Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 User manual

Jargon Free Setup & Use
Easy to follow set up and use of the Panasonic
Lumix Fz300/330 in conjunction with my
YouTube video series
written by Graham Houghton September 2017 !
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !1

Welcome to this supplementary guide for the FZ300/330
camera from Panasonic.
This guide, plus the YouTube video series, will allow you to
get the best image quality from your camera in a way that is
easy to comprehend without any technical jargon or any
pre-requisite understanding of this model.
To enable you to follow this guide and the YouTube videos it
would be a great idea to reset the camera to the default
factory set up so that all the items discussed in the video and
this booklet will work without any problems due to the
complex and inter reactive meaning system of the camera.
To do so, turn on your camera then press Menu/Set and
choose the wrench icon (Setup) and go to page 4 - use Zoom
tele to change pages quickly and select Reset and then
Menu/Set again.
Select YES to each of the three prompts which will appear.
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !2

The Panasonic FZ300/330 Main Features!
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !3

Once the camera has been reset select your home country
and/or time and date if necessary.
As this camera has so many ways of setting up user
preferences I would make the following changes to the setup
of the camera so that any of the following instructions that I
give will always work for you.
We will be first looking at the iA mode (intelligent Auto)
which is the fully automatic mode where the camera will
make all the adjustments for you to get the best exposure
and image.
The camera defaults to the new mode of iA+ which offers a
lot more user options and is one that I recommend that you
stay with as this will allow you to become more comfortable
with some of the adjustments we will be making in later
modes.
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !4

Turn the TOP MODE dial to the iA
position opposite the white marker.
If you press Menu/Set and you then use
the left hand navigation button. you
can see the iA+ is selected from the iA
menu as it is highlighted with the
yellow background.
Now we will set up some of the other menu items;
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !5

The ASPECT ratio is set from the REC Setup menu (the
camera icon tab). This sets the height and width ratio of
your image.
If you are shooting images primarily for prints then for 4 x 6
inch prints (and its multiples 8 x 12 etc) then select 3:2
For other sizes 4:3 may be selected bearing in mind some
common print sizes like 5 x 7 inch will require some
cropping of the final image.
If you intend to use the images for HD video or display
without borders on your HD aspect TV select the 16:9 option
from this menu.
Each of these aspect ratios will display the actual image area
that you have selected on the LCD display or electronic
viewfinder (EVF).
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !6

Always keep the largest Picture size (L) and the Quality
should be left to the fine JPEG mode which is the double
dotted bar until later setups when we will consider the other
format available to you.
Picture size (in Megapixels) will vary with each aspect ratio
selected so you may see different values.
Here I have set the HD format aspect ratio of 16:9 which
give 9Megapixel images.
Selecting the 4:3 aspect ratio will give the full 12Megapixel
size.
To aid composition I would also recommend setting the
Guide Line to the “Rule of Thirds” from the list of options.
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !7

You will find this on page 4/9 in the Custom Setup (wrench
plus C icon tab)
The default time period for the camera self timer is 10
seconds.
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !8

For normal operation I would suggest making this value 2
seconds unless you are doing “selfies” and want to appear in
the image yourself if using a tripod to shoot the image.
Self timer is found in the REC Setup menu tab, page 3/7.
Set it to the 2 second option.
The self timer will operate when the camera drive mode is
set to the self timer which we will see in a later section of
this guide book.
We are at this point just setting the default time that the self
timer will delay the process of taking the image when the
shutter button is depressed or the camera is used with an
external remote wired cable plugged into the “remote”
socket on the camera.
Using the self timer when the camera is on a tripod is a good
way of preventing any vibration caused when pressing the
camera shutter button. This vibration cam cause loss of
image sharpness.
I also recommend setting one of the Function buttons, Fn2
to select the AF focus area when the single area auto focus
mode is selected. This makes it very convenient to make
selection of the size and position of the AF (autofocus) area.
Begin by
selecting the
Fn Button Set
option from
the Custom
Setup menu on
page 7/9.
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !9

Select the
“Setting in
REC mode”
and press
Menu/Set
Select the Fn2 icon on the button layout screen.
Now step
through to
page 3/4 to
select the
Focus Area Set
option and
press Menu/
Set
Beginners Guide to the FZ300/330
Page !10