What is it

[glenafton]

On my camera,a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ50 I have the facility to use "Direct exposure Compensation" Can someone please tell me what it is and how does it work?
glenafton

[A.M.D.A.]

On my camera,a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ50 I have the facility to use "Direct exposure Compensation" Can someone please tell me what it is and how does it work?
glenafton

Perhaps you meant DMC-FZ50?

[glenafton]

A.M.D.A.
You are quite correct . The camera in question is the DMC-FZ50
glenafton

[A.M.D.A.]

"Exposure Compensation" is a feature which allows the user to manually alter the brightness / darkness of photos, before taking the photo.

Usually, the camera takes care of exposure reasonably well, but at times the "EC" will come in handy. Say, when taking a picture where snow is abundant. Since snow is white, it messes up the camera's auto exposure meter and calls far a very fast shutter speed or small aperture to try to make the snow look a middle gray. Light meters are designed to try to make everything a middle-gray when the colours in the scene are mixed in.

But not everything should be a middle gray. That's when manual compensation helps, in the snow example, rack up the EC a bit higher above the neutral level. And take several shots with different amounts applied to ensure at least 1 perfectly exposed shot, with snow white like it should be.

To access this feature, turn on the camera in any shooting mode other than full manual ("M" on mode dial). Movie mode and scene modes are OK. Then press the ^ arrow on the camera's controller pad. The amount of brightness / darkness compensation can be adjusted via the < and > arrow buttons. Press MENU SET to finish.

You should be able to view the effect while applying it, no need to take a picture and review in playback, unlike a DSLR. Apparently, compensation is done the same on the FZ50 as my FZ7K. See the FZ50's english manual on page 62 for more info.

[glenafton]

A.M.D.A.
Many thanks for the help. I understand a LITTLE better now and I can experiment a bit to find out more.
Glenafton