My Settings for Panasonic LX100
On these pages I cover a wide array of topics. There is no order to it - just things that interest me and problems I faced trying to make them work. More often than not, posts are just a way for me to remember solutions thinly veiled into a more generic topic.
However, some posts are so specific I cannot even pretend I am actually helping somebody else than me. This is one of those posts - my general settings for Panasonic LX100 camera. Probably of no interest to anyone, oddly specific to my way of shooting photos, and for a camera that is a bit on the old side.
PS: Panasonic also makes available online full basic and advanced manual where much more detail can be found.
Rec
| Photo Style | Standard: NR-2 | Standard profile with a touch of lower noise reduction. |
| Picture Size | L 12M | Not sure why you would go any lower. |
| Quality | Fine | Occasionally I might add Raw to it too, but not in general. I found myself too lazy to do a lot of post-processing. |
| AFS/AFF/AFC | AFF | This setting is actually one I change the most and value varies between AFS (single focus) and AFF (flexible focus). They are both really similar but AFF does adjust a bit for moving subjects so it fits my use better as default choice. |
| Metering Mode | Multi-metering | For evening/night time photography I sometime change it to center-weighted or spot settings. However, for daytime use it almost always stays at default. |
| Burst Rate | M | I love mid-speed setting as it gives me 7 pictures per second bursts while keeping the live view working. Even better, at this speed, fast card, and with JPEG-only you can shoot forever. For sports it is tempting to switch to high speed but there is no benefit if you are using AFF/AFC and you lose live view. Super-high speed uses electronic shutter so approach with care. |
| Auto Bracket | - | I almost never do bracketing of any kind other that for HDR which uses other settings anyhow. So I just pretend this doesn't exist. |
| Self Timer | 10 seconds (3) | I really rarely use this - frankly cannot remember the last time I had it. However, I feel as having it shoot three pictures instead of one is a nice feature. |
| Highlight Shadow | - | I generally leave this at default setting. If I have picture where adjusting it would make sense I simply record it raw and edit it on computer. |
| i.Dynamic | Standard | I found enabling this feature gives me better shadows for a general use case without having to fiddle with raws. |
| i.Resolution | Off | It basically just increases sharpness at the cost of fine detail. |
| Simultaneous record without filter | On | I really rarely mess with filters but when I do, I like option to have the same picture with and without filter applied. Do notice this setting can only be changes if filter is selected and you are not shooting raw (annoying restriction!). |
| iHandheld Night Shot | On | I love this setting on my FZ-300 as it helps tremendously during night recording. Unfortunately available only in automatic mode (iA). |
| iHDR | Off | This is automated HDR and not necessarily too bad if you are on a lazy side. However, I leave it off by default. |
| HDR | Off | This is manually enabled HDR and I set it to On only if I really want it. While some settings can be adjusted (e.g. EV) I like to use it on full auto. |
| Multi Exposure | - | This setting is more of a guide for taking pictures with multiple exposures. I could never been bothered to play much with it. |
| Time Lapse Shot | - | If you are fan of leaving your camera somewhere and recording a time-lapse, this camera has really nice helper. Just set the starting time and interval, and away you go. |
| Stop Motion Animation | - | If you like to make stop-animation movies this helper saves you a bit of time and even creates end video for you. |
| Panorama Direction | Right | Default is good. |
| Shutter Type | Mechanical | While you can use higher shutter speeds with electronic shutter, that comes at the cost of various artifacts for the fast-moving subjects as it takes as much as 100 ms to read the whole sensor. That's an eternity. I prefer to use mechanical shutter unless silence is needed. In silent mode you have electronic shutter whether you like it or not. |
| Flash | - | Haven't used it in eternity - don't even know where flash that came with camera is. |
| Red-Eye Removal | Off | There used to be time when subjects in every picture seemingly had red vampire eyes. Not sure if people evolved in last few years or cameras got better but I don't see it happening as often anymore. And it is trivial to adjust in any photo editor so I leave it off. |
| ISO Limit Set | 6400 | While this camera can go all the way up to 25600, I find that anything above 6400 is really noisy. If I really need ISO that high I prefer to set it manually instead. |
| ISO Increments | 1EV | I find that thirds are simply too finicky for me to bother. |
| Extended ISO | Off | Unlike with most other cameras, extended ISO doesn't increase your maximum setting but it lowers your minimum ISO to 100 instead of native 200. As this is done in software, I cannot see why you would bother. |
| Long Shutter Noise Reduction | On | It turns on only at low shutter speeds (1/15th and below) and it does make a difference if you need to go that low. |
| i.Zoom | Off | Realistically, it is a small digital zoom and it will impact your picture quality. Yes, 3x lens can be a bit limiting but suck it up. |
| Digital Zoom | Off | Why would you do this to yourself? |
| Color Space | sRGB | While Adobe RGB is better, sRGB is what literally every consumer device supports for viewing. Use Adobe RGB only if you know what you are doing. |
| Stabilizer | Vertical-only | Full stabilizer is a nice thing but quite annoying when panning - i.e. catching your kids running next to you. |
| Face Recognition | Off | Somehow I never bothered to register the faces needed for this. |
| Profile Setup | Off | Just more stuff for kids and dogs. |
Motion Picture
| 4K Photo | Off | It is nice idea but requires you to record everything in 4K and it changes compression method a bit. |
| Rec Format | MP4 | I find MP4 a bit better supported with amateur software. |
| Rec Quality | FHD 20M 30p | I rarely record videos and, when I do, I stick to HD most of the time. Only if I know I will be editing video further or upload it to YouTube I switch to 4K 100M 30p. |
| Picture Mode | Motion-priority | Allows you to take 2M picture while video is recorded. I don't generally use it but I prefer it to Still-priority which essentially stops the movie in order to take picture. Annoying if done by accident. |
| Continuous AF | On | For most of time I want camera to refocus to action. If I am recording something where I can control field of action, I might switch it Off to keep focus steady. |
| Mic Level Display | On | While it does add additional clutter, I find it useful to see if camera is picking up some noise it shouldn't. |
| Mic Level Adjust | 3 | It is default and I wen't with it. |
| Wind Cut | Auto | I might change this if I record in windy situations but I generally just leave camera to decide. |
Custom
| Utilize Custom Set Feature | Off | As I am the only one using this camera, I never found myself needed different customization styles. |
| Silent Mode | Off | I usually keep it off as it enforces dreadful electronic shutter. However, I do keep it on quick menu for occasions when I need it. |
| AF/AE Lock | AF/AE Lock | I prefer to lock both focus and exposure when using that button. As I use it only if I am recording something, |
| AF/AE Lock Hold | On | Setting this to on allows locking of AF/AE with the long press to the button and then using shutter without having to hold the button at the same time. I find default setting requires way too much fidgeting on a small space for my taste. |
| Shutter AF | On | It just enables half-press focus, full-press take picture mode. |
| Half Press Release | Off | It just enables half-press focus, full-press take picture mode. |
| Quick AF | Off | Idea of this setting is that camera focuses as you get ready to take picture. In reality it just eats up the battery and doesn't work when you need it the most (e.g. low-light). |
| Eye Sensor AF | Off | I prefer to set my focus by half-press and not to have camera refocus every time I switch between monitor and viewfinder. |
| Pinpoint AF Time | MID | I rarely use pinpoint AF so I simply go with default. |
| Pinpoint AF Display | PIP | I rarely use pinpoint AF so I simply go with default. |
| AF Assist Lamp | Off | Somehow I always find myself in positions behind glass or with shiny metal around me and AF assist lamp goes berserk. I might re-enable it during low-light. |
| Direct Focus Area | Off | Since I use Fn1 to adjust focus area, I keep this off. |
| Focus/Release Priority | Release | I'll rather have blurry picture than no picture at all. |
| AF+MF | Off | Call me lazy but I usually don't mess with auto-focus. If I want manual focus I simply use the side lever and go crazy. |
| MF Assist | Wheel Focus | It uses control ring for adjusting. |
| MF Assist Display | PIP | Picture-in-picture works for me. |
| MF Guide | On | When using manual focus, a small scrollbar is shown with focus position marked. |
| Peaking | On / High | When manually focusing, blue dots are nice hint to know what is in the focus. |
| Histogram | On | I would say histogram is mandatory. My favorite position is down-right; just far enough not to mess with picture framing. |
| Guide Line | 3x3 | I love guide lines. Makes framing much easier. |
| Highlight | On | Even with histogram, it is easy to get picture overexposed by accident. With highlight you will see all those overexposed areas blinking and that is much harder to ignore. :) |
| Zebra Pattern | ZEBRA2 | I like to see my errors early. :) |
| Monochrome Live View | Off | Supposedly it is easier to focus in black-and-white; I just ignore it. |
| Constant Preview | On | I love constant preview as it allows me to immediately see if I messed up Aperture/Shutter/ISO trinity instead of figuring that once my button is already half-pressed. |
| Exposure Meter | On | When changing aperture or shutter speed, it is nice to see where you stand. |
| Dial Guide | On | More guides never hurts. :) |
| LVF Display Style | Top+Bottom | I like lot of details. |
| Monitor Display Style | Top+Bottom | I like lot of details. |
| Monitor Info Display | On | Why not having more info? :) |
| Recording Area | Picture | I like my default setup to show how stills would look. |
| Remaining Display | Stills | As I don't use videos much, I prefer to see number of stills remaining. |
| Auto Review | 2 seconds | Two seconds is more than enough to see picture you have taken. |
| Fn Button Set | Fn1 | I only remap Fn1 to Focus Area Set. Fn2 I leave on Wi-Fi and Fn3 stays LVF/Monitor switch. |
| Zoom Lever | Smooth | Default is fine. |
| Control Ring | Off | If there is one thing I don't like on LX100 it is its control ring. It simply doesn't feel right and it is easy to move by accident. So I simply turn it off. Mind you, control ring still works for manual focus even if you turn it off. |
| Zoom Resume | Off | I prefer to start on the widest zoom. |
| Quick Menu | Custom | Default menu is OK but I find it a bit on a crowded side with all settings I can set more easily directly on the button. With custom menu, I can configure up to 3 screens with 5 settings each albeit I keep it on a single screen for even faster adjustments. |
| iA Button Switch | Press And Hold | Two things I find easy to do by accident: changing exposure compensation and entering iA mode. While I cannot do anything about oversensitive wheel, I can at least make later a bit harder to enter. |
| Video Button | On | As someone who takes stills most of the time, I like having video recording on a separate button. |
| Eye Sensor | Low | I lower the sensibility of eye sensor to minimize misdetects. |
Setup
| Menu Resume | On | I prefer menu state to be remembered between visits. |
| Menu Information | On | I leave it on since even if you turn it off, you don't get an extra row. |
| Self Timer Auto Off | On | I don't see purpose of remembering self-timer between camera restarts. |
Playback
| Delete Confirmation | Yes first | I prefer to have Yes preselected when deleting images. I guess I like to live a dangerous life. |
Custom Quick Menu
| AFS/AFF/AFC | I like to be able to quickly switch between AFS and AFF. |
| Metering Mode | Switching between 49-area and single-area focusing comes in handy. |
| HDR | For rare occasions I need HDR, I don't need to hunt it in menu. |
| Stabilizer | Essentially just to select between full and vertical-only stabilization. |
| Silent Mode | Nice for museums and similar places. Lousy for high-speed subjects. |