Well, after filming my 1st show (Hatebreed
) w/ the Lumix (and just taking some clips at an earlier show at a different venue), I will give my pointers:
-Lumix does not handle low light well. It's definately not poor, but remember, it's a point and shoot digicam, not a legit camcorder, and will not get the video said camcorder will. Well lighted venues, such as most stadiums, the Lumix will pick up great video. Search 'Machine Head Munich 2011' on YT and you will see.
-The Intelligent Auto mode may have worked for some, but it does not work well in low light. Ugh, I tried it out for an opening band and it was atrocious. Continuously went in and out of focus, colors blurred, couldn't detect a face (even w/ the setting 'on'), just bad.
-So, I found at this extremely low lighted venue, the best setting was manual exposure method, w/ shutter speed set @ 1/400, and the apeture turned all the way down. The video wasn't great, but it's not terrible. The front of the stage was dark and the video suffered, but the back near the drums was well lit, and the video looked great. Of course, that area was obstructed most of the time, so I was forced to film mostly near the front. Again, not great, but I will still watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JykjFEpANohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpsDJTaAHMII'm sure I'll get better after I use it a few times (I'll only use it at venues where I know a camcorder will be easily seen and get me busted), but these are my pointers for any Lumix noobs like myself. This probably isn't the best way, but at a low lighted venue, this got me a decent video.