Klaas Bloem (Yahoo!, FZ10 group, 18 May 2004 and other communications) writes...
...our FZ10's have no focus assist lamp, therefore it can be very difficult to focus in real dim lightning situations. We do have a manual focus ring but it's of the electronic `fly by wire' type, that's why they didn't put a distance scale on the lens barrel.
However I discovered it can be used with a distance scale! I made 2 marks on the focus ring 180 degrees apart from each other with a white marker pen and glued a plain piece of paper on top of the lens barrel positioned between the on-board flash and the focus ring. I first made a zero point on the left hand side of the scale used for synchronization of the focus ring with the scale. The trick is you have to turn the focus ring at least a halve turn anti-clockwise (seen from behind the camera) matching one of your marks on the focus ring with the zero point of the scale. Now you can start focussing on subjects at various distances from the camera and different zoom settings and make marks on your scale. After that I removed the scale and measured the different marks on it and made a new scale in Corel Presentations, it came out like {pictured below}.
(To see the above photo, click the above image. Wait for the web-page to load. After you have appreciated Klaas's album, you can then click the `back' button on your web-browser, and the above image will be displayed correctly.)
(In the above link you can also see a picture of my FZ10 with the scale mounted on it's lens barrel here, just click the thumbnails to view the pictures). I printed and sealed it in plastic before gluing it to the lens barrel.
I made 142 pictures of a large disco/dance party using my scale, I used my external flash and used Aperture priority F8 to give me a large Depth of field, all pictures were in focus and tag sharp! You can see some of those pictures here.
(If you have trouble seeing the above image, try clicking on it.)
Don't forget to re- synchronize the focus ring after the camera has gone into sleep modus, as I have made 2 syncro marks on the ring I only have to make a half turn (anti clockwise) to line up the other mark with the zero point on my scale.
