Panasonic FZ50 Photos

#1 Maurizio Decolle

I'm desperately looking for a superzoom camera to replace my Canon DSLR and all that lens changing, sensor cleaning, no live preview and the difficulty to shot from "uncommon" point of views unless one is an acrobat. Add to this that my pictures are normally taken when I follow a tourist guide who doesn't care I have to change optics to better frame a shot
I had great hopes on this Panasonic camera: the wonderful Leica lens, the OIS ... but after seeing those pictures taken at iso 200 with that color noise blotches I understand I will have to live in the "DSLR jail" for some more years :-(

6:48 am - Wednesday, September 6, 2006

#2 Zoltan

Maurizio,

Have you taken a look at the Olympus E-330 yet? It's got a built-in dustbuster so you need not clean the sensor, offers live preview on a tiltable LCD, there is a 36-360mm equivalent superzoom available and the noise levels are MUCH lower than on ANY bridge camera bar perhaps the Sony R1.

9:11 am - Wednesday, September 6, 2006

#3 max meier

you took motives where every camera is ok. you should take some shots in difficult light environment like dark, little light, etc. und you will find out immidiately that the whole wont work because of the autofocus. I have the 8MB version and I did 100 dreds of shots and my comment is the result.

6:17 pm - Wednesday, September 6, 2006

#4 Riley

I dont see any focussing issues here, and havnt heard that elsewhere either, could be technique or a warranty job. But I do see the watercolour effects of noise reduction in camera and its not pretty. Thats a pitty because a lot of people had great hopes for this camera. Perhaps Panasonic if you are listening (and we know you are) its time to make some quick changes and offer a firmware update to satisfy these issues.

Riley

8:40 pm - Wednesday, September 6, 2006

#5 GLX

You guys crack me up!

Watercolour? That's funny -

if the photo is even just a little bit on the noisy side then you say that it's too grainy and an annoyance

and then you guys say that it's too soft and runny when the noise is suppressed!

What more do you want from a TINY sensor?

May be y'all need to go back to 35mm.

10:35 pm - Wednesday, September 6, 2006

#6 Gary's Parries

GLX, it sounds as if your analysis assumes all in-camera noise reduction
firmware works the same, but I don't think that is the case. I think some
cameras are capable of better noise reduction than others, which means
they have better discrimination algorithms for detecting what is noise and
what is image detail; hence, they can remove more noise with less blur.

6:06 am - Thursday, September 7, 2006

#7 Kim Wood

I had the FZ30for a few days, then upgraded to the FZ50. After over a week and many low light, relatively high ISO shots I simply don't see any more noise than other digital camera sample shots, and a lot less than many. I even took exactly the same shot at the same settings and lighting with both the 30 and the 50. Admittedly, the 30 was pretty bad, but the 50 showed almost no noise whatsoever. Sure if you blew it up you could find some, but I won't have any occasion to print anything bigger than maybe 10" x 13", so it's not likely to be a problem for me.

By the way, one simple pass with the noise filter in Adobe Elements 3 completely cleared up the noise in the FZ30 shots, so I don't imagine it would be any problem with the 50. Even so, the Venus III engine really does seem to deal with it well in camera.

I guess we'll see what the experts have to say when they finally get around to reviewing the FZ50, instead of stuffing buns in their faces at Photokina.

5:38 pm - Friday, September 8, 2006

#8 Fredy Ross

I just don't understand all the sample photos as none have any taken in low light. I don't think there is any camera now which is a problem during the day. However low light is another matter as is high ISO. Same with dpreview with the Canon 400D, again not one photo over ISO400. Please explain as to me the only test now of cameras is low light and moving objects in low light.

1:56 pm - Saturday, September 9, 2006

#9 Quenton

Purchased FZ50 as 4 year anniversary present for my girlfriend.

Completely gutted. Cut to the bone.

Soft, Flat, Lifeless JPG's. No contrast, No sharpness, No clarity.

My 4 year Olympus 3.2Mp C760 has better results!

C'mon Panasonic give in to the thousands of requests for a firmware update.

7:41 am - Monday, November 12, 2007