Panasonic Lumix FZ80 User manual

The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 User’s Guide
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The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 New User’s Guide
Graham Houghton August 2018

The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 User’s Guide
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Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................................................3
The iA Intelligent Auto Mode ...........................................................................................................................5
Auto Focus, Face/Eye Detection and Face Recognition ......................................................................................6
Menu Items Adjustable in the iA+ Mode.........................................................................................................12
Taking Images Using the Program Auto Exposure Mode (P).............................................................................13
Taking Images Using the Aperture Priority Mode ............................................................................................14
Taking Images Using the Shutter Priority Mode...............................................................................................15
Taking Images Using the Fully Manual Exposure Mode....................................................................................16
Using the Constant Preview Mode in Manual Mode........................................................................................17
Assigning One Push AE in the Manual Exposure Mode ....................................................................................17
Setting Up Your Camera to Meet Your Photographic Needs.............................................................................18
Cursor Button, Menu/Set Button Operation ...................................................................................................18
DISP Button Operation...................................................................................................................................18
Long Exposures –The Undocumented Feature................................................................................................19
Sample Image Gallery ....................................................................................................................................20

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Preface
You don't want excellent pictures from your Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82–you demand outstanding pictures,
after all your Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 is one of the most advanced digital bridge cameras that Panasonic
have produced.
The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 boasts many features like the 18.1 mega- pixel MOS high sensitivity sensor,
the 20mm –1200mm (35mm equivalent) lens, USB charging, 4K shooting and 10 frames per second
shooting mode.
The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 has enough customisable features to satisfy the most avid of amateur
photographers.
This fantastic piece of opto-mechatronics is only let down by the hard to read documentation that comes
with the camera in the form of the basic user’s manual or the advanced guide found when you search for,
and download, the advanced user guide.
You know what you want to find out is in there, however it is so hard to find and you don't know where to
start. Furthermore, the “official” manual doesn't offer very much information regarding the basics of digital
photography or photography in general.
This is where this field guide about the Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 will help.
It explains the purpose of each of the Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 functions and controls, how you should use
them and, more importantly, why.
So, if you can't understand what basic settings to set up your camera with, because you don't understand,
for example, how changing ISO or focus default method will affect your images, then you need this guide.
I don't assume any superior knowledge and won't talk down to you, either.

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This guide isn't packed with pages and pages of check lists on how to take travel picture, wedding pictures,
sports pictures etc., but will endeavour to give you the information that you will need to take great images
on your own.
The first step is to familiarise yourself with the camera, the first pages of this guide will ensure you will do
that.
As you gain more experience and new skills you'll be eager to know how to improve your exposures, fine
tune the colour balance and use some of the essential tools of photography such as using the pop up
electronic flash correctly and how to use the camera in a wide range of photographic lighting conditions.
The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 is not only very easy to use, it's also easy to learn to use as long as you have
my little guide book to help you along the way.

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The iA Intelligent Auto Mode
This, fully automatic, mode is recommended for those
users new to the camera or simply want to use the
camera in a “point and shoot” mode.
The camera uses “scene” type recognition and automatic
exposure determination to expose the images.
By default, the camera is factory set to the more advanced iA+ mode and is generally the mode that I
recommend new users begin with.
It has features which are invaluable when wanting to get great images and video from this camera.
The option however to go back to the basic mode is available via the REC set up menu.
This advanced mode allows you the user to adjust the exposure (effectively exposure compensation), the
hue or tint of the image to apply either a warming or cooling tint to the image and a method to control the
amount of foreground to background sharpness (known as depth of field).
Begin by rotating the top mode control dial to the iA position, aligning the iA symbol against the white
index on the flash head.
When you point the camera at the subject the image processor will attempt to determine what type of
scene that the lens is imaging on the sensor.
It looks for things colour and light intensity patterns and facial features to set the optimal exposure
conditions.
You can see the scene type that has been selected by looking at the top left hand side of the LCD (or EVF if
enabled). Initially the icon will be displayed with a blue colour for about two seconds and then will turn
red.
The possible icons that will appear are;
It is advised to check that the scene being captured is correctly interpreted by the camera.
Sometimes the scene recognition software incorrectly determines the scene being imaged.
If this is the case switch to the SCN scene mode and select the most applicable scene type for the scene
being photographed.

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The LCD screen showing the location of displayed icons
When recording video the possible icons that may appear are;
Auto Focus, Face/Eye Detection and Face Recognition
When shooting in the fully automatic mode iA+ the camera will select the most appropriate focus method.
In this mode, face detection is active (as shown in the image above) and eye detection software attempts
to locate and focus on the eye closest to the camera.
Face detection and eye detection in operation on the FZ80/82

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This eye detection mode is automatic and focusses on the nearest eye to the camera. This method cannot
be changed.
When in this mode the camera adjusts the exposure to give the best image based upon the metering from
the face.
If face recognition has been turned on and faces have been registered if the camera detects a subject
which has been previously registered, then an “R” is displayed on the upper right corner of the display.
The icon could be the i-Portrait, i-Night Portrait or the i-Baby icon depending upon the subject recognised.
If you experience some of your images not being recorded as you saw them at the time of shooting or
images of a similar subject appear to be recorded differently to each other then it is worth having a look at
how the iA+ method recorded them.
Panasonic do state that, in some scene types, you should watch the indicated icon when you shoot in this
mode and if the wrong scene type is detected then you should select the most appropriate mode from the
SCN mode dial setting and menu choice.
To see how the image was detected by the camera, with the memory card still inserted in the camera,
select the green playback button on the back of the camera body.
Using the left or right navigation buttons of the 4-way controller scroll through to the image in question.
The playback mode selected to display image information
When you have selected the image that you want to review you can see how the camera detected the
scene type. In the image above the camera correctly identified that this was a close-up scene and selected
the I-Macro mode and below it identified the i-Landscape mode setting optimal parameters for this scene.

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If the camera doesn’t recognise a scene type, then it reverts to a default setting and determines the
exposure without adjusting other parameters such as saturation of colour or aperture.
no scene type detected here in this image, default parameters applied
A lot of thought has gone into the automatic scene detection algorithms and they are becoming very
reliable in selecting the correct scene type for the image being recorded.

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If the subject is being photographed where there is light shining behind the subject, which would cause the
subject to be recorded with a dark appearance, the camera applies backlight compensation to lighten the
recorded image.
The iA+ mode offers a few more features which I suggest that you experiment with to understand the
benefits of being able to alter the automatically selected parameters.
The iA+ mode adds three additional controls for image adjustment; colour tint, background defocus and
brightness correction.
the three additional image adjustment controls
All three modes can be accessed by either the touch screen interface, touching first the iA+ tab to fly out
the other menu options and then selecting the one to be adjusted.
Colour tint can quickly be accessed by using the WB button on the 4-way navigation pad.
Brightness can be quickly accessed by pressing in the top control wheel of the camera.
Background defocus can be quickly accessed by a double press in of the top control wheel of the camera.
All three controls can be applied to an image, if so required.
Colour tint allows you to add either a warming or cooling effect to the image if you feel that the Auto
White Balance (AWB) has not achieved the image look that you desire.

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the colour tint control
Once accessed the tint can be applied using either the top control wheel, or if you
prefer the left or right navigation buttons on the 4-way pad.
The image on the LCD, or EVF, shows the change being made. The value will remain
set until you turn off the camera or change to another mode.
This feature is useful for warming up scenes shot in cloudy, or overcast lighting, as the AWB is the only
white balance pre-set available to iA/iA+ users.
the brightness (exposure compensation) control
Brightness control, or as I would prefer to rename it exposure compensation, allows you to change the
brightness of an image if the automatic metering of the camera has over reacted causing light scenes to go
dark or dark scenes to be light.