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Severna Park, Maryland
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Seattle, WA
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#2] Posted: 07/04/2010 - 09:50:00 AM |  |  |
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If you just look at the photos in a folder after uploading them, are they grainy then? When do they first appear grainy?
I ask, because it may be the settings of some step you are making between then and the PDF conversion that is reducing the resolution, not the camera. What is your procedure?
OR...
Keep in mind that I'm not a camera buff. Anything that I used to know is long forgotten since the advent of point and shoot cameras. However, I did just try to force my TZ5 to take a grainy shot...and succeeded. I did it by setting the ISO to the max, which it seems you can do in "Normal Picture" mode or by choosing "Night", "High Senistivity", Candle Light" etc in Scene mode.
I typically don't use normal mode at all. I use "Intelligent Auto" for all my inspection work and, typically, one of the appropriate scene settings for recreational stuff.
So...you may have the ISO sensitivity setting on the camera set way high. What mode do you use to take photos? If you are using "Normal Picture", hit the menu button while in shooting mode. Is ISO sensitivity set to "auto" or a number? If you are using one of the Scene modes, which one is it set to?
Another way of checking...take a photo of something outside with whatever mode you normally use, then display it on the camera. Hit the display button (lower left) twice to bring up all the picture info. What ISO did the camera take the photo at?
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Richard Moore
Rest Assured Inspection Services
Seattle, WA
http://www.rainspect.com
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Gaston, Oregon
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 Lumix TZ5 issue
[#3] Posted: 07/04/2010 - 11:05:20 AM | | |
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| Quote: Originally posted by John Dirks Jr
I know some of you use the TZ5 so you may know more about its features than me.
I'm getting grainy picture results when I enlarge pics that are inserted in the final PDF report. When using my older HP727, which is a lesser camera, I dont get this. Surely the TZ5 should do better. I've tried higher and lower res setting on the cam and still get the same thing.
Is there other settings on my TZ that I'm unaware of that might be causing this?
The camera might be producing a grainy image or you might be getting a loss of resolution either when you insert the picture into MS Word or when you convert the Word file into a PDF.
The first step is to determine where in the process you lose your picture quality. On the same monitor, look at the same picture as a JPG, as part of the Word file, and, again, as part of the PDF. Where does the quality drop off?
Also, do the pictures look grainy -- as they would as a result of improper exposure -- or do they look pixelated -- as they would from excessive file compression?
- Jim Katen, Oregon
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Jim Katen, Oregon
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Oswego, NY
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#4] Posted: 07/04/2010 - 10:20:35 PM | | |
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I've got a TZ4 collecting dust, and am on my second TZ7. Great camera.
Software issues, with both.
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I'm Gary Blum and I approve this message
www.gtbinspectionservices.com |
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Oak Park, IL
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#5] Posted: 07/04/2010 - 11:45:03 PM | | |
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I use the ZS1 so I don't know if you have the same settings. I would check the picture size setting, the aspect ratio, and the iso setting.
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Rick Sabatino
Sabatino Consulting, Inc |
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Severna Park, Maryland
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#6] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 05:27:41 AM | | |
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I use the "Intelligent Auto" setting and shoot in 3M-EZ. That should prevent any extreme setting that would cause a problem right?
I'll fiddle some more. Meanwhile, here's a PDF sample with the same final size I use in the reports. Zoom in and you'll see what I mean. I don't know, maybe I'm being picky. What do you think?
Download Attachment:  pic test.pdf
36.29 KB
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John Dirks Jr - Arundel Home Inspection LLC - MD license: 29827
Maryland Home Inspectors - Maryland Home Inspection - Maryland Radon Testing - Baltimore County Rental Inspection
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Lafayette, Louisiana
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#7] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 06:41:45 AM | | |
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John, I don't own any Panasonics but that PDF'd photo doesn't look like it has a pixel problem because I can read the small print quite well. It does look 'off' though.
Chk this out, right column, 'aggressive smoothing'. Happens only in low light like the posted photo of your mouse pad.
Try it again, same mouse pad but with a lower pixel count, under 1 Meg pixel. It might prevent the triggering of the 'smoothing' programming.
Marc
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Severna Park, Maryland
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#8] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 08:55:14 AM | | |
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I tried at .3M and did not see an improvement. It looks like the multi step process causes a tad of deterioration at each step.
The steps are;
1. resize with windows picture resizer.
2. insert in word doc.
3. convert word doc to PDF
When I view the pics on the laptop before any of the above steps, the quality is much better.
It's weird because I dont remember this problem with my old HP727 cam. I'll dig it up for some comparison.
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John Dirks Jr - Arundel Home Inspection LLC - MD license: 29827
Maryland Home Inspectors - Maryland Home Inspection - Maryland Radon Testing - Baltimore County Rental Inspection
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Chicago, IL
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#9] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 09:13:32 AM | | |
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I use the Lumix cameras, use the Windows resizer, small rez, pretty much the same things you're doing.
I use several different .pdf engines, and they all have very, very different results regarding the size of the document.
.pdf factory makes a very good document, and makes it very small. The .pdf engine in FM Pro works fine, but the documents come out being approximately 2-3 times *larger*. Acrobat is somewhere in the middle. 999 is a little bigger than .pdf factory, and smaller than Acrobat.
What .pdf engine are you using?
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Kurt in Chicago
"If I smell it, it goes in the report".............Phillip Smith...2012
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Severna Park, Maryland
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Gaston, Oregon
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#11] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 10:05:57 AM | | |
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| Quote: Originally posted by kurt
I use the Lumix cameras, use the Windows resizer, small rez, pretty much the same things you're doing.
I use several different .pdf engines, and they all have very, very different results regarding the size of the document.
.pdf factory makes a very good document, and makes it very small. The .pdf engine in FM Pro works fine, but the documents come out being approximately 2-3 times *larger*. Acrobat is somewhere in the middle. 999 is a little bigger than .pdf factory, and smaller than Acrobat.
What .pdf engine are you using?
Can't you adjust the output from those programs? I use PrimoPDF, a little dipsquat program, and it lets me choose the output quality/size. I imagine that all of the ones you mention would do the same.
- Jim Katen, Oregon
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Jim Katen, Oregon
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Seattle, WA
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#12] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 10:46:06 AM | | |
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| Quote: Originally posted by John Dirks Jr
I use the "Intelligent Auto" setting and shoot in 3M-EZ. That should prevent any extreme setting that would cause a problem right?
OK, that's the same as I use. I'm not sure I see the issue in your sample. You are producing a "quality reduced" photo for a report, not something that is going to get framed.
Quote: The steps are;
1. resize with windows picture resizer.
2. insert in word doc.
3. convert word doc to PDF
When I view the pics on the laptop before any of the above steps, the quality is much better.
That's almost the same as me. With the exceptiion of the "beauty shot", I first crop and then resize all other photos down to 350 pixels at the shortest dimension. After adding text and arrows, I then paste them into Word and, usually, "corner drag" them to an even smaller size. Before printing to PDF (PDF995) I use the Word picture compression feature set to "all photos" and "print quality".
And, yes, if you start blowing up the photos in my reports much beyond 100%, they are definitely grainy and much poorer quality than the originals. But for this purpose, they are fine. If I thought my reports were going to be published in a glossy coffe table magazine, then I would leave all the photos at the original resolution...and have HUGE PDF files.
Quote: My reports average 20 pages with pictures included and most often come out under 2MB total size.
Well...there you are (me too). The original photos at the IA 3m-EZ setting are about 1.5MB. 20 of those would be 30MB. Obviously, you can't use only 6% of the "space" and expect anything approaching the original quality. Has anyone complained? I bet they would if you sent them 30MB files to download.
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Richard Moore
Rest Assured Inspection Services
Seattle, WA
http://www.rainspect.com
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Chicago, IL
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Lafayette, Louisiana
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#14] Posted: 07/05/2010 - 11:10:28 AM | | |
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My last report had about 3.6 MB worth of jpeg pictures (19 photos) but after printing with Adobe Acrobat Pro 8, the entire report was just under 1 MB. No noticeable difference in quality from the originals. The only bad thing is that the Adobe Acrobat Pro set me back about $400.
Marc
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"If Guam gets too overpopulated, it might tip over."
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Collins, NY
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Lumix TZ5 issue
[#15] Posted: 07/06/2010 - 08:50:28 AM | | |
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I think your being fussy. The mouse pad pic just started to pixelate at 400x, and then only at the 'shiny' edges of the mouse.
I use PhotoScape to resize all my pics (600 pixels long edge for the cover pic and 400 for the rest), then add in my arrows and such to the smaller image. I set the photo sizes in inches using the format tools in Word, usually smaller than the actual image size. My reports seem to be comparable, 18 to 20 pages with 15 to 20 pics, and when printed through PdfCreator come out under 2 MB. I don't see any issues with image quality in the pdf, but I have seen results all over the map from various printers if I decide to take them all the way to paper.
Tom
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Tom
http://clearcreekhomeinspection.com/
Life is tough enough as it is, it's tougher when your stupid. Don't do stupid things.
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