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Focus Bracketing and Stacking with Panasonic S cameras

pdk42

Moderator
I've only quite recently (Nov 22) got into L-mount/Panasonic S. Before that I was a hardcore Olympus user for over a decade. One of the great things that Olympus introduced over the years was in-camera focus bracketing and stacking. The bracketing took some time to know how to set the increment and frame count, but once you'd mastered that, it worked well. What I was particularly impressed with though was the stacking feature. It worked extremely well - often better than you could get with a fancy package on a PC and using raw files. It was limited to certain Olympus lenses only, apparently because the stacking needed data on focus breathing and such like (which makes sense).

So, I was looking at what the Panasonic S cameras offer. I can see that they do focus bracketing, but not stacking. Then there is the "post focus" feature which looks quite interesting, even allowing a focus range to be selected for the camera to produce a stack.

What are people's experiences with these features?
 
So, I was looking at what the Panasonic S cameras offer. I can see that they do focus bracketing, but not stacking. Then there is the "post focus" feature which looks quite interesting, even allowing a focus range to be selected for the camera to produce a stack.

What are people's experiences with these features?
Focus bracketing worked fine on the S5 and I used it quite a bit. Have not tried it on the S5II yet, but I expect I will. It's a reason to always have a Lumix camera. I process the focus stack in Lightroom.
 
Post focus is Panasonic proposal for photo stacking on camera (actually uses 4k photo) . You can choose the focus range on screen from different focus points for the final stack after camera’s initial shooting (camera analyze the scene and auto select multiply focus points).
 
Focus bracketing worked fine on the S5 and I used it quite a bit. Have not tried it on the S5II yet, but I expect I will. It's a reason to always have a Lumix camera. I process the focus stack in Lightroom.
I didn't know that LR could process a focus stack.
 
Post focus is Panasonic proposal for photo stacking on camera (actually uses 4k photo) . You can choose the focus range on screen from different focus points for the final stack after camera’s initial shooting (camera analyze the scene and auto select multiply focus points).
It's an interesting concept for sure. I played with it a bit yesterday and got this:

PS5_6440_1024.jpg
  • Panasonic - DC-S5
  • LUMIX S 24-105/F4
  • 105.0 mm
  • ƒ/4
  • 1/80 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • 1
  • ISO 100


It was handheld and there was a slight breeze so there's a bit of softness there. But I think the overall result is OK. My only complaint is that there's quite a bit of playing around needed on the camera to generate the JPEG from the movie. It would be better if Panasonic could release a PC app that would do it.
 
You can extract single jpegs from the 4k/6k "photo" with PC and stack those afterwards with Helicon or similar application. On the other hand, in that case you would like to use focus bracketing+RAWs for better results.
I'm not sure if there is an application for stacking automatically the movie as well.
 
I think that Helicon can stack from some types of Movie files, since adding an S5 to my arsenal have not had much success as the S5 + Sigma Macro Lens seems too heavy for my "WeMacro" focusing rack. At present have lost my PC Monitor only had it about 15 years. So expecting a 21/9 replacement tomorrow , can get back to some processing again.
 
I did a few stacks recently that worked out well. I find using focus bracketing with raw and then stacking in PS gives better results than JPEGs from the 6k photo mode. Here's an example of the two:

JPEG from 6k photo stacked in camera:
PS5_7187_2048.jpg

JPEG from stacking of 15 raws using Photoshop:
PS5_7188-Edit_2048.jpg
 
Post focus is Panasonic proposal for photo stacking on camera (actually uses 4k photo) . You can choose the focus range on screen from different focus points for the final stack after camera’s initial shooting (camera analyze the scene and auto select multiply focus points).
Does it still work on the S5 II since they removed 4k/6k photo modes?
 
So there is no focus bracketing option now, or is that a separate function from post focus?
The S5II has focus stacking just like the S5, see Paul's second example. It just doesn't have the 6K option (which I never used on the S5 anyway because full frame RAW stacking is so much better).
 
Paul your second stack is certainly better than the jpg version. My new 21/9 monitor shows the difference very noticeably.
And on the S5 and my G95 + G85 all have both Focus Bracketing, and Post Focus.
 
So there is no focus bracketing option now, or is that a separate function from post focus?
I assume it has focus bracketing, but not the post focus option since the latter works by generating a short 6 or 8k video file as the focus is racked front to back.
 
The S5II has focus stacking just like the S5, see Paul's second example. It just doesn't have the 6K option (which I never used on the S5 anyway because full frame RAW stacking is so much better).
To be pedantic, it doesn’t have focus stacking, just focus bracketing. You need to do the stacking in post processing.
 
Quite correct Paul. I always use Helicon, but so far nothing from the S5 to process. Just hope somehow to match or better results from my G90. Sorry to post a mft image, if I am doing wrong please tell me. But JIC any one gets the idea I don't take photos, just an example of a past one.
Macro-522.jpg
 
Quite correct Paul. I always use Helicon, but so far nothing from the S5 to process. Just hope somehow to match or better results from my G90. Sorry to post a mft image, if I am doing wrong please tell me. But JIC any one gets the idea I don't take photos, just an example of a past one.
View attachment 349
That’s a cracker. And wow! - 161 images; and with a MF lens!
 
Thanks Paul. It has to be in MF as the WeMacro is an auto macro rack. Depending on subject can do in excess of 500 exposures for stacking.
 
Many of the Lumix cameras do automatic focus bracketing with settings for number of shots, step and so on. Images are not stacked in-camera, but can be assembled and processed with photoshop, helicon, lightroom and so on. Here's a recent 90-image stack from the S5ii. Bracketing works the same on the S5, and also on my FZ1000ii.PII_4890fb.jpg
 
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