Panasonic DMC-LZ8

[dendro982]

For the last couple of days I'm trying Panasonic DMC-LZ8, 8 Mpix, point-and-shoot kind of camera.

Tips on making macro shots will be appreciated.

So far I have impression, that it uses completely different logic, comparing to my old Pentax Optio 30:

1. While Pentax in Macro mode allows point on selected object (within focal length, of course), magnify part of it, and camera focuses automatically on it, all what left is make a shot:

Cropped:

This is 3 Mpix camera.

2. then Panasonic shows you distance, at which object should be, and makes a shot within this distance only. 0.05m only for Macro mode, without possibility to magnify part of object before shot (and use all 8 Mpix to get details at their best, instead of using 8 Mpix for all coral, and then cropping off a small part and working with it, actually only 3 Mpix were useful).
Whole shot:

Cropped:

Low light, hand held, flow is on, shot from the top in both cases.

I'm new to this camera, could be mistaken. Is it so or not in your opinion, and would appreciate advice on this camera use.

P.S. I'm not new to photography

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

The images are tiny and the crops don't look good. Taken by someone "not new to photography", I would say this is a good argument for the need of better equipment.

 

[dendro982]

The images are tiny because they were resized for the posting on forums, to give an idea how big is field of view at maximum magnification for this object.