Topic: Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 (edit: mostly about ZS100 though)

[DavidPuddy]

Has anyone been able to limit ISO when shooting in shutter priority mode? The option is there in manual on the click wheel but when going to movie manual on the wheel, there is no option.

[beatkilla]

Has anyone been able to limit ISO when shooting in shutter priority mode? The option is there in manual on the click wheel but when going to movie manual on the wheel, there is no option.

I doubt it.

In Shutter Priority you pick the shutter speed.And the Aperture and ISO are changed automatically to get the correct exposure.


You have to go full manual mode.It's not hard at all.

What do you want to limit it to?

[DavidPuddy]

Has anyone been able to limit ISO when shooting in shutter priority mode? The option is there in manual on the click wheel but when going to movie manual on the wheel, there is no option.

I doubt it.

In Shutter Priority you pick the shutter speed.And the Aperture and ISO are changed automatically to get the correct exposure.


You have to go full manual mode.It's not hard at all.

What do you want to limit it to?

Thanks for the reply. I usually limit it to 800 on my M50 because low light performance is really bad but my a6400 looks fine at 3200...I guess I need to play around with this camera but I really only use it for filming shows and there's not many to go around currently.

Otherwise, I bought a Lowepro Tahoe 25 ii case for the camera at Target for $3.99 on clearance and it fits perfectly with room for an extra battery or dummy battery + cord.

[guitard]

For the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to adjust the mic level for the ZS100.  Of course, I don't normally use camera audio, but there have been a few times when my audio rig didn't work out, so camera audio was all I had.  I have two ZS100 cameras.  The mic level in one is fine, but the other one is super low and I want to raise it ... but can't figure out how.

[DavidPuddy]

For the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to adjust the mic level for the ZS100.  Of course, I don't normally use camera audio, but there have been a few times when my audio rig didn't work out, so camera audio was all I had.  I have two ZS100 cameras.  The mic level in one is fine, but the other one is super low and I want to raise it ... but can't figure out how.

I'm pretty sure these cameras use an auto gain function. I just looked through the manual and the camera and couldn't find any way to adjust gain.

[guitard]

I changed something in the settings, so now when I tap the MF button on the back of the ZS100 to change to manual focus, the box with the yellow lines (see image) for the direct focus area appears - but not the option to switch between MF, AF, etc.  I have been through the various camera menus several times trying to figure it out, but haven't had any success.

Can anyone help out?  Thanks!

[beatkilla]

I changed something in the settings, so now when I tap the MF button on the back of the ZS100 to change to manual focus, the box with the yellow lines (see image) for the direct focus area appears - but not the option to switch between MF, AF, etc.  I have been through the various camera menus several times trying to figure it out, but haven't had any success.

Can anyone help out?  Thanks!

On the back of the camera to the left of the center Menu button is the MF button.
If when you press this the yellow focus square pops up(such was the case for me)You need to go into the Menu>Custom Wrench screen>Page 3 DIRECT FOCUS AREA -OFF-.
Now when you press the MF button on back of camera you get your choices of AF.MF

[guitard]

You need to go into the Menu>Custom Wrench screen>Page 3 DIRECT FOCUS AREA -OFF-.
Now when you press the MF button on back of camera you get your choices of AF.MF

I would have bet my last penny that I already tried this and it didn't work ... but after reading your post, I tried it again -- and bingo!  WTF?!  Thanks for setting me straight.

[guitard]

After largely going unused for a year and several months because of the pandemic, I noticed my ZS100 batteries don't hold juice like they used to.  The OEM Panasonic DMW-BLG10PP batteries that used to easily go for 90 minutes (one time I shot for 104 minutes continuously) were dying at 75 minutes.  I bought two new DMW-BLG10PP batteries ($44.95 on Amazon) and I'm back to 90-100 minute runs.

[beatkilla]

Image stabilization in 1080 video mode........i don't see any ICON indicationg that this is working.

Anyone have any info about this.

Top dial set to M i can select Image Stabilizer in the menu but no evidence it is actual on in Video mode.

[OrionMan]

Hi,  I just joined yesterday after reading this entire thread and here are some things I wanted to add. (I have the ZS100) Hope I remember it all!

Image Stabilization:
It works in 1080 as well as 4k (people were stating it doesn't work in 4K).
The setting is shown in the menu when the top dial is set to the Still photo "M" mode (I never user the other 'still photo' setting modes,  but I a quick look in "S" mode and it is there so I'm confident it is there in the other still photo modes too). 
BUT, it is not displayed/avilable in the menu when the dial is in the Video mode.
When you have the dial in the M mode, don't go the the side menu showing the movie camera.  Instead, go to the side menu showing the still camera and set the stabilization on or off there.
Once you set it, it will work that way for both stills and movies, not matter what shooting mode the top dial is set to.
You might not think it is working when just monitoring the screen (or EVF) because the stabilization only works during the recording, not when just monitoring. (Same thing with certain focus mode - with continuous auto focus set to off, it will still continuously auto focus during monitoring but not after pressing the record button - which sometimes makes me question which settings I made).
To verify this works, zoom all the way.  Have your focus box small and on a particular object (I used a corner of a distant roof to place it in the corner of the focus box to make it easy to see if it drifts).  Monitor it and note the jitter, then hit record and see the jitter disappear!

[OrionMan]

And now my experience about ISO settings while recording.

I customized my lens ring to adjust ISO.
But to use it WHILE recording is in progress, the top mode dial must not be in Video Mode.  I put it in stills mode (M) and it works perfectly. In video mode it can only be adjusted when not recording.

[OrionMan]

Shooting video in Video or Stills Mode?

The top dial lets you choose a Stills mode or a Video mode. 
In both modes you can do video.  I see advantages for both, but customizing my be able to make one or the be the best of both.

First, let me tell you how I set my Focus mode.
I set it to:
-1 spot AF mode.
-Continuous AF turned off.
This way, whatever object the 1 spot box is on, the camera will NOT focus on it unless I half push the shutter button. 
I do a 1/2 push, and wait for the box to turn green (green indicates it locked focus) and then release the button.
If there is ok light and ok contrast on the object, this just takes a split second to turn green.
I like this procedure because if I want to record a person on stage, and an audience member (or anything else) gets in my way, the camera will not move focus away and onto the audience member.
Continuous AF would interrupt focus also when panning from one performer another if the gap between them has and object further away (the back of the stage) or closer to the camera (again, audience members).
Continuous AF can also reduces battery life.
If you are far enough away from the stage and centered, once you have focus set this way, there is no need to refocus again unless you zoom in an out a lot.  I find that if you lock focus when zoomed in all the way, it will stay in focus when you zoom back in all the way again (I have to repeatedly zoom in/out in 1 recording to see how well it is retained).  I find that if focus is made when zoomed all the way in, that focus will still hold ok without need to refocus after zooming out (I have to test this some more in order to confirm).

Video mode (top dial mode):
I can 1/2 press the shutter button to lock focus during a recording.
-BAD thing in this dial mode is that if I accidentally push too much, I also accidentally end the recording short.  This is NOT the case if I accidentally push too hard in Stills (M) mode.
This issue might be because I customized the shutter button to record/stop record video - it's been a while since I made most of my customization).
-GOOD thing in this dial mode is that I can change my ISO WHILE recording using the lens ring.  But I can't in Stills mode (M). 

[OrionMan]

Dimming while Zooming In.

Someone mentioned that as they zoom in that the video got dimmer and would, if I recall correctly, like a way to keep the aperture constant (or maybe it was ISO constant, or simply exposure?). 

One option would be to set the aperture to F5.6 when zoomed to the widest zoom.  F5.6 is the lowest F setting (lower F # lets in more light) when the lens is zoomed all the way in.  Bad thing is when the lens is wide, your image won't let in as much light as it could get.

I already mentioned in my post above that I set the ring to allow me to adjust ISO during recording.  I prefer that method.  It needs to be in Stills mode (M), not Video Mode.

I also noticed just now that in Stills (M) mode, the exposure is compensating for the dark environment, even if I don't have ISO set to Auto.   In video mode, my recording remains dark.
In either mode, monitoring looks dark, but only once I start recording does it look corrected (brighter). 
In Video mode, I see the Video Camera's menu "Exposure Mode" set to Manual, so I am sure that is the reason, but I do not see the option in the Camera menu.  And I am sure I can spend time trying to figure it out but I am fine with it (or if anyone needs to know to help them out, I will continue researching to help you out).  I know for sure that getting out of M mode would work too.

I'm fine with it because I always prefer either Video more or Manual mode.  I always want as much light as possible so I keep the Aperture (F) as low as possible.  I definitely want the shutter speed to remain 1/(2XFPS) and then ISO I usually leave at whatever gives me the best lighting (but also can set it on the fly during recording using the lens ring).  So ISO is really the only thing I might change (hardly ever, and usually only when super bright lights turn on at the end of the show as the band bowes at the end or lights up the crowd).

I know you guys had this camera for a while (threads been out for a few years) and probably figured this stuff out by now, but thought I'd share my experience in case it could help.  I learned a lot from just one day of reading in this website so would like to help too if possible.  I think I had more to write but forgot, lol.

[OrionMan]

Now I remember...

FOCUS Hunting:

Someone mentioned about when they focus, the camera will look like it is hunting (focusing back and forth).

All Panasonic camera use "Contrast Detection" AF.

Sony, Canon, Nikon and others use this technology on some other their cameras, but most other their cameras also have a "Phase Detection" type of AF.  A much better AF technology.

Contrast AF will estimate the distance of an object, overshoot and undershoot the focus distance and then redo it over an over again, in nanoseconds (?) but each time over/undershot less and less of a distance from the object until it nails it.  That is why you see that weirdness as it focuses.

Canon uses dual pixel AF (a type of Phase Detection).  Each pixel has 2 sides (a diode in each) that samples object (and I am guessing uses parallax angle measurement) to figure out the distance it needs to focus at and WAH-POW! - it just focuses just once, right to that distance. 

I may not have explained all this 100% correctly, but you can google "Phase Detection Auto Focus", and "Contract Detection Auto Focus" and "Canon Dual Pixel Auto Focus" to get it more accurately explained.  On the camera forums, video guys LOVE the Panasonic camera, as long as their workflow doesn't rely too much on Auto Focus.

I have at least 2 cameras from each brand and feel:
Sony: Great technology, bad ergonomic and menus and not fun to use.
Canon: great tech (pretty close, some say as good), great ergonomic, great menu system, fun to use.
Panasonic: bad AF, great menu system, best options for changing size of one spot focus (but again, not so good AF). I have to use the EVF to make sure I got focus nailed.