Awesome new camera

codprawn · 18 March 2007, 17:58

Just bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ50 with the Leica 12x stabilised lens. It is an upgrade of my old camera - the FZ10. I was very pleased with the old one but the latest model is even better. The lens is pretty much the same but the controls are more camera like and it's 10mp instead of 4mp. To be honest - as I always say - the megapixels aren't the most important criteria - the good thing though is that I can zoom in even further!!!

It really is an awesome camera and the lens is so versatile I don't think I will go to a digital SLR even though I have always used 35mm Canons and Nikons.

Even better I bought the camera off Ebay - £510 in Jessops - I paid £260 from Hong Kong and it came in 4 days!!!

codprawn · 18 March 2007, 18:01

Photos are wide angle - full zoom and then digital crop. Don't know how good they will look at 800x600 but you can see the awesome range of the zoom. Notice the crap light levels and taken at 100 ISO - image stabilisation works really well - beware of some cameras that just whack up the iso instead of moving the lens around.

By the way that BT building was over 4 miles from where I was standing!!!

codprawn · 18 March 2007, 18:01

Last lot.

Bigmuz7 · 18 March 2007, 19:01

Impressive .... just about to change mine, I'll go check that one out

jwalker · 18 March 2007, 23:37

Arrrr... the old jpeg atrifacts are showin' there Codders. But the verticals are nice and straight in the wide angle shots.

pathalla · 19 March 2007, 01:21

Cod, anyone can take a picture from shore, what really sets the men from the boys is the pictures from the boat, just ask Limeydal...Speaking of boat... taken yours out lately? If you haven't taken it out at least take a picture of it and post it for your fans you celebrity you....

Limey Linda · 19 March 2007, 02:23

Dream on Pat. still waiting for a pic of Cod and his new sheep.

In all fairness: in any group someone has to be in the " bottom of the bucket" and Codders does a great job of keeping the rest of us about 1 inch from the bottom.

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 03:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwalker

Arrrr... the old jpeg atrifacts are showin' there Codders. But the verticals are nice and straight in the wide angle shots.

I don't think raw images would quite fit on this site......

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 03:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by pathalla

Cod, anyone can take a picture from shore, what really sets the men from the boys is the pictures from the boat, just ask Limeydal...Speaking of boat... taken yours out lately? If you haven't taken it out at least take a picture of it and post it for your fans you celebrity you....

Limeydal gets just a little better weather than us!!!

These aren't too bad though given the conditions - taken last year with the old FZ10.

It doesn't help that our harbour is now landlocked - they are starting dredging on Wednesday.

wavecrosschris · 19 March 2007, 08:53

great pics

i've got the FZ30 - the 8mp older version of the Z50 - I don't know of a better combination of camera with that Lecia zoom that takes better pictures of without spending about £1k and hauling round extra bits in a bag!

interesting that you bought it from Hong Kong, always worried i'd be faced with a customs man on my door demanding i pay more for it . ive had year or twos worth of use out of mine now, so i might investigate an Z50 import if thats the sort of genuine saving you can get.

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 11:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

great pics

i've got the FZ30 - the 8mp older version of the Z50 - I don't know of a better combination of camera with that Lecia zoom that takes better pictures of without spending about £1k and hauling round extra bits in a bag!

Couldn't agree more. I stayed away from the FZ30 because they tweaked the sensor to 8mp when they shouldn't have done - it's cos idiots only look at the megapixels when they buy cameras. The result is extra noise at higher ISO settings - much like grain on normal film. The FZ50 is much better and the controls really are so much better. You can prob get £180ish for your camera anyway so it will cost you only £80!!!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/DZONE2_Digi...QQftidZ2QQtZkm

This is the bloke I bought it from - awesome service!!!

Apparently you pay any taxes due to the courier.......

wavecrosschris · 19 March 2007, 13:23

great thanks for that - I will take a closer look when i get home - i'd guess with 10mp files id guess i'd also need one of these (and at this price!):

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...B/Product.html

just seen it's currently sold out

- still Play are good for their word on backorders - have pre-ordered quite a few bits from them in the past and at that price it's worth the wait.

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 13:32

The bloke in HK does 2gb cards for £6.50 - don't know how fast they are though.

wavecrosschris · 19 March 2007, 15:58

i think write SD speed is of essence with cameras that produce 8-10mp+ images - and if you use the continuous shoot mode you'll find the card won't keep up if it can't cope with over 8/10mb of data per sec.

I used a slower sub-10mb p/s card and max bursts on the shutter where about 5frames before it caused a bottleneck into the card and stopped taking pictures so it could write.

although you can get really cheap 2gb cards, they don't perform anything like the (still cheap!) SanDisks. - you can also get the ExtremeII 10mbs card on Play for 14.99 inc postage and thats in stock

narked · 19 March 2007, 17:13

Hah, paid less than that for my (admittedly 2nd hand!) Canon 300D with 2 lenses.

Nice pictures you've got there though. The thing with the DSLRs is the amount of time you can end up faffing about with settings trying to work out how to use 'em properly

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 17:50

Ah but how much would a 420mm image stabilised lens cost you? Over £2000 I reckon!!!

narked · 19 March 2007, 19:01

Not quite 420mm, but it's nearly half your guestimate

http://www.jessops.com/Store/s15715/...d/details.aspx

Though with the sensor on the 300D, that'd work out at the equivalent of a 640mm on a 35mm :P

wavecrosschris · 19 March 2007, 19:07

codders, what colour Z50 did you get? black or silver? not sure which i'd go for yet...

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 20:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by narked

Not quite 420mm, but it's nearly half your guestimate

http://www.jessops.com/Store/s15715/...d/details.aspx

Though with the sensor on the 300D, that'd work out at the equivalent of a 640mm on a 35mm :P

Ahh I was looking at F2.8 - makes hell of a difference!!!

I had some stunning lenses for my old SLR gear - bigger aperture = lots more money.

Don't get me wrong an SLR with the right lens is obviously going to be better - but the whole point of digi cameras is ease of use - carry bags full of gear and the convenience dissapears. Never thought I would say it as I used to carry more gear than most - medium format and even large format - the lot!!!

codprawn · 19 March 2007, 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

codders, what colour Z50 did you get? black or silver? not sure which i'd go for yet...

Black - I reckon the silver looks naff - and on many products the silver wears off which makes them look even worse!!!

Good deal from a UK supplier.

http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/showp...FTwHQgoddX2rKw

£312 but don't know how much postage is.

How on earth Jessops can charge £500 for this is beyond me!!!