 
exposure. (P43)
2 Enlarge and shift the picture. 
:1 k>4k > 8k
:8 k>4k > 1k  When you change the magnification or 
the position to be displayed, the zoom 
position indication  A appears for about 
1 second to check where is enlarged.
∫ Recorded pictures can be deleted 
during the review (Quick Deletion) 
 Once deleted, pictures cannot be  recovered.
 Multi pictures or all pictures can be 
deleted. Read P49 or P50 to operate 
them.
SCN1SCN2
REVIEW1X
DELETE
4X
EXIT
1XDELETE8X
REVIEW4X
T
W
DELETE THIS PICTURE?
DELETE SINGLE
MULTI/ALLSELECT
SET
YESNO
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							Recording pictures (basic)
38
Using the Optical Zoom
You can make people and subjects appear 
closer with the 12 times optical zoom, and 
landscapes can be recorded in wide angle.
∫To make subjects appear further away 
use (Wide) ∫To make subjects appear closer use 
(Tele) 
 The picture may have some distortion 
(typical example: vertical straight line bent 
outwards). This is due to the lens 
aberration, which is common to some 
extent with all photographic lenses. 
Distortion may be more visible when using 
a wider area of the zoom lens as you get 
closer to the subject.
 When using the zoom lens at high 
magnification, the quality of the picture 
can be enhanced if a tripod is used. At 
high magnification, even small 
movements can cause a slight decrease 
in picture sharpness.
 If you use the zoom function after focusing 
on the subject, focus on the subject again.
 The indicated zoom magnification is an 
approximation.
SCN1SCN2
WT   1X
256019
T W
256019WT 12X
T W
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							Recording pictures (basic)
39
Taking Pictures using the Built-in Flash
When you set the flash, you can take 
pictures using the built-in flash according to 
the recording condition.
∫To open the flash
Press the [ OPEN] button. 
∫To close the flash
Press the flash until it clicks. 
 Be sure to close the flash when not in use.
 The flash setting is fixed to Forced OFF 
[ ] while the flash closes.
∫Switching to the appropriate flash 
setting :AUTO
The flash is automatically activated 
according to the recording condition.
: AUTO/Red-eye reduction
The flash is automatically activated 
according to the recording condition.
It reduces the red-eye phenomenon 
(eyes of the subject appear red in the 
picture) by triggering the flash at 
1 second before actually recording the 
picture.
 Use this when you take pictures of 
people in low lighting conditions.
: Forced ON
The flash is activated every time 
regardless of the recording condition.
 Use this when your subject is 
back-lit or under fluorescent light.
: Forced ON/Red-eye reduction
 When you set to [PARTY] in scene 
mode (P58), the flash mode is set to 
Forced ON/Red-eye reduction.
: Slow sync./Red-eye reduction
When you take a picture with a dark 
background landscape, this feature 
makes the shutter speed slow when the 
flash is activated, so that the dark 
background landscape will become 
bright. Simultaneously it reduces the 
red-eye phenomenon.
 Use this when taking pictures of 
people in front of a dark background.
: Forced OFF
The flash is not activated in any 
recording condition.
 Use this when taking pictures in 
places where the use of the flash is 
not permitted.
SCN1SCN2
OPEN
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							Recording pictures (basic)
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∫Available flash settings by recording mode
The available flash settings depend on the recording mode.
(±: Available, —: Not available) 
∫The available flash range to take pictures 
¢Except when the flash mode is set to Slow sync./Red-eye reduction [ ]
 The available flash range is an approximation.
 Refer to P34 for the focus range.
∫Shutter speed for each flash mode 
 Refer to P55 for the Aperture-priority AE, Shutter-priority AE or Manual exposure mode.
ISO sensitivityAvailable flash control range
AU TO¢0.98 feet (30 cm) – 23.0 feet (7 m)
(also applicable in Macro mode [ ])
ISO80 0.98 feet (30 cm) – 10.5 feet (3.2 m)
ISO100 0.98 feet (30 cm) – 11.5 feet (3.5 m)
ISO200 1.31 feet (40 cm) – 16.4 feet (5 m)
ISO400 1.97 feet (60 cm) – 23.0 feet (7 m)
Flash modeShutter speed
: AUTO 1/60 – 1/2000
: AUTO/Red-eye reduction 1/60 – 1/2000
:Forced ON
: Forced ON/Red-eye reduction1/60 – 1/2000
:Slow sync./
Red-eye reduction1 – 1/2000
: Forced OFF1/4 – 1/2000
8 – 1/2000
(In [NIGHT SCENERY] in 
scene mode)
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