Panasonic Lumix - Recent Questions, Troubleshooting & Support
There is a spot on the top left hand side of the LCD monitor, and this spot also appears on the prints
Hi,
Looks like dust must have gotten onto the CCD sensor (or, more specifically, onto IR-cut filter on the sensor). The dust enters the lens through the gaps between zoom barrels and sometimes ends up on the sensor-which is what most probably happened here.
There are 2 ways I know to remove the dust. 1st way-it might sound silly, but try sucking the dust from the camera with your mouth around the closed lens :) Make sure you don't blow any air in. This worked for me a few times. Note that sometimes it might make the problem worse as you might move other dust particles onto the sensor.
If 1st way didn't help then you can try directly blowing the dust off the sensor. This should only be attempted if you're happy with partial dismantling your camera and are ok taking the risk of ruining the camera further. Although in my opinion lumix cameras are generally fairly easy to repair, you will need steady hands and patience to attempt this. If you are happy to proceed, do the following:
1. unscrew the screws holding the back of the case
2. lift the case carefully a bit making sure you don't break the ribbon cables going to LCD and backlight
3. undo the LCD and backlight ribbons (there are black flaps on the connectors, these gently flip upwards)
4. gently remove upped logic board. Try to pry it in stages from all sides, don't just pry it up in one go from one side or you might damage the connector. (I learned the hard way ;)
5. on the bottom logic board you'll see 2 connectors, undo the upper one to release the ribbon going to the sensor (note that this is not absolutely necessary if you're happy cleaning the sensor without disconnecting it-it can be done, the ribbon is relatively robust.)
6. the sensor is held by 3 tiny star screws. if you don't have the exact screwdriver you should be able to use a small flat screwdriver to carefully unscrew them. Do the screws bit by bit, i.e. unscrew 1st one a bit, then unscrew 2nd one a bit, and so on
7. there is a small spring underneath the sensor assembly, make sure you don't lose it :)
8. once the screws are undone you have access to the sensor-lift it up. Under good light you should be able to see the dust bits. Use a blower to get rid of them.
9. that should be it. put the camera back together. figers crossed it will power up and the dust problem will be gone :)
NB. You might have come accross horror stories of people being electrocuted by flash capacitors when repairing cameras. This might indeed happen. It's not easy with FX8 though: To get electrocuted here you would need to undo the top plate, unscrew the switch logic board and remove protective tape off the flash circuit, then touch the capacitor contacts :) Don't do it of course. Not worth it.
Good luck,
Raf
System error (o.i.s)
Hi,
This error is for the optical image stabilisation.
Generally the camera should be ok after your turn it on and off again.
The error you are getting is because either the OIS has malfunctioned
or is stuck.
I suggest that you take out its memory stick, the
battery etc and keep the camera like that for about 15 minutes. Then
only reinsert the battery (fully Charged) and try to power on.
Try a little tap ( but not too hard) on the side of the camera....this
might realign if the OIS has got misaligned. If you are lucky, you would get if fixed.
If the problem still persists, you need to contact Panasonic.
Hope i helped you.
Thanks for using ' Fixya ' and have a nice day!!
DO ACCEPT THE SOLUTION IF 100% SATISFIED.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX12 upsidedown screen
The issue is due to the data cable getting damaged due to the way of packing it inside the camera casing. The signal carrying traces on the edge of the felxible cable is getting damaged. Once the camera is opened and the cable is repositioned properly/replaced will solve this issue.
Rajeev Bose
Panasonic DMC-TZ3 pictures never seem crisp and clear
TZ stands for Travel Zoom, which is code for Outside View shots. The TZ is supper in good light, not so much in lower light.
In side shots need to be with 8 feet of subject so the flash can reach. Use ISO and IS mode 2 settings, especially IS(Image Stabilization) on zoomed shots where ANY camera movement becomes amplified by the ZOOM.
Lastly, camera movement and/or subject movement will add blur to a shot. Squeeze off shot, don't push it off. Try to brace your camera against another object when possible, or hold you elbows against your sides when you can't. Treat taking a pic shot like you were taking a rifle shot. Stabilize yourself when possible and gradually squeeze off the shot when possible.
When low light cannot be avoided, try the night shot setting, which will keep the shutter open longer to gather more light, but will be much more venerable to camea movement at the same time.
Cannot view the movies I made on my camera and downloaded to my Vista PC
I assume you can view them in you camera, right? If not, the following solution will not help.
The .MOV Apple QuickTime format Panasonic uses for its camera movie clips cause problem on with viewing, as seen from several other problem posts here and the net.
Some computer use a Win 32Bit operating system, other better ones use a Win 64. It is hard to believe QuickTime would let you load a 64bit version into a 32bit OS, or vice versa. But who knows. Rather double clicking on te file name itself, open QuickTime, then go to File Open and Browse to the file and select it that was. If this doesn't work, go to QuickTime website and try their User Forums first to ask a question or find a thread talking about movie files not playing. Else, CONTACT website and ask question. Post any solution here for readers.
Lumix pictures blurry
I would suggest that the image stabilizer might not be working right. Could you upload a photo to Flickr or other location where I could look at the EXIF, or list it here. I would like to see what the camera is writing to the image as the settings when the photo was taken.
Does it make a difference when the image stabilizer is on or off?
Is there any way I can clear up a blurry picture
On TV shows, they can take a blurry picture and enhance it to crystal clarity. In real life, however, those kinds of miracles aren't possible. In a photo editing program like Photoshop Elements, you can bring up the sharpness a little but you eventually reach a point where the picture no longer looks like a normal picture. The slogan is "garbage in...garbage out"...meaning you can only do so much to what you have to work with.
How can I transfer my
The TZ10 behaves like a HD video camera and prefers to work with iMovie to store your footage so you can then edit your video into a Movie (project).
In iMovie select the camera icon (far left button on middle toolbar) to transfer your videos to your Mac. After you edit your footage into a Project, select Share-->iTunes to add your polished project to your iTunes library.
After adding your movie to iTunes, you can always drag it from your iTunes library to the iPhoto icon on the dock to store it there too!
I have a Panasonic DMC-TZ3.
It's geometry. If you tilt the camera to get all of a tall building, the top of the building is farther from the camera than the bottom. Objects farther away look smaller than nearer objects. Thus the top of the building looks narrower than the bottom and the building looks like it's falling over backward. You see the same effect when you look at a straight road going off into the distance; the road gets narrower the farther you look. The human brain is wonderful at automatically compensating for this effect but the camera records the scene as it is.
Professional architectural photographers get around this problem by using expensive lenses which shift, allowing them to shoot up while keeping the camera pointed straight ahead and level. The rest of us solve this problem using a combination of two techniques. One is to keep the camera level and either zoom out or back up to get all of the building in the picture and then crop out the bottom. The other is to use a photo editing program with perspective correction capability. Programs such as the GIMP and Photoshop allow you to "stretch" the top of the picture.
What video editing software for Panasonic DMC-TZ7
Till now, there is no such software which can edit mts file. What people usually do is to convert mts to other regular format first, then use Windows Movie Maker, Sony vegas or other edit tools to do some editing.
I always use Pavtube Video Converter(
http://www.pavtube.com/video_converter/) to help me convert mts files to other formats supported by my edit tool. For example, i tried to convert mts to wmv to import my Windows Movie Maker for editing.
My computer doesn't play movies taken with my ls80
This camera uses quicktime. Windows Media Player should play your molvies. If not, try VLC media player. You can burn a dvd that will play on a regular dvd player. Download DVD FLICK which will convert the files into MPEG which play on a dvd player.
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