Snapper for the thinking man

By Totel V. de Jesus

THE first thing that would catch a hobbyist or an amateur photographer’s attention is the Leica lens. You don’t need a degree in photography to know that Leica cameras and lenses are among the pioneers, if not the only ones, expertly made by hand in the Leica factory in Germany.

Among the Leica enthusiasts we’ve encountered over the years include topnotch photographer George Tapan, whose works appear in almost all coffee-table books on travel and in the waiting areas of our bigger domestic airports. For many professional photographers like him, having a Leica camera is a major investment, like keeping a diamond ring or a 24-karat gold necklace.

But for mortals like us, there’s a miniature version of those high-powered, incredibly expensive German cameras and lenses. For the digital age, Leica specifically made 28-mm wide-angle DC lenses for Panasonic, which unveiled a few weeks ago its new Lumix 8.1-megapixel DMC cameras.

We were given an opportunity to try the Lumix DMC-LZ8.

For neophytes, it is a must to read the instruction manual because this model has special features that other digital cameras don’t have. One, it has an intelligent auto mode (standard setting), which means the camera automatically adjusts to capture what you have trained the lens on. It is very light-sensitive so that if you’re not careful enough and accidentally raise your hand to point to your subject, the camera might focus on your fingers.

Or, let’s say, a fly or a bee rudely passes by in front of the camera and does a somersault, in a split second the camera adjusts and takes the insect’s photo. That’s how intelligent Lumix is.

But you can change this setup immediately, without pushing buttons to search for the right setting. The standard setting will be inapplicable once you switch to portrait, scenery, macro, night portrait and night scenery. All these are on the mode dial, which is beside the almost discreet zoom lever and shutter button.   

Each mode has its own unique features. For example, the scene mode has “submodes” specific for food, party, candlelight, self-portrait, sunset, baby, pet, beach, starry sky, fireworks, aerial...the list goes on.

More interesting, if you’re taking a picture of a very eager human being, he or she is spared of smiling for longer periods because Lumix has a steady green light that warns him or her before the actual flash. It’s like telling your subject, “Wait for the green light before you project your best smile.”

As for the photographer, the 3-inch LCD has a special feature that shows him or her how the camera focuses on the subject. There is a framing device that seems to follow what photography instructors call “the rule of thirds.” It’s the same as how amateur portrait illustrators draw horizontal and vertical lines on their canvas or drawing paper so as to have the right proportion for the subject’s face, or how landscape artists frame with such lines the peaks on mountain ridges in relation to the clouds or bamboos beside the main subject.

For playbacks, again you don’t need to push buttons because there is the recording/playback switch just beside the exposure button and the menu button.

The better news is that the camera has features for basic and advanced photographers. Even your 10-year-old kid or pamangkin can use it in school activities without getting a migraine.

But for adults, once you get the hang of the basics, you can function like a professional. For example, for the advance features, you can manually adjust the exposure if your subject is under a shade or inside a dimly lit room. You can do similar adjustments with the aperture and shutter speed. We know this might read like you’re using a manual SLR but that’s good for you, because that’s how the magic of photography started.

As any aspiring shutterbug will discover soon enough, it’s different if you’re the one controlling the machine rather than the other way around. You learn by doing and involving that vital organ between your ears. Let’s just say Lumix awakens your creativity because it makes you think—highly unlikely with other digital cameras that only exercise your arms and your neck. Space won’t permit to discuss all the features of Lumix. You can Google all those mumbo-jumbo, technical terms-laden explanations anyway. But nothing beats the actual experience.

From the outside, with its silver and sleek design, Lumix evokes sophistication. You look astig when you carry it to some events that require a generous dash of style. In the few weeks we got to play with the Lumix DMC-LZ8, we were able to capture a few stars like KC Concepcion, Heart Evangelista and Richard Gomez, among others.

In another location, we shot some monkeys—real ones—doing a Tarzan from one tree to another, which posed no problem. Lumix has high-speed burst shooting mode, which enables it to take as many as seven shots per second.

We just encountered a few problems while taking photos of the two-piece bikini-wearing Jen Rosendahl in a swimming pool one recent midafternoon. The neophyte in us failed to set the camera to a beach setting so that it would automatically adjust to the strong sunlight reflected by the water. For some mysterious reason, we accidentally had it on night portrait mode. Good thing, she was in the pool more than three times.

But for other neophytes, stay away from the water. It may sound like a can-do-it-all camera but Lumix has limitations. It can’t be sprayed or rained on, even if the water comes from the playful hands of  Rosendahl, Katrina Halili or Dennis Trillo.

Snapper for the thinking man

THE first thing that would catch a hobbyist or an amateur photographer’s attention is the Leica lens. You don’t need a degree in photography to know that Leica cameras and lenses are among the pioneers, if not the only ones, expertly made by hand in the Leica factory in Germany.

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Locating Sulu in Philippine History

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