Panasonic FZ-200 (1 Viewer)

scodgerott · Sep 17, 2012

I got my FZ200 yesterday. I trailed it against my FZ150 at the zoo, where I was able to compare similar images. The FZ200 certainly handled the light better, shooting at 1/1000 sec, where the FZ150 was struggling at 1/400, however at F2.8 the image quality was not anywhere near as good as the FZ150. I will try some more today and tomorrow at different F settings, however it seems to me that if you have to go to a higher F number to get a better image, then that seems to negate the advantage of the F2.8 lens. The autofocus also played up. At one stage it locked on and then drifted in and out of focus. On another occasion it simply focused on nothing, I was getting the green square, but the subject was way out of focus and nothing I could do made it change. When I say nothing, nothing in the frame was in focus, it was all blurry. I had to switch to manual. I'm attaching a side by side comparison for you to have a look at. The FZ150 is on the right, or the darker image. I also got a number of grossly overexposed shots when using burst mode, but that does happen sometimes with my FZ150.

njlarsen · Sep 18, 2012

Well, of those two the right hand one looks sharper :-C

Niels

scodgerott · Sep 18, 2012

njlarsen said:
Well, of those two the right hand one looks sharper :-C

Niels

I agree Niels, that's from the FZ150. Here is another couple of shots for comparison. The first is of a spoonbill. The FZ150 shot is on the right. It is by far the better of the two shots. In the next comparison of a kingfisher, the differences are not so obvious. In that shot the FZ150 is on the left. I can't tell which is the better of those two shots.

mountain man · Sep 18, 2012

Can't say I'm having any problem with the autofocus, however herons, pipits and grouse are not exactly skulking warblers. But these two were taken through a few reeds just in front of me, and autofocus had no problem locking onto what I wanted.

However, having fiddled about with it, I really can't say I'm a fan of the manual focus. Perhaps I need to fiddle more.

I never used the FZ150, but if you have a look on the forums on dpreview, there's talk of them being two very different beasts compared side by side, but that with perseverance and playing about with settings, the FZ200 comes out on top.

iGUEST · Sep 18, 2012

Apart from the smaller size when the lens is retracted I can't see any advantage of the newer FZ's with the stupid unusable manual focus compared to the older versions with a proper focus ring on the lens.

Please Panasonic return to the old style!!!

Hamhed · Sep 18, 2012

tom mckinney said:
However, having fiddled about with it, I really can't say I'm a fan of the manual focus. Perhaps I need to fiddle more.

I'm assuming that the manual focus is operated by pushing repeatedly on the side button rather than some kind of scrolling action on a button I don't see. Am I guessing correctly?

My interest in the new FZ is waning as I read these posts and look at the pictures. If there is no reasonably usable manual focus in low light capabilities, I need to move on.

Thanks all for your posts.

Steve

Swissboy · Sep 18, 2012

scodgerott said:
.... kingfisher, the differences are not so obvious. In that shot the FZ150 is on the left. I can't tell which is the better of those two shots.

I think the FZ200 is clearly providing a better shot in the kingfisher case.
But your other samples are disappointing results for the FZ200.

Hobbes2 · Sep 18, 2012

scodgerott said:
I agree Niels, that's from the FZ150. Here is another couple of shots for comparison. The first is of a spoonbill. The FZ150 shot is on the right. It is by far the better of the two shots. In the next comparison of a kingfisher, the differences are not so obvious. In that shot the FZ150 is on the left. I can't tell which is the better of those two shots.

Interesting comparison shots, Roger. Thanks for preparing/posting them. I agree, the sharpness/focus seems to be better on the FZ150. However, the white-balance seems better on the FZ200. I do find the colour balance of the FZ150 really isn't great - it suffers from a green colour-cast which is difficult to undo. On the Spoonbill shot, the bill is a much nicer colour black with the FZ200 than with the FZ150 (which has that greeny colour-cast).
All the best
Hobbes

dave-g2011 · Sep 18, 2012

I need to upload photos from the built in memory to pc, anybody know how? is there a way of transferring them to memory card?

Andrew · Sep 18, 2012

You should have got a cable in the box that your camera came in. Usually connects to the USB socket on the PC. Take the memory card out first then connect the camera to the PC and see how it goes.

scodgerott · Sep 18, 2012

I operate the manual focus by using the side lever. The button on the side is for a quick switch to auto focus when you are in manual focus mode. That button works really well and often it will achieve focus when the auto focus can't seem to get it right. You can set up one of the functions buttons, so that you can quickly switch the function of the side lever from zoom to focus and vice versa.

scodgerott · Sep 19, 2012

Hi Hobbes, Thanks for your comments, I hadn't noticed the green cast. The FZ200 spoonbill is so bad compared to the shot from the FZ150, I have to wonder whether I got the focus right on that one. I will be going to the zoo again today to do some more comparisons. One thing I did notice, was that as the images coming out of the FZ200 were brighter, a lot of the highlights on some of its shots were blown out in a big way. I will have to make some adjustments to counter that aspect.

dave-g2011 · Sep 19, 2012

will do Andrew! And thank you for your help!!

Hobbes2 · Sep 19, 2012

scodgerott said:
Hi Hobbes, Thanks for your comments, I hadn't noticed the green cast. The FZ200 spoonbill is so bad compared to the shot from the FZ150, I have to wonder whether I got the focus right on that one. I will be going to the zoo again today to do some more comparisons. One thing I did notice, was that as the images coming out of the FZ200 were brighter, a lot of the highlights on some of its shots were blown out in a big way. I will have to make some adjustments to counter that aspect.

Hi Roger, I agree re: the focus on the FZ200 on the spoonbill. It's just surprising that the colour rendition seems better. I do find that the exposure can be difficult to get right with the FZ150, with highlights being blown out and dark areas under-exposed. It seems less capable than my very old FZ8 in that respect, lol. However, for what it does achieve, I still think it is excellent. I shall be interested to hear how you get on with the exposure problems with the FZ200. The other thing I'm interested in is whether the F2.8 aperature gives a shallower depth of field and nicer bokeh. So far, I don't see any sign of that.
All the best
Hobbes

scodgerott · Sep 20, 2012

Hobbes2 said:
Hi Roger, I agree re: the focus on the FZ200 on the spoonbill. It's just surprising that the colour rendition seems better. I do find that the exposure can be difficult to get right with the FZ150, with highlights being blown out and dark areas under-exposed. It seems less capable than my very old FZ8 in that respect, lol. However, for what it does achieve, I still think it is excellent. I shall be interested to hear how you get on with the exposure problems with the FZ200. The other thing I'm interested in is whether the F2.8 aperature gives a shallower depth of field and nicer bokeh. So far, I don't see any sign of that.
All the best
Hobbes

Here are some more comparisons between the FZ150 and the FZ200. In these instances I think the FZ200 did a little bit better than the FZ150. You will also notice the background is more blurred in the FZ200 shots, so there is some bokeh using the F2.8 aperture. I do have a few more to upload where the FZ150 did better and it does tend to do better more often than not. I will be playing a bit more with the settings on the FZ200 to see if I can consistently get images that equal that of the FZ150. I am not expecting better quality, except in lower light.

njlarsen · Sep 20, 2012

I agree, both of these are better with the fz200

Niels

scodgerott · Sep 20, 2012

Here are three more image comparisons between the FZ150 and the FZ200. The FZ150 is clearly better in the flower shot, a little better, I think, in the other shots. I'm also adding another image just from the FZ200, where I think its done a great job. I read somewhere else where the FZ200 was described as quirky and I tend to agree. It requires a bit of effort to ring the best out of it and I haven't got there yet. I'm not sure the effort is warranted, especially when I already have a camera that gives its best, without too much effort.

BirderMJ · Sep 20, 2012

Are the setting such as aperture the same between the images? Can any comparisons for more extreme zoom at their respective full aperture be done ? FZ200 is F2.8 correct?

scodgerott · Sep 20, 2012

BirderMJ said:
Are the setting such as aperture the same between the images? Can any comparisons for more extreme zoom at their respective full aperture be done ? FZ200 is F2.8 correct?

Hi, I haven't done any shots using more than the 24x zoom, as I was trying to compare the two cameras without going into the digital zoom. The aperture settings aren't the same, as at full zoom the FZ150 can't achieve an F2.8 setting. Tomorrow, I hope to do some more shots with similar apertures just to see how they pan out. I am struggling to get an equal image out of the FZ200, the FZ150 mostly gives a better result, although not always, as you can see from one of my previous posts.

firstreesjohn · Sep 20, 2012

Have you made any adjustments in camera, ‘scodgerott’: such as AWB, Contrast, etc ? I would have done this for the flower, egret and spoonbill, for instance.

And many thanks for providing us with this most useful series of comparison images.

Thank you, too, for introducing me to the term “bokeh”. (I don’t read camera mags.)

I feel, at the moment, I am able to keep my wallet in my pocket, as the FZ-150 seems to be, at least, mostly comparable with its new rival and, often, superior.

They do seem to have done this several times with these Lumixes: alternate models should be upgrades and, therefore, better- but turn out not as good as the previous one. (Particularly the FZ-45 and 100, after the 38.)

PLEASE, PANASONIC, GIVE THE FZ-250 A MANUAL FOCUS RING ON THE LENS.

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