Reason for Lumix DMC-FZ5/FZ4 ...

I just saw the announcement on dpreview and some technical data.
Personally i think that these models look like the FZ15 and FZ20.
Same rendering engine (venus II), same resolution, no improvement
in sensitivity, almost identical controls.

Hm.... what is this new release about??

Actually, the Leica Elmarit 6-72mm lens seems to be... less than
the lens on the older models FZ10 through FZ20! The older lens
has a constant f/2.8, while the new has f/2.8-3.3! So what
possible motivation could someone have to chose FZ5 over the FZ20?

Thomas

 

These are followups to the FZ1/2... not the FZ10/15... so they are *much*
smaller. The sensor is a little bigger physically and I assume there has
been a slight compromise on lens design to cover the bigger image circle.

 

Cheaper lens, for a start. These are aimed at people who'd otherwise
probably be buying Minolta Z's rather than Minolta A's like the
FZ10/15/20. The 3/4/5 are aimed at replacing the bottom end of the
FZ range.

Price, primarily. The FZ20 is aimed at a higher market sector. For some
people, size/weight might be an issue too. The 10/15/20 are quite large
cameras.

 

The first review is up for the FZ5. I dunno. I see lots of jaggies in the
sample pics.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz5-review/index.shtml

 

Bloody hell - it sharpens *way* too much. Could it be the first digital
camera where the last item in your usual workflow is a blur rather than
a sharpen?

pete

 

Just read it. Interesting!

I own a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1-2 (see photo samples at
http://www.michna.com/kenya2004/ and related pages, if you
like).

Test photos show that these ultra-zoom lenses are unable to
produce a sharp 2 Megapixel picture over the entire area of the
photo. They are able to produce a sharp center of the photo, but
near the edges and near the corners you get enough chroma errors
that you would have to reduce the resolution to 0.2 Megapixels
to eliminate them.

In this respect, raising the resolution to 3, 4, and even 5
Megapixels with the same lens looks partly like a marketing
gimmick.

I would love to swap my camera for a better one, but so far I
fail to see the reason.

One other thing that would convince me is an articulated
(swivelling) viewfinder, which all of these cameras still lack.

Hans-Georg

 

But of course! I have not noticed the remark on the top,
its a successor to the FZ3! They are smaller indeed and
this explains that the zoom if f/2.8-3.3.

I am curious if the sensor is less noisy than the FZ3.
Personally I consider the sensor in FZ10 as 'noisy' at
ISO200, outright unusable with ISO400. Other than that
this Leica zoom and the image stabilization puts the
FZ20 atop of the 5Mpix pack.

Thomas

 

I never liked the FZ10, far too big for what it is. I have a FZ1 (with
updated firmware) which is still too large to be pocketable but it's a handy
camera despite being only 2MP and lacking a few features. With the firmware
changed I can use aperture or shutter priority on the FZ1, but no manual
operation.

As long as this new pair are no more noisy than the FZ1 I'd be interested in
one of these as a replacement, offering useful extra features like manual
operation as well as more resolution. If you want low noise you need a
DSLR... like my Pentax *istDS