Camera Labs

We are looking for a family camera to use for travel (love the wide angle potential and high zoom range of FX18) and for occasional bird and wildlife shots. I use a Nikon D200 with 18-200mm lens. We also have a Casio EX-Z850 which is very nice but really lacks with only a 3X zoom. I can't afford the major $ for equivalent lens for the D200 and this would give us much more flexibility that whole family could use. No one else uses the D200. My concerns are whether the Panasonics will work for low light shots (museums, evening city life) and if they have too much shutter lag for birds and wildlife. Is the depth of field sufficient? Also, I like to print at 8x10. What do you think?

Hi Lou, welcome to the Cameralabs forums!

You'll find all superzooms (with the possible exception of the Sony H9) are noticeably slower to use and respond than a DSLR - so while wildlife shots are possible, prepare for some frustration!

Also, as the ISO increases, all non-DSLRs become quite horrible in terms of picture quality, so again if you're shooting in low light, prepare yourself for a disappointment!

What you DO get with a superzoom though is a massive optical range in a small, light and affordable package that can also record video. So it's all about weighing up pros and cons and knowing what the limitations will be.

I really liked the FZ18, but for the best quality you really want to use it at 100 ISO. The stabilisation can help you do that, but in lower light or for moving subjects, you will need to increase the ISO, and that's when the quality suffers. But it may still be acceptable for your purposes.

See these pages:

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panas ... oise.shtml

and

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panas ... ages.shtml

Gordon

I took some pics at night at South Coast Plaza Costa Mesa with FZ50, auto-ISO, and the camera itself defaulted to ISO 100. Also because the CCD is 1/1.8 instead of the smaller CCD's on the newer cameras, the resulting noise with the FZ50 was pretty low. Shooting in RAW also helped.