Panasonic FZ1000 Panorama Guide

Not the easiest shot. There is considerable brightness range between inside and outside. Shutter speed 1/125, f2.8, ISO 800. Picture size 6964 x 2508 pixels. Most of the stitching is clean but an area around the orange cushion on the left looks a bit soft. Blown out highlights are more of a problem than underexposed shadows. I locked exposure on one of the window areas.

 

The FZ1000  is one of the most versatile cameras you can buy. One of it's capabilities is making good quality panoramas in camera. I offer some suggestions for best results.

Panorama Mode is accessed via the {Scn} Mode on the main mode dial.  It is the #25 and last item listed, after  such gems as "Cute Dessert", "Appetising Food" and "Romantic Sunset Glow".

Setting up

1. Go to the Setup Menu, Page 3 and set Menu Resume ON.

2. Turn the Mode Dial to {Scn}

3.  Press Menu/Set to enter the menus. See  a SCN submenu appear above the Rec Menu icon. Click on the [Scene Switch] tab and scroll to #25, Panorama.  If your camera is showing #1: Clear Portrait,  scroll backwards to #25 directly.

The next time you select {Scn} on the Mode Dial, Panorama will display.

4. Select JPG/Fine Image Quality, from whichever portal you have decided will access  Quality, be it the Rec menu, Q Menu or a Fn button.

5. With the Mode Dial at {Scn} enter the Rec Menu and scroll to [Panorama Settings], Page 4/7.  Press Menu/Set and see two submenus, [Direction] and [Filter Select]. Select direction. See four options.

At this point there is a disconnect between the Owners Manual, the icons on the menu screen and the camera's actual behaviour. 

My suggestion is to select the bottom of the four  options under [Direction]. Ignore the arrows.

This will allow you to hold the camera in portrait orientation and swing horizontally from left to right. This provides greater picture  height than holding the camera in landscape orientation often allowing a pleasing result particularly with architectural subjects.

Or you can select the top option under [Direction].  This gives less picture height but potentially more width and opens up the possibility of dramatic double perspectives.

You can hold the camera in landscape or portrait orientation and sweep either horizontally or vertically with either orientation. Just experiment with the [Direction] options until you find the one you want.

I have thus far not tried any of the filters, which include "Expressive", "Retro", "Old Days"  etc............There are lots of them.

6. Allocate the electronic level gauge to a Fn button or press the Disp button until it appears. You want to see this gauge to level the camera at commencement of the panorama sweep even though it disappears off the screen during the sweep.

7. Manual Focus with peaking  is compatible with Panorama but Manual Exposure is not.

How it works  The lens is set automatically to the wide end, focal length E25mm. Zoom is not available.

Look at the whole scene which will  be captured and decide which part thereof  you think is likely to provide the best exposure metering and autofocus (or manual focus). Half press and hold  the shutter button with the camera pointed at this part of the scene to lock exposure metering and focus.

Swing the camera to the start point of the sweep and when the camera is level, press the shutter button once, no need to hold it down.

Steadily and smoothly swing left to right while the camera fires off many exposures in quick succession. A little display on the live view screen shows (correctly) which way to swing the camera and indicates progress of the capture sequence.

The camera magically merges all the individual exposures into one big panorama which  you can review immediately on the live view screen.

Supporting the camera

Ideally you want the camera to be at a height  half way between the top and bottom of the anticipated final picture and you want to hold the camera so the sensor is vertical throughout the sweep.   The stitching software is pretty clever though and will tolerate the camera being pointed up or down during the sweep.  This however can introduce some curious perspective distortions with architectural subjects.

Hand Held  This can be at eye level viewing through the  EVF or waist level, which can work well indoors. In this case I recommend swinging out the monitor 90 degrees and viewing by looking directly down.  Set the LVF/Monitor switch to Monitor so the eye sensor doesn't black out the monitor as you hold the camera in close to your body.

Swing by pivoting your whole body around.

Tripod  Set up the tripod so the center column is vertical. This will prevent yaw as you swing the camera around.

Best exposure and focus  The best way to focus is manually. Otherwise you get 49 Area which may or may not focus where you want.

For exposure you need to experiment. The FZ1000 has a moderate tendency to clip highlights with JPG capture. So you need to select the optimum part of the scene to lock in exposure at the beginning.  Exposure Compensation is available and may be useful. You can also set the AF/AE-L button to AE Lock or AF+AE Lock but the Lock Hold tab is greyed out in {Scn} Mode.

Practice  The first 20 or so times I tried Panorama, things did not work out so well. There is definitely an acquired skill to holding the camera optimally, getting the optimum exposure, swinging around smoothly at the optimum speed and selecting good subjects for the pano treatment.

Post Capture Editing  I have found that even with my best efforts panos often need a bit of help in my image editor. I first use Photoshop Camera RAW (which can edit JPGs) to adjust highlight and shadow tone and often adjust color balance. Sometimes perspective corrections can be made here too.

But not uncommonly with hand held capture and architectural subjects there is variable departure of verticals from true,  across the width of the frame.

To fix these I use Photoshop > Edit > Transform > Warp. This allows me to push and pull sections of the image to get verticals lined up everywhere.

Summary  Making panoramas is fun, gives a different perspective on many subjects and is one way to overcome the lack of an ultra wide angle zoom setting on the FZ1000.