Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30

[prince_alfie]

Yummy. This is great stuff at:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0507/05072004panasonic_fz30.asp . Finally

we have a great prosumer camera which is actually affordable and

offers both manual control on aperture and shutter speed just like a

mini digital Leica R8/R9.

 

The Digilux 2 was great for that but way too pricey. And this one has

a longer zoom lens with image stabilization. Two things that the D2

can't deliver :)

[Rob F.]

Alfie, do you get a little suspicious about a 12:1 zoom range? I do, because it's hard enough to design a good 3:1 that will maintain a high quality standard. Leica has said so themselves. I think I'd wait for a couple of credible reviews/user reports on this one!

[phule]

Rob, how'd you miss the FZ10, FZ20, FZ4, FZ5, and FZ3 camera reviews?

[miky]

Who never used any of this DMC LC-1(28-90 mm/2.0-2.4) and FZ20(36-420mm/2.8) should pass not judgments. I have both and Leica M system and I can tell you that the lenses on both digital cameras are wonderful. I took comparative shots with digital and film and the differences are so little that I use digital a lot lately. Plus image stabilizer and 5 cm macro work is unbeatable. I would recommend these 2 digital cameras to any Leica aficionados. They are a much better choice than a $3000 Epson RD1. Please see some samples.<div></div>

[miky]

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[miky]

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[david_doyle]

What's up with USB 1.1? God get into the 21st century will ya!

[eric_perlberg]

I generally concur with Mihaela over the excellence of the Leicasonic lenses. I noticed the FZ30 lost 2/3 of a stop at the long end over the FZ 20 and the one image that Phil Askey has at 400 ISO shows a fair amount of noise. Either the FZ 20 or the FZ 30 make a great combo with a D2. My FZ 20 doesn't produce the quality (tonal range, colour saturation) of my D2, nor does it go as wide, 28mm, and the 35mm setting of the FZ 20 has more barrel distortion than the D2 does at 28. The FZ20 noise characteristics at 400 are not as nice as the D2s but it has the IS and macro and now 8 mp (my guess is that the D2 will produce at least as good if not better images scaled to 8mpixels than the FZ30 natively does). But the Leica lenses on any of these cameras are very leica.

[david_kieltyka1]

The FZ30's lens loses speed over the FZ20's at the long end. But the new lens uses a different optical design and has a different actual focal length range. Despite talk of "28mm," "35mm," etc. the true focal length ranges are 6-72mm (FZ20) and 7.4-88.8mm (FZ30). The FZ30 uses a larger sensor than the FZ20...both camera/lens combos provide a field-of-view range equivalent to a 35-420mm lens (give or take a little) in the 35mm format. Don't know whether the aperture reduction is for cost or performance reasons. Maybe both.

 

I like the FZ20. But it lacks the ability to save RAW files. The FZ30 can do this, which to me makes it a much more attractive camera.

 

-Dave-

[arthuryeo]

Does anyone know if this 8MP sensor is the same SONY sensor that eveyrone else is using or is this Panasonic's sensor?

 

How's the VenusII Engine quality in reducing noise and processing capabilities like? Please share your experiences.

 

The above attachments are quite impressive. I even like the bokeh.

[prince_alfie]

Dunno about the Sony sensor. But the test images look rather impressive. I hope to see final images...

[harvey_edelstein1]

I wonder if the auto focus speed in low light is acceptable and does it hunt a lot? Fuji makes cameras that have low noise to 800 iso but AF is an issue. A lot of digicams have no hot shoe and so if they don't have focus assist lamps or AF sensors that work well in low light there is no way to attach a compact flash unit that has a focussing aide. Since most of these cameras have no manual overide of focus you end up with have a sharp lens but a blurry OOF picture. Olympus has lots of nice cameras but many users have big complaints indoors.

[miky]

Arthur, the only real life differences I saw between Venus I and II are:

-better white balance

-more saturated colors

-less noise

Now you have to understand that I compared only low compression jpeg files @ 100 ISO and LC1 (D2) behaves more like a film camera than FZ20.

FZ20 is optimized for amateurs and LC1 (D2) for prosumer. I experiment it with different settings for color/saturation/sharpness/noise reduction and I found that optimum is to keep them on standard default values. If you want more Leica look in your pictures color and saturation should be set to low.

I checked images done with some 8MP cameras and didn't see the reason to go for any of them and loose the Leica lenses quality for bigger files and higher resolution. Images produced by these 2 cameras can be printed with very good quality up to 8x10 on a photo printer (Epson 2200)

First samples were shot with FZ20 (Vario-Elmarit 36-432/2.8)

Next samples shot with LC1 (Vario-Summicron 28-90/2.0-2.4)<div></div>

[miky]

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[miky]

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[per__fverbeck]

Well, as a Digilux 2 owner for over a year, my mouth waterd a lot when looking at the

FZ30. It retains the mechanical rings for focus and zoom while adding a swiveling screen

and longer zoom. But the samples dried my mouth instantly (of course, they are pre-

production, but...).

 

The D2 image quality is outstanding; one gets spoilt! Look at this shot (free hand, 90 mm

setting). Photoshopped, but only a little (a 2 Mb full res version<a href="http://

ofverbeck.se/foto/Digilux2/Flowerbig.jpg"> here</a>):

<br><br>

<img src="http://ofverbeck.se/foto/Digilux2/Flower.jpg"><br><br>

[robert goldstein]

It looks nice, but I have yet to see an electronic viewfinder that was even close to satisfactory. If I cannot visualize the subject clearly through the VF, then I am uninterested in taking a picture of it.

[Rob F.]

"Rob, how'd you miss the FZ10, FZ20, FZ4, FZ5, and FZ3 camera reviews?"

 

--Lack of interest, mainly.

 

"Who never used any of this DMC LC-1(28-90 mm/2.0-2.4) and FZ20(36-420mm/2.8) should pass not judgments."

 

--We counselors never pass judgement.

 

---"What, never?"

 

----Well, hardly ever.

 

I didn't say it was bad! I don't know! Just being curious, cautious, and asking questions.

[phule]

<< Just being curious, cautious, and asking questions. >>

 

Very understandable. I just thought it...well, honestly, very odd that you would now raise the point of a 12x Leica lens when Panasonic has been putting them on their cameras for quite some time. A bit like posting "I don't know about this new EF lens mount Canon is talking about...can they do it?" Ok, that's a little extreme. :)

 

Seriously though, there are a number of reviews of these other camera models that you can check out and judge for yourself the quality.

[Rob F.]

Well, thinking it through, I know that very high quality 10:1 zooms are made for the professional (Hollywood) grade motion picture cameras, such as Arri and Panavision. The taking aperture for 1:85 is .825" x .446" or 21mm x 11.3mm. That is quite a bit smaller than 24 x 36mm. And the sensors for digital cameras are smaller, too. I think that the smaller format facilitates a longer zoom ratio, something I forgot when raising that point. So while it is hard to make a really good 10:1 for the 135 format, I'm sure it's feasible for many digital cameras.

[robert_luhrs]

I liked the samples for the fz30 on DP review. He gave it a pretty weak grade and said the fz20 isn't worth upgrading based just on pixels alone, keep your fz20. I dunno. I think these are better images for the 30.

 

Overall, after careful comparisons with leica/panasonic D2 and Lc1, vs the EOS 300D (rebel), the EOS 300D beat it even with the silly Kit lens. Just cleaner more details, greater range, everything. Only larger and clunkier. I got a rebel a year ago, then up to a Kodak dslr/c. That puppy with Leica R glass is to behold. It beats easily the whole lot of them. Consider one if you have R glass around...you won't be sorry

 

bob

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