Lumix DMC-FZ50

This new camera seems to have some rather
remarkable features. 10 megapixel, 12X zoom.

Has anyone here used it? Or is it too new?

Comments?

Luk

Well, I have both the 50 and the 30. My shots have shown that the 50 isn't
that great in picture quality. I blame in on the horrible noise reduction in
the new Venus 3 engine. Images compared to my 30 just aren't very good.

R


"luk" wrote in message
...
This new camera seems to have some rather
remarkable features. 10 megapixel, 12X zoom.

Has anyone here used it? Or is it too new?

Comments?

Luk

On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 11:48:48 -0700, "Hebee Jeebes"
wrote Re Lumix DMC-FZ50:

Well, I have both the 50 and the 30. My shots have shown that the 50 isn't
that great in picture quality. I blame in on the horrible noise reduction in
the new Venus 3 engine. Images compared to my 30 just aren't very good.

How does it compare if you set the FZ50 noise reduction to Low?
--
To email me directly, remove CLUTTER.

luk wrote:

This new camera seems to have some rather
remarkable features. 10 megapixel, 12X zoom.

Has anyone here used it? Or is it too new?

Comments?

Luk

As with many new products, there are some who bash it
mercilessly, and there are those who praise it, and still
others take a middle ground. DPReview has quite a few
threads about the FZ50 in its forum "Panasonic Talk".
Some of them have posted comparison shots between the FZ50
and its predecessor the FZ30. (I have neither camera - I
own an FZ20).

BTW, 12x zooms have been around for quite some time in
terms of digicam age, and the high pixel count is of
little importance for small-sensor cameras in most
situations. What's more important is that Panasonic's
lenses and image stabiliser are among the best, and they
make great cameras feature-wise. Their weak point is noise.

Judging from the pictures posted by users, the upgraded
noise reduction engine of the FZ50 appears to produce
excellent results in some shots, and significant loss of
detail in some others. As you said, it's still very early.

As with many new products, there are some who bash it
mercilessly, and there are those who praise it, and still
others take a middle ground. DPReview has quite a few
threads about the FZ50 in its forum "Panasonic Talk".
Some of them have posted comparison shots between the FZ50
and its predecessor the FZ30. (I have neither camera - I
own an FZ20).

BTW, 12x zooms have been around for quite some time in
terms of digicam age, and the high pixel count is of
little importance for small-sensor cameras in most
situations. What's more important is that Panasonic's
lenses and image stabiliser are among the best, and they
make great cameras feature-wise. Their weak point is noise.

Judging from the pictures posted by users, the upgraded
noise reduction engine of the FZ50 appears to produce
excellent results in some shots, and significant loss of
detail in some others. As you said, it's still very early.


As you said, the features are quite impressive.
A week or two ago there was a thread here on the FZ30.
One person said noise was noticeable on the FZ30.
at a 200 ISO setting. I wondered about improvements
made on the FZ50. I'll look for more feedback.

A non-SLR camera with tilt LCD and good zoom is
what I'm looking for. And I prefer not to go below
a 2.0 size LCD.

Luk

It helps a little, but still isn't as detailed as what I am getting from the
30. That is a 30 with everything except spot meter and spot focus set to
factory defaults. This is also how I used the 50 only those two things
changed. I think it is a clear problem with the Venus 3 engine and one that
has been reported for the other Panasonic cameras that use this engine. They
call it a painted look.

R


"Vic Dura" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 11:48:48 -0700, "Hebee Jeebes"
wrote Re Lumix DMC-FZ50:

Well, I have both the 50 and the 30. My shots have shown that the 50 isn't
that great in picture quality. I blame in on the horrible noise reduction
in
the new Venus 3 engine. Images compared to my 30 just aren't very good.

How does it compare if you set the FZ50 noise reduction to Low?
--
To email me directly, remove CLUTTER.

The thing with the 30 is that yes there is noise in ISO 200 shots, but there
is also more detail than almost any other 12X 8MP camera. The 50 on the
other hand has noise (the Venus 3 engine doesn't do that great of job) still
but it also smears out a great deal of image detail. It makes me wonder what
Panasonic was thinking. Now I have seen good 50 shots but they have been
resized down compressing out a lot or all of the problem. Full 10MP shots at
100% on screen look really poor even in bright day light with no clouds.

Printed they are not a clear as the 30 shots printed either. I think the
rest of the 50 is great, but that V3 engine is a really problem.

R


"luk" wrote in message
. ..

As with many new products, there are some who bash it
mercilessly, and there are those who praise it, and still
others take a middle ground. DPReview has quite a few
threads about the FZ50 in its forum "Panasonic Talk".
Some of them have posted comparison shots between the FZ50
and its predecessor the FZ30. (I have neither camera - I
own an FZ20).

BTW, 12x zooms have been around for quite some time in
terms of digicam age, and the high pixel count is of
little importance for small-sensor cameras in most
situations. What's more important is that Panasonic's
lenses and image stabiliser are among the best, and they
make great cameras feature-wise. Their weak point is noise.

Judging from the pictures posted by users, the upgraded
noise reduction engine of the FZ50 appears to produce
excellent results in some shots, and significant loss of
detail in some others. As you said, it's still very early.


As you said, the features are quite impressive.
A week or two ago there was a thread here on the FZ30.
One person said noise was noticeable on the FZ30.
at a 200 ISO setting. I wondered about improvements
made on the FZ50. I'll look for more feedback.

A non-SLR camera with tilt LCD and good zoom is
what I'm looking for. And I prefer not to go below
a 2.0 size LCD.

Luk

On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:40:12 -0700, "Hebee Jeebes"
wrote Re Lumix DMC-FZ50:

The thing with the 30 is that yes there is noise in ISO 200 shots, but there
is also more detail than almost any other 12X 8MP camera. The 50 on the
other hand has noise (the Venus 3 engine doesn't do that great of job) still
but it also smears out a great deal of image detail. It makes me wonder what
Panasonic was thinking. Now I have seen good 50 shots but they have been
resized down compressing out a lot or all of the problem. Full 10MP shots at
100% on screen look really poor even in bright day light with no clouds.

Printed they are not a clear as the 30 shots printed either. I think the
rest of the 50 is great, but that V3 engine is a really problem.

Do you have a link to some FZ50 shots that exhibit the noise that we
can look at?
--
To email me directly, remove CLUTTER.

One owner is petitioning Panasonic to offer a way to disable the over-
aggressive Venus3 noise reduction featu
http://www.gopetition.com/online/9523.html

On Thu, 7 Sep 2006 02:24:45 +0000 (UTC), sally wrote:
One owner is petitioning Panasonic to offer a way to disable the over-
aggressive Venus3 noise reduction featu
http://www.gopetition.com/online/9523.html

Wouldn't shooting RAW do an end-run around any post-processing by the
camera's CPU? Since the FZ30 (and, I assume, the FZ50) already support
RAW, that's probably an easier route to follow than trying to convince
Panasonic to change their firmware.

-dms