500 mm lens

For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?
Let the cameraholic flame wars begin--a reasonable opinion or two might
actually surface.

flambe wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?
Let the cameraholic flame wars begin--a reasonable opinion or two
might actually surface.

flambe,

Assuming there's nothing special about the taking, that you have good
light level, and that working at ISO 100 is acceptable, you should get
good quality images with the Panasonic FZ18, at a lower cost, weight and
bulk.

Background: I have the FZ5, my wife the FZ20 Panasonics which both go to
432mm focal length, but they are 5MP cameras and may not suffer the noise
inherent in a small sensor as much as some later models. I also have a
Nikon DSLR and the 70 - 300mm VR lens, which provides about the same focal
length (450mm equivalent). The difference is that I can use ISO 1600
quite happily on the DSLR with very little noise appearing. Given that
the FZ18 is f/4.2, and my Nikon lens f/5.6, that requires an ISO of 800,
where to get the same noise level with the FZ18 I might need ISO 100. So
the DSLR can work with eight times lower the light level. Whether this is
worth the higher cost, you need to decide. If you already have the DSLR,
the 70 - 300mm VR lens is well worth considering.

Cheers,
David

flambe wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

It depends, as you well know, on what you have omitted to mention.

Let the cameraholic flame wars begin--a reasonable opinion or two might
actually surface.

But it's much less likely to if you don't point the discussion in the
direction of interest. You're beginning to resemble a troll.

--
Chris Malcolm DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

"flambe" wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

You omitted the metric to use, therefore there is no way to know what
criteria to use for "better".

jue

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:14:01 GMT, "flambe" wrote in
:

For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

Unless you need the greater wide angle, I think the Panasonic FZ8 would
be a better choice -- the FZ18 makes some compromises for the longer
zoom range, and costs quite a bit more.

--
Best regards,
John Navas
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 (and several others)

Jürgen Exner wrote:
"flambe" wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

You omitted the metric to use, therefore there is no way to know what
criteria to use for "better".

Oh, and of course the FZ18 does not have a 500mm lens. The longest focal
length of the lens that comes with it is somewhere around 80mm (36000/
5760*504) and AFAIK you cannot can change that lens.

jue

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:12:24 GMT, Jürgen Exner
wrote in :

Jürgen Exner wrote:
"flambe" wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

You omitted the metric to use, therefore there is no way to know what
criteria to use for "better".

Oh, and of course the FZ18 does not have a 500mm lens. The longest focal
length of the lens that comes with it is somewhere around 80mm (36000/
5760*504) and AFAIK you cannot can change that lens.

The FZ18 lens is 28-504 mm in 35 mm equivalent terms, and can be
extended at either end with optional converters.

--
Best regards,
John Navas
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 (and several others)

John Navas wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:12:24 GMT, Jürgen Exner
Jürgen Exner wrote:
"flambe" wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

You omitted the metric to use, therefore there is no way to know what
criteria to use for "better".

Oh, and of course the FZ18 does not have a 500mm lens. The longest focal
length of the lens that comes with it is somewhere around 80mm (36000/
5760*504) and AFAIK you cannot can change that lens.

The FZ18 lens is 28-504 mm in 35 mm equivalent terms,

Yes, as I said: it is a 80mm lens at the long end.

jue

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:25:00 GMT, Jürgen Exner
wrote in :

John Navas wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:12:24 GMT, Jürgen Exner
Jürgen Exner wrote:
"flambe" wrote:
For only once in a while, personal use:
Better to get glass for a Nikon dSLR or a Panasonic FZ18?

You omitted the metric to use, therefore there is no way to know what
criteria to use for "better".

Oh, and of course the FZ18 does not have a 500mm lens. The longest focal
length of the lens that comes with it is somewhere around 80mm (36000/
5760*504) and AFAIK you cannot can change that lens.

The FZ18 lens is 28-504 mm in 35 mm equivalent terms,

Yes, as I said: it is a 80mm lens at the long end.

Irrelevant and meaningless.

--
Best regards,
John Navas
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 (and several others)