Panasonic DMC-FZ50 1.1 Mp digital camera | Panasonic DMC-FZ50S 10.1MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image...

Surprisingly good buy | Panasonic DMC-FZ50S 10.1MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

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	• Panasonic DMC-FZ50S 10.1MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver) Panasonic Panasonic, 2006 average customer review:based on 156 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent Camera

Why would anyone buy a more expensive camera? Everything you need in a camera is built into this one. With a 12X Optical zoom who needs extra lenes to carry around. This camera is a bargain with excellent quality.

Panasonic DMC-FZ50 1.1 Mp digital camera

I purchased this camera to take photos of wild birds, it exceeds my expectations. It is an extraordinary camera with a Leica lens. Photos are sharp, clear and true to color.It is very user friendly. With the built in stabilizer feature it is difficult to take a blurred photo. I am exceptionally pleased to own this camera.

Surprisingly good buy

I've had 3 different Nikon Coolpix cameras over the past 6-7 years ending with the 8700. Since Nikon no longer makes the high performance Coolpix cameras any longer, I began checking around. I'm the photographer for a weekly newspaper and we primarily use digital photos. I needed minimum 8 megapixels and minimum 250 eqivalent optical zoom.
I'd never heard of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5D, but I was aware of the high reputation of Leica lenses. With 10 MP and 420 equivalent zoom the Lumix is a great deal at a much lower price than my Nikons. I am very happy with this camera.
The Lumix is a bit larger than the Coolpix 8700 and the macro settings are more limited, but the larger screen and high clarity make up for this.

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Great Camera for a Film Photographer

I'm a film photographer, and I have very little interest in using digital cameras. That being said, I bought this camera based on its reputation and reviews for my wife's use. It took me all of about 2 days to find out how wonderful this camera is. I love the fact that I can turn everything off and use it (somewhat) like my traditional process camera. I still have not gotten used to digital DOF and digital's lack of exposure latitude, but this is a great camera. I've already taken this camera on a couple of professional jobs, and it held up pretty good with the Lumix external flash (which is too expensive).

Downside: the instructions are difficult to understand.

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Nothing better on the market in its category

I began my digital photography hobby with a Lumix DMC-FZ1, which had similar glass to the FZ-50. I told myself if I was still shooting in three years I'd buy a "real" camera, and when the time came, I shopped the Nikons and the Canons first.

However, I had grown used to the best asset of the FZ series: that phenomenal 12x optical Leica lens. I shot the full range of the lens, verified by analyzing tens of thousands of photos from the previous three years. I simply couldn't get the versatility out of a DSLR with add-on lenses unless I spent four or five times my budget.

I've owned the camera for 6 months now, and I still feel it was the best investment for me and the kind of photography I do. More serious photographers may want the granular control of being able to switch lenses, but if you're on the fence - or if you want just one piece of equipment to take phenomenal pictures while traveling - there is nothing else that compares in the realm of SLR-like high-end digital "point and shoot" cameras.

The Pros:

12x optical zoom in a variable-aperture Leica lens. Its light retention through the full range is outstanding, and the inclusion of image stabilization makes it possible to really use the far end of the zoom.

RAW mode (particularly in concert with Adobe Lightroom, although the included Silkypix software is passable) allows you to recover elements you'd lose in a JPEG when you're shooting in less than ideal conditions.

Easy to navigate menus and the ability to save your favorite manual settings as scene modes to save time on the fly.

High-resolution widescreen-format video is on par with low-end digital video cameras, although you must have a very fast high-capacity SD card to take advantage of this mode.

Time-to-shoot from off position is dramatically improved over previous models in the series, and burst mode is very good when capturing JPEG images.

Full manual control gives you almost all the functionality of a high-end DSLR; Scene modes are relatively well-designed and usable, although the absence of a macro mode (replaced with a macro auto-focus option) will irk some shooters.

Good management of color and light in low-light settings (with expected noise) make it possible to use this camera for snapshots as well as more serious endeavors.

Support for hotshoe flash attachments allows me to do strobist work with my Nikon- and Canon-DSLR aficionado buddies (but be careful to buy a flash designed for DSLRs). I shoot with a Sunpak Super 383 and wireless Cactus flash transmitter/receiver units.

Adjustable flip/twist viewfinder makes it possible to get this big camera into unlikely places and still get exactly the shot I want.

The Cons:

Since it was built before the advent of 4GB high-capacity SD cards, it only supports 2GB cards. A firmware update could fix this, but none has been forthcoming from Panasonic. This is only an issue when shooting RAW for long periods of time between downloading the data from the card, but it has been a limiting factor for me on a few occasions. Related: writing 20MB of RAW data to a card, no matter how fast, takes a long time. Expect to wait 3-4 seconds between RAW shots.

Obviously, you cannot buy new lenses for this camera, although you can add wide-angle and macro attachments. When adding attachments, you will need an external hotshoe or off-camera flash due to the attachments blocking the on-camera flash.

Speaking of the on-camera flash, it feels like an afterthought and produces deer-in-the-headlights effects in almost every situation. Any serious hobbyist will want an external or hotshoe.

The intelligent ISO mode produces extremely noisy images in low light conditions. When I want a really good shot in such a situation, I switch to full manual, get out my tripod, set the shutter speed to the minimum, and use the delay timer to avoid jitter from pressing the shutter. It's unfortunate that you can get substantially longer exposures in the night scene modes, because they employ intelligent ISO. Panasonic warns against using any other remote shutter technology, and provides only a wired remote shutter release for this camera.

USB transfer speeds from the camera are awful - slower than USB 1. You will absolutely need a card reader to get your data for processing. I purchased a 2GB high-capacity SD card that came with a special reader. Note that regular SD readers cannot handle the high-capacity cards.

In conclusion: Clearly, there are limitations to this camera. Most of them could be remedied by spending thousands of dollars on a true DSLR. For the money, though, you can shoot like a pro and only your witnesses will know the difference.

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