Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody stopping by to see the latest installment of The Family Photographer. 4K Photo mode and winter sledding has been a major focus during this busy week as The Family Photographer. Just as it may have been for many of you if you’re the designated shooter in your clan.
Isabella sledding on Pete’s Hill. Bozeman, Montana FZ300 in 4K Photo Mode.
This holiday season Tanya’s sister Sonya came to spend Christmas with us. In tow were her two little ones, Isabella and Isak as well as mother-in-law Jane and father-in-law Terry. It was a great Montana Christmas for us all and my job was to capture all the action or least some of the most exciting things.
Isaac catching some air on pete’s Hill. Bozeman, Montana Lumix FZ300 in 4K Photo Mode
When the kids announced they had brought their sleds I thought this would be a great time to test out the 4K Photo Mode on the recently announced Panasonic Lumix FZ300, Tanya’s current favorite camera. The goal was to catch the speed and the wrecks that are always a part of kids on a steep hill with saucers, sleds, toboggans and speed.
Isaac catching some air on Pete’s Hill. Bozeman, Montana Lumix FZ300 in 4K Photo Mode
What I was really interested in seeing was if this camera’s auto focus system could keep up with the fast moving excitement. To capture it all I set the FZ300 to AF-C, selected the 4K Photo Mode, selected a shutter speed of 1/1600 of a second, set the exposure to manual and opened up one stop above the suggested exposure to compensate for the snow. When shooting n the 4K Photo Mode the camera is capturing 30 Frames Per Second. Each one captured at 1/1600th of a second which is a speed that really helps stop the action. 30FPS helps you really catch the peak of the action.
Terry pulling Isabella on a sled through Lindley Park, Bozeman, Montana
When the kids would start at the top of the hill I would have the lens zoomed in to 600mm. As they made their way closer I would slowly zoom out as they rocketed towards me. Amazingly, the camera would hold focus for at least 50% of the run. There was a fair amount of snow in the air which is always a detriment to quality AF but it didn’t effect the AF accuracy all that much. I was extremely impressed.
Isaac, Sonya, Isabella and me. Pete’s Hill, Bozeman, Montana
I uploaded the video clips into Lightroom, found what looked to be the most exciting, then went through that clip one frame at a time. The results are below in a slide show that contains images pulled from the 4 second clip. These are pictures of a young lady that was really in to the game and provided some great action.
All the images in the slideshow were taken from the 1.5 second piece of the clip and all are 8 megapixel stills, pulled from via Lightroom’s video tool. To speed up the sequence of 33 images you can click on the arrows at the bottom of the box since at 30 frame per second there are some redundant shots but I wanted you to see all of them to get a feel for how 4K Photo Mode works.
I Think it’s safe to say this is an impressive new tool for capturing family fun. Let me know if you have any questions for The Family Photographer.