Its screen is late on the action

Our test of the FZ30 caused quite a stir at the time in France as well as on the forum of the American photo review site, dpreview.com. Some didn’t appreciate our insistence on a certain defect, a delay on the screen in the display of subjects. Either way, Panasonic recognized the problem, which should calm some fervent users.

So, it was only normal that in turning this camera on we verify if the problem still persisted. Unfortunately, it does. However, this time we measured the delay and compared it to other cameras. On ten consecutive measurements, the average delay of the FZ50 was 112 ms, or about 1/9 of a second. Whether stabilization is activated or not, it has no effect, which rules it out as the cause. We then checked this characteristic on six other products from an ultra compact to an Olympus E-330 reflex (which also uses the screen to aim). The FZ50 proved to be the slowest of all. The fastest was the E-330, with an average delay of 75 ms – or is 33 % faster. The Sony T30 is at 78 ms and HP, Pentax and Kodak are all around 85 ms...

In our opinion, this is something that is noticeable and it bothers us. However, for other FZ30 owners, not everyone notices and they seem to get used to it.

On paper, the FZ50 resembles the perfect bridge except for one detail; it doesn’t have a wide angle. It starts at 35 mm. For the rest, everything else seems to be there. 12x stabilized optical zoom, 10 mega pixel sensor, moveable screen, and (this is new and very much awaited for Panasonic products) a noise reduction system has finally arrived! For many users, ambient noise levels starting at low sensitivities were the main weakness of this brand compared to what is offered by Canon and even better with FujiFilm (on their compacts). This is all the more useful now that Panasonic has pushed up the sensitivity on its camera. We can now go up to 1600 ISO instead of the previous 400 ISO on the FZ30. The rest doesn’t change and the screen is still moveable and the same size (2 inches), the body is identical, the manual focus dial is still not too easy to use. The central zone is increased in the middle of the image with manual focus, but this isn’t as precise as what we can do with an optical reflex viewfinder.

Two promises : more sharpness and less noise

Increasing to 10 mega pixels should mean that photos will be even more precise and you can reframe images more easily. However, the first disadvantage of this change is the large size of files. With the FZ30 they weighed around 3.2 MB, and now they are as much as 5 MB for the FZ50, with an average of 4.5 MB per image. You can stock up to 200 photos on a 1GB SD card. The second problem due to the increased definition is that the 8 and 10 mega pixel sensors measure exactly the same size. This is practical for Panasonic and they only have to add the new component without redesigning the body. The problem is that photosites are more crammed together, capturing less light and so the risk of noise is greater. Between this and what we already mentioned on the subject, Panasonic should improve with its rather efficient (but not revolutionary) noise control. The comparison of FZ30 photos with the FZ50’s shows more progress in terms of the precision of details than noise control. Moreover, with a closer look at the new levels in noise, we see that it’s moderate at 100 and 200 ISO, and the correction is degrading starting at 400 ISO : 
 


Nevertheless, there are notable improvements as we can see on the test portrait without flash. Now we may ask, is the FZ50 the ideal bridge?

The FZ50 compared to its 6 main competitors:

- Canon PowerShot S3IS : the FZ50 is more precise, much less subject to noise, faster to turn on, and its stabilization seems more efficient. On top of this, we had sharp photos at 1/8 s versus 1/13s for the Canon.

- Fujifilm FinePix 9500: Fuji has the advantage of its 28 mm wide angle. However, it isn’t stabilized, it’s more subject to noise and less at ease in macro shots. Also, its screen is smaller and unmoveable.

- Kodak EasyShare P880: this « UFO » is not an enormous commercial success, but we have a weakness for its unique design and its 24 mm wide angle. However, it only has a 5x non-stabilized zoom, is slow and very subject to noise. In short, it’s in a category of its own.

- Panasonic DMC-FZ30: those that are still left are less expensive than the FZ50, but they are a little less precise and slightly more subject to noise.

- Samsung Pro815: this large camera has a 15X zoom...non-stabilized, which is too bad. It’s not necessarily indispensable, but for photos with long exposure times without a tripod, this makes a difference. Otherwise, this Samsung is not as sharp, video is largely not as good, more intense colors are less well reproduced, and without stabilization we have to go up in sensitivity and consequently recover photos with more noise.

- Sony DSC-H5: for many this is the main competition for the FZ50. We prefer the Panasonic. Colors are truer, noise in higher sensitivities is better controlled, images are more precise, and the FZ50 is twice as fast in start-up, which for us, is a non-negligible point.

NB : This camera is already offered on pre-sale in some places, however, it won’t be available until Sept.
 

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