Focus Issues

I bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ-80 for Christmas and I've been reading the manual trying to figure out how to stop the 1-area-focusing from going where ever it wants to. I set it to dead center and it may stay there for a few shots then when I try to take another shot it's located some where else in viewfinder/screen and tries to focus there. It is really annoying having to try and reset it before my subject disappears.

I don't know this camera but if I had to guess what is happening is you are hitting the 4 way controller if it has one and inadvertently moving the focusing point. It could also be an accidental tap of the screen if it has focus to touch on screen. If it has the 4 way controller for moving the focusing point, see if it can be disabled. If it has touch to focus, turn that option off. If it doesn't have either of these then I have no clue because I'm not familiar with this model.

G'day Jason

I am a panny user too

Okay- it sounds as though you have the LCD screen 'open' to view and as it is a touch screen, it will move stuff around the screen willy-nilly each time you accidentally touch the LCD screen. It is a damn nuisance and I hate it

Goto page 200 of the manual ... or play with the custom menu to disable it completely or partially

Personally- I rarely use the rear screen ... preferring to use the eyepiece 99% of the time. The only times I use the rear screen is when I can't see the eyepiece - ie: when the camera is on the ground for an insect or something like this

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

This was doing it even with the lcd off and using the viewfinder I just shut the touch focus and the pad focus off will test it out as soon as it quits raining here Thanks

Thank You I have now disabled both now just waiting for the rain to stop so I can go outside and test it.

G'day Jason

Good to hear the so-far, it seems to have offered you a solution

ps- If you are a facebook user pop into this site, goto FILES and download any of the PDFs relating to subjects of interest to you
www.facebook.com/groups/fzcommunity/

I tried the suggestions they work temporarily then the touch focus setting turns itself back on same with the touch pad I have also noticed that when I change the exposure compensation to -2/3 or -1/3 it resets itself to +2/3 even when I save everything to custom function.

G'day Jason
Give me today to think it over and I will respond tonight (my time)
...... equally, our mate Gary might have an answer

Phil

Okay Thanks

My GH7 has been assigned a task to support remote meetings, so it's not at home right now. Thus, I can't experiment.

I'd look first to see if there's a firmware update for the camera, though. Maybe it's a bug that's been fixed?

G'day Jason

Examining the FZ-80 book shows that all the touch screen stuff and settings appears identical to my FZ-2500 ~ so unless there is something unique to the -80 these multiple issues 'should' be fixable

Okay- p200 of the -80 manual shows a full list of touch options incl the reference that "when touch screen is turned 'off' then ALL associated options are disabled also. This clearly implies that the the focus point cannot have its position altered manually. (when I test it here, I cannot finger-move the focus point anywhere) Does it move for you? > if it does there is a fault somewhere

However > several function buttons only exist on the touch screen, so by turning 'off' the screen, you also lose several Fn buttons unless you allocate them to an existing button elsewhere (see p-47)

= if= you are sure that you have turned 'off' the touch screen stuff but the focus point can still be moved via your fingertip, then something else is causing it. Goto the left-cursor button and open the focus-point menu. Here you can change the size & shape & position of the focus point -but- after clicking okay, it should not move around the screen. Does it? > if it does there is a fault somewhere

Exposure issues
At the top-right on the rear panel is the exposure adjustment dial. It does 2 things and your finger needs to be careful here (but the screen changes showing you what it is up to)
a) rotate the dial right or left to increase or decrease exposure ... using P-A-S modes at least.
b) press the dial - feel the 'click' - and it will jump to the bracketing menu. You then rotate the dial to determine how extreme the exposures will be either side of 'normal'
The qty of bracketed exposures is determined within the custom menu ... 3 or 5 or 7 exposures (p-128 shows you more info)

Have a play in your loungeroom and see what's happening, and let us know how it all goes

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Thanks for your responses. I took it out for a hike yesterday and again today with no issues and the picture quality is almost where I want it. Just a couple more tweaks and all will be good

Excellent!

I shoot jpg all the time and I have tweaked the 'photo style' settings for Vivid + several +/- tweaks in the colour options

Does me nicely
Phil