Camera Labs

Too late folks, lol. I went out & bought the camera today. So far, so good. It's very small compared to my SLR'S which I suppose is a good thing but it does mean that so far I keep accidentally hitting buttons. I'll get used to it though. It uses a proprietary battery and a spare will cost some £50ish. Ouch! I bought a Sandisk 8GB Extreme card as recommended by the salesman. Im not impressed by the EVF but I was expecting that after reading this thread and the screen is pretty good as far as I can tell. I'll give it a proper workout tomorrow.

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Hi Zorro - I see I'm too late - I bought my FZ150 for it's high quality video - I have a 32gb class 10 card - it will take 2.4 hours of AVCHD video and of course is very quick to write to the camera. Plenty of room for photos' so i do a lot of burst mode as well as the 3 shot with different exposures, for HDR

I'm waiting before buying a second battery, so that I don't have two batteries the same age, but yes, they are a ridiculous price. I fly model RC planes powered by Lithium batteries so I know what price they should be.

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"The world is so fast that there are days when the person who says it can't be done is interrupted by the person who is doing it."

I just got up this morning anticipating getting out and about with the camera and of course it's raining. Still, according to the forecasters there should be a clear spell coming up...around mid July. I've been on holiday this week so I really hoped to take advantage of the time with the new camera but hey-ho. I used to race RC cars so I I know what you mean but what can you do.

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Does anyone have any experience with the iPad camera connection kit? I ask because I'm thinking of buying one but I hear that it's not compatible with all cameras. I can't find any info online about this. I'm not really intending doing any major editing on the iPad but I almost always have it with me so it makes sense if I upload from the camera or SD card as I go.

Loving the camera by the way. I'm getting some pretty impressive photos of the red squirrels on the bird feeders, lol. As well as of the birds, obviously.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Is it not possible to use a "generic" replacement battery for the 150? i remember seeing very reasonably-priced ones on eBay some time back.

I'm sure it's possible but I'd rather my hand not catch fire. There are some scare stories out there.

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

I use it. It's just a standard SD to (proprietary) 30-pin connector, so it will work with any SD card. The compatibility issue is actually an Apple (i)OS thing , nothing to do with the connection kit. And even then, it's only with RAW files, not jpegs.

FYI PhotoRAW and Photosmith both list the FZ150 as supported - Mark

Thanks for the input Mark. I bought the kit this morning and it works flawlessly. I hadn't heard of the two apps you've linked to so thanks for that too. Photosmith looks very good but £12.99 is a lot, especially since there's a v2 due imminently. I think I'll wait for that. It's a pity Snapseed can't deal with RAW files as I really like the effects it can produce.

As for the Panasonic DMC-FZ150 - I love it! The images it captures are surprisingly good for a small sensor with very little noise. It's actually better than I was expecting for the money. So much so that I don't see the Nikon D80 getting much use in future. I might in fact sell it if I can find a good home for it and it's numerous lenses.


Edit - I've just read on the Photosmith blog that version 2 will be a free upgrade for existing users.

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

There's one problem though which is apparent when running Windows XP - Panasonic don't have a RAW codec which will allow viewing of the RF2 files in Explorer. Shame.

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Another problem, possibly down to user error. On day one I was able to use the grid for composition. Today however, no matter what I do I am unable to activate this grid. Any ieas folks?

Edit - Scratch that, I was being blonde

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

I have a Nikura battery as a second battery. It is labeled "For Panasonic DMW-BMB9". It is rated at 1200mAh as compared to the Panasoic battery rating of 895mAh.

I have cycled through both of them several times now. Both work fine. Can't say the Nikura is really that much longer life though.

Also, I highly recommend viewing Graham Houghton's excellent series of videos on the FZ150. He really gives a lot of good information on the features and the use of this camera. You can start with the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41NJJ3Nc0BE

See my post on this thread made on 5/22.