Old Panasonic Lumix Color Photos

Today I went digging into old hard drives searching for some old photos from the camera that I just sent in to be converted to Monochrome Infrared.  The camera I am having converted to monochrome is my old Panasonic Lumix G3.  I won't be able to shoot color photos with this camera anymore so I figured I should dig out some old color photos that I shot using this camera as a reminder of its colorful days. 

Truth be told, I never really shot a whole lot of photos using this camera.  For a relatively short one or two summers, however, it was my main camera for wildlife photography while at the lake house due to its slightly larger crop factor (2x) which provided me with a longer zoom.  I have captured quite a few really nice images of loons, ducks, and nature but each of those images always needed a lot of post-processing work.  This camera was replaced as my primary wildlife photography camera when I purchased my first Sony camera.  Those Sony cameras produce so much nicer results and they are far easier to shoot due to the larger viewfinders and lightning-fast autofocus with hundreds of focus points.  The old Panasonic G3 is dog-slow by comparison and the viewfinder is a tiny tunnel.  

I found the color that the G3 produced to be a bit frustrating.  Most color photos from this camera seemed to have a pinkish-magenta color cast while I prefer warmer tones.  I found this to be especially problematic when shooting photos of people.  I think most people agree because it seemed like most people shot portraits in black and white when using this camera.  When shooting in color, the skin tones always had a magenta color cast rather than a warmer feel.  I was able to adjust the colors in post-processing but it was always a time consuming and frustrating task.  It was far easier to just convert the image to black and white.

On the positive side, having this sensor converted to monochrome infrared will completely resolve the color cast issue and that is one of the reasons I chose to convert this particular camera.  It will be a dedicated monochrome infrared camera so no color capture at all.  The main reason for choosing this particular camera for a monochrome infrared conversion is because I never use the camera anymore so I wouldn't feel the loss of one of my current cameras.  I actually haven't used this camera in years anyway.  I purchased a couple of Sony cameras and they became my primary preferred cameras which put my old Panasonic and Olympus cameras on a shelf.  

So today, I went digging for some old photos that I shot using this camera and found some good example photos from 2015.  I purchased this camera used like most of my cameras in early 2015 but it was released in 2011 so it was getting a bit long in the tooth by digital standards even then.  That being said, it is a pretty decent camera with a durable aluminum body that is designed purposely to be rather small.  

Handling big and heavy photography gear can be back-breaking especially as we get older and especially if you have extensive spinal injuries.  I fit into both categories now...  older in years and extensive spinal injuries.  My Sony cameras are quite small too but not quite as small as this little Panasonic G3.  The biggest difference, however, is in the size of the lenses.  The lenses for my Sony cameras, while small when compared to the more common Canon and Nikon lenses, are still significantly larger and heavier than the lenses for my Panasonic G3.

I think I purchased this Panasonic G3 for just over $100.  That was a great price but, as I said, it required a bit of work to get the most out of this old camera and that was due to its rather poor color profile.  A four year old camera body that was made of aluminum was almost a steal at $100 or so though.  

This camera also had rather severe shutter lag which made it difficult to use for shooting faster moving objects such as wildlife or people especially children who are always moving quickly.  Ironically, I used this camera primarily for wildlife though because of its larger crop factor.  And, as much as I complain about it being dog-slow due to wild shutter lag, it was still a faster camera to use than my older dSLR cameras!  I learned and started photography during the days of manual focus so this Panasonic G3 was a speed demon by comparison.  Actually, quite often, I continue to shoot using manual focus.  As a monochrome infrared camera, however, it's purpose will be static landscape and architecture photography so a bit of shutter lag won't be an issue.  Shutter lag is only an issue with moving subjects.  It is typically the auto-focus and auto-exposure that slow down the shutter actuation so, since I am well-versed in shooting all manual modes since childhood, I can easily switch to all manual modes for increased speed.  

When I dug out these photos, below, I was reminded of some of the frustrations I had with colors and noise.  The greens were always overly bright (think almost fluorescent) and leaning toward yellow.  When using this camera, I always try to darken and deepen the green tones/hues while toning down the yellows a bit too for foliage... 

I think I had one or two file size and compression settings wrong when I shot this photo, below, but it is still a decent photo.  I really like the background separation but it appears as though the resolution was set to a lower resolution.  I never set a camera to anything less than its best resolution so this was a mistake or it arrived set this way and I hadn't noticed it yet...

In this case, below, the brighter yellow worked just fine but I did have to be careful not to overexpose the yellow.  I wanted to keep all the detail in those bright yellow feathers.  

I did have to warm up the overall color balance of the composition though and lower the magenta color cast.  Actually, for some reason, the original image straight out of the camera recorded in a rather cold, stark color profile.  After some post-processing to warm it up and deepen some of the warm colors, however, it looks pretty good...

I could have used a bit more depth of field for this next one.  I already had the aperture closed quite a bit though and closing it more to gain more depth of field would have cut too much light.  I chose the light being a priority over depth of field...

I've had a lot of cameras over the years that tend to have difficulties rendering blues well but this Panasonic G3 did well with the blues and yellows... 

Another frustration that I always was that this camera always produced noisy (digital grain) images.  I was quickly reminded of this when I dug out the old original image files.  I always had to start the post-processing by doing some selective noise reduction.  Noise is better tolerated in monochrome imaging so I should have less of a problem with the camera after being converted to monochrome infrared.  Besides, I won't be shooting a lot of infrared photos so needing to spend a little time with noise reduction on the few photos I do shoot won't be nearly as frustrating.

I know I have some really nice loon and duck photos that I shot with this camera while at the lake house.  I'll have to dig some of those out soon too when I'm looking for something to do (ie, maybe very soon).

I'm still recovering from my bone marrow biopsy...  it has only been five days since the biopsy so it has not been a long recovery but it has been a bit painful.  I didn't sleep well at all last night due to pain.  Well, actually, I haven't been sleeping well any night since the biopsy but some nights seem to be worse than others.  I'm hoping tonight will be better.  Each day seems to be a bit better than the previous day so that is good and Sheila still says the biopsy site still looks like it is healing very well.