lens

some noise

Well, i have just purchased the Panasonic FZ50 for about 3 weeks now, after about 600 test shots with it i have come to a conclusion that this FZ50 is by far the best FZ i've ever own. I have owned FZ7, FZ10, FZ15, FZ20(2), FZ30 and now FZ50. To no surprise to me, this FZ50 out do the rest of its family, by far as image quality, FZ50 gives almost perect pictures, the sharpness from its Leica lens is amazingly sharp, full of details contrast, full of depth of field,im very please with it..
I must say its got some noise from iso 100 to 800, but i know it before hand, so now i use noise software to remove it easily..i think most all point and shoot cameras do have noise issue,this is no exception.
I have put it thru the iso tests, i shot at all iso setting from 100-1600, the results are very please, from iso 800 i can see noise creeping in, then comes iso 1600 it shows even more, but both can be a quick fix to me..both were usable images.
Now!, comes the colors, i think FZ50 has a bluish cast to all images, but FZ50 has a custom white balance 1 and 2, so i usetilized that by set a custom w/b 1 for the outdoors and 2 for indoor w/o flash. they turned out perfectly, totally awesome..
I must also mention about bokeh, FZ50 has a minimum of bokeh at tele end, therefore it gives you extra depth of field. I love this camera for its tele, at max 420mm at f3.7 it produces very sharp, contrasty images. Anyone who tries to buy that big lens at 400mm f3.5 you will pay an arm and a leg for DSLR use and you will need a pro tripod to hold it sturdy, but not on FZ50 i can shoot it handheld w/o any problem due to its OIS optical image stabilizer.
I also add on the Raynox wide angle 0.72x adapter to it so i can get from 25mm to 420mm..What a range for anyone can have for eveyday use.
I also bought the 3rd party battery grip holder for it too, the grip holds 2 batts, i can shoot for a week or about 500 shots.
Finally. I love this camera, i want to carry it with me everywhere now. I may try to use it in my studio soon..
Good luck
Chao
JV

Customer Service

None so far.

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Canon, Nikon...

wide range in the lens

not as wide angle as I would like
but definitely a good range for one lens on one camera

again
my results are on my blog

www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com

I am not skilled enough to list weaknesses

the camera is far more powerful than my needs....

I tend to stick with the Auto setting

my photos are usually more documentation than art

www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com

I am pleased with how things turn out close up and steady and action shots as well

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I have had several point and shoot digital cameras
along with several Canon film cameras

No need to switch lenses, very sharp, crisp photo´s, good software for RAW format pictures, excellent built in flash, enormous amount of adjustment settings, flexible.
Would give it 6 stars if possible!

Not to make pictures in darkness without flash, due to high ISO noise.

Excellent all-in-one solution for the advanced, learning or professional. Due to many automatic functions, combined with the ability to manual adjust, this camera has yet to meet it´s equal. The LCD screen is excellent if you´re (like me) often outdoors and waiting for something to happen. Peeping thru a tiny hole makes me feel like a pirate and I can´t use my other eye for a while! The camera is built like a tank and has more possibilities then you can imagine. Many DSLR camera´s do not have as many feature as this one. With a very good 2.8, 35-420 zoom lens from the famous Leica company, you would spend at least 5 x the price for a DSLR from Canon, Nikon or any other brand and still have to look thru the little hole, change lenses with the danger of getting dirt into the body, etc. It´s an exact copy of the Leica Vlux, but costs less.

Customer Service

Fast! I complained about some mistakes in the translated Dutch manual in the weekend and monday had an answer already!

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Canon 400D, Fuji Finepix 5000, 6500, Canon Powershot 430, multiple SLR film camera´s, like Pentax.

Fantastic lens. 12X zoom isn't a joke. No chromatic aberration, no "star" highlights, no purple fringing, plus it has that "glowing" thing going for it -- when you get everything right, your subject "glows". This lens lays waste to most slr kit-lenses. It says "LEICA" on the barrel -- and I believe it. It has that "something".

Handling is superb. When in manual mode it is a dream, handles like a "real" camera should. The manual zoom ring and manual focus ring behave like lenses are supposed to behave.

Metering is awesome. It's been slightly tweaked from the FZ30's -- this one tends to *not* overexpose in super-high-contrast situations.

Battery life is great. I'd estimate 300 shots per charge.

Keeping what i said above in mind, about noise, you must excersise the utmost caution when working at iso 400 and 800. The least bit of underexposure will introduce noise. However, that noise is barely visible at sizes like 8x10 or 11x14, or when viewed on a monitor so you can see the entire picture. If you pixel-peep, that is, view at 100% magnification, where one camera pixel equals one pixel on your display, look elsewhere, this isn't the camera for you. If you print, and view images on your computer in a sane manner, then this is a camera for you.

Properly used, this camera produces outstanding results. Contrasty, sharp, vibrant pictures. It does take some getting used to, it can't quite be used as carelessly as the typical point-and-shooter may wish to use it. Out-of-the-box settings, in particular those regarding focus, can lend themselves to "missing" the intended focusing point. This lens is so sharp that if you miss focusing by a few feet, your subject will be blurry, and then you'll blame the camera, when in reality, it was your fault. Be extremely careful on where you focus, and you'll be well rewarded.

As for noise, I'll say there's a lot of tounge-wagging everywhere about how "noisy" Lumix cameras are, and how "horrible" Venus III engine is. To which I say "you get what you put into it."

Even at iso 800, I can make un-retouched prints to 8x10 and 11x14 which look spectacular. The trick to avoid noise is to not underexpose, not even a little bit. It's that simple, really.

Properly used, this camera beats the tar out of typical 35mm print film, in terms of grain. Iso 800 on 35mm film never looked this good. Not without extreme effort in the developing phase.

If you're a serious shooter, or want to be one, and want a single, light, medium-sized camera with one killer lens, awesome ergonomics and handling, this is the one. Properly used it can stand in for an SLR and about four lenses.

Customer Service

Haven't needed to use 'em yet.

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Lumix FZ30, verious older 2 and 3 megapixel Sonys, and too many film cameras to mention.

Lens
Image stabillization
Handling and feel (manual zoom is great)
Value
Menus and customizability
Images at ISO 100 and 200
Fast start-up time
Battery life (awesome!!)
Filter threads on the lens
RAW conversion bundled software

Noise/useless higher ISO settings
Average auto-focus speed and accuracy, even in moderate light
Spotty exposure (overexposes and desaturates quite often in bright sun)
Incredibly expensive dedicated flashes ($500!!!)
No wireless remote
Continuous shooting speed (2 fps)
Manual focus
Instruction manual

This camera handles more like an SLR than any other advanced "all in one" camera out there, and that means a lot. Being able to have *some* of the best of both worlds is really nice: huge zoom range with manual SLR-like barrel operation, good size and feel, easy menu operations, extensive white balance options, in addition to solid 30fps VGA movie mode, flip out screen, and relatively low price. And there's really nothing like having one piece of gear to handle super close-ups that are completely candid because you're 40ft away.

It's true, image quality definitely suffers here when in-camera processing tries to deal with the noise of the tiny sensor at anything over ISO 200. This is most definitely the camera's achilles heel more than anything else. The FZ50 takes amazing images in adequate light, like the other reviewer noted, but anything else is kind of rough. I know small sensors are often blamed, but I feel that Canon does a better job with the same obstacles sensor- and processor-wise. Hopefully the Venus IV engine won't be as horrendously smeary as a noise-countering solution!!

That said, I have taken some stunning shots with this camera, certainly many steps about the image output of compact P&S's. Don't blame it for not being up to par with a $1,000+ SLR setup just because it looks and handles like one. For $550 it's a pretty sweet rig.

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Canon S2 and S3
Canon 350D
Canon G Series

great image stabilizer, very nice lens,, nice handeling, very good results with good light

image quality goes downhill fast above ISO 400 or in low light. noise as colored sploches very bad when used as discribed. 8x10 at 400 not too bad , but noise reduction makes detail go south. the result looks smeared, sometimes worse than other times . it's 10 megapixels have no relation to a 10 meg SLR because the sensor is very small. maybe 10 megs is too much , a 6 meg I have looks a little better than the FZ50. It is what it is, you have to decide if the convienance of a big zoom is worth so so results. the panasonic fz7 is half the price and maybe a little better than the fz50, also much smaller. if I knew knew that before, I would not have gotten the fz50! It sure looks impressive though!

good images when in good light

Customer Service

Don,t know

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sony h1 panasonic fz7