• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Panasonic FZ150 (3 Viewers)

I've only taken a couple of shots in low light and I used
iA setting. I was surprised how well the images came out.
Despite the many similarities, this camera is a different
beast to the FZ100.
 
On the AF settings you can adjust the point of focus to a tight spot,but it does not stay in that setting next time the camera is switched on. I am sure i have read about this somewhere but now cannot find it. Is there a way of keeping this setting as a default without having to change it every time ?
 
I finally got my FZ150 as well. And I must say that I have some mixed feelings about this camera. For one thing, the camera is considerably heavier, and also a bit bulkier than my FZ35. Just enough to no longer make for comfortable handling with my rather small hands.

:C

lord knows how light the FZ35 is this the lightest camera I have owned!
I dont think my hands are particulary big!
 
On the AF settings you can adjust the point of focus to a tight spot,but it does not stay in that setting next time the camera is switched on. I am sure i have read about this somewhere but now cannot find it. Is there a way of keeping this setting as a default without having to change it every time ?

To answer my own question, i looked on another forum and apparently this has been a talked about problem on this and other FZ models to which there is no happy answer. You have to reset the smaller AF spot every time you switch on unfortunately.
 
Not that way on my FZ18, I would be disappointed if there was no option to return to the settings last used somewhere in the menu

Niels
 
Hi folks,
Looks like it's time for an update to my HS10.
My question is when the camera has done a full "burst" of shots, how long does it take to store them to the card and be ready to shoot again.
Yep I know is dependant to a degree on the card class etc., I'm useing a 16gig class 10 so that wont slow things down.
Appx figures for just jpegs and if you know jpegs plus raw would be great to know.
Many thanks
Grahame
 
Thanks for that info firstreesjohn and brings a smile to my face.
With the HS10 if I shoot of a burst of 7 picks it takes 25 or more seconds to store them to the card.
Currently I shoot at 7fps a lot, but if the birds are coming past you basically get one quick burst and enjoy the rest of them flying past.
So I guess this brings me to question 2......does the 5.5fps burst and refocus really work ????
If so this will be one happy estuary wader.
:)
 
Having never had a DSLR, I cannot compare with one of these.

However, I have noticed that some of these (burst) shots are in focus and others aren't.

The ones in focus can be very good and some are, in fact, on here.
 
Card and battery cover?

A rather little thing on the side that I find annoying all the same. The lid for the card and battery compartment has an awkward opening mechanism. On my previous FZ models (FZ7, FZ8, FZ28, FZ35/38) There has always been the same practical cover that was easy to open in a hurry when the card was suddenly full or the battery empty. Now, one kind of needs both hands where one was sufficient before. Am I the only one to gripe about this?
 
Hi folks,
Looks like it's time for an update to my HS10.
My question is when the camera has done a full "burst" of shots, how long does it take to store them to the card and be ready to shoot again.
Yep I know is dependant to a degree on the card class etc., I'm useing a 16gig class 10 so that wont slow things down.
Appx figures for just jpegs and if you know jpegs plus raw would be great to know.
Many thanks
Grahame

I have also found that you can start shooting again almost instantaneously after a full 12 shot burst. The number of shots reduces to about 8 and if you shoot again quickly the number of shots reduces to about 5. The same principle applies to the 40 fps mode, shoot off 50 shots and you can still fire off another burst of about 15 or 20 almost without pause. If you keep doing that the camera will grind to a halt while it processes everything and will take about 20 seconds to clear. I have only had it happen about twice and each time it happened I was also using video as well as firing off stills. Most of the time the post processing by the camera isn't an issue, but I can see that if there are a lot of birds around you could get caught out, however its much faster than the Fuji.
 
A rather little thing on the side that I find annoying all the same. The lid for the card and battery compartment has an awkward opening mechanism. On my previous FZ models (FZ7, FZ8, FZ28, FZ35/38) There has always been the same practical cover that was easy to open in a hurry when the card was suddenly full or the battery empty. Now, one kind of needs both hands where one was sufficient before. Am I the only one to gripe about this?

I have the FZ18 which has the slide and click arrangement, but when I got both the Fz100 and FZ150, I just saw it as another way of doing the same thing, neither better nor worse. I can still open the battery door with one hand, so to me its not an issue.
 
I've just got a FZ150 today as my second camera (G3 is the main one for birds) and I'm AMAZED that, unlike on my G3, the 5 frames per second burst with continuous autofocus does NOT make the EVF go black at all! This is fantastic and I can't wait to try it with some larger flying birds.

On the negative side I cannot BELIEVE that there is no way to save the smallest single focus area as the default, even using the custom settings.

Sean
 
I have also found that you can start shooting again almost instantaneously after a full 12 shot burst.
Etc
however its much faster than the Fuji.

Thanks for that, sounds like it is not only much faster but in a whole different universe...:bounce:
The only downside I can see with this camera for me is the 600mm equiv. lens
The Canon SX40 has 840mm eqiv. but doesnt have the speed of focus that the Pany has.
Most of it's other shortfallings will be fixed by useing CHDK.
And the "inbuilt" teleconverter (yep I know not a real one) but the full megapixel image and at 1232mm image from Neil here
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=213076&page=2
has me wanting to change to the dark side.
For me the ideal is lightning fast focus and digi scoping focal length with the ability to quickly come back to shorter focal length for bif.....
Yep currently dreaming but give it another couple of years..............
Ah well onwards..................
Happy Birding folks
 
I'm AMAZED that, unlike on my G3, the 5 frames per second burst with continuous autofocus does NOT make the EVF go black at all! This is fantastic and I can't wait to try it with some larger flying birds.
Sean
Interested to hear about how well it performs.
Please keep us updated.
 
I've just got a FZ150 today as my second camera (G3 is the main one for birds) and I'm AMAZED that, unlike on my G3, the 5 frames per second burst with continuous autofocus does NOT make the EVF go black at all! This is fantastic and I can't wait to try it with some larger flying birds.

On the negative side I cannot BELIEVE that there is no way to save the smallest single focus area as the default, even using the custom settings.

Sean

I agree its annoying that the focus area setting won't save, but always reverts to the default setting after its turned on again. Jut a tip that I have found that will help with birds in flight. Set the focus area to the next largest setti g or the largest setting. It helps the camera to find focus on the bird rather than the sky.
 
Interested to hear about how well it performs.
Please keep us updated.

Took some shots today of gulls, wood pigeons, sparrowhawk etc. Very easy to follow in flight though the quality is not as good as my µ43 camera. Nevertheless a great lightweight camera to always have with you...

Sean
 
At last I can post some shots I took with my FZ150 on a trip to the USA. Just a couple of hummingbirds taken at fairly close range. I am very pleased with the detail and sharpness of the images, I hope that comes across after I downsize them for the upload.
 

Attachments

  • hummingbird1.JPG
    hummingbird1.JPG
    302.5 KB · Views: 277
  • hummingbird2.JPG
    hummingbird2.JPG
    269.9 KB · Views: 283
Look good to me Rodger, Has anyone found a small bag/holster for the FZ150 with hood , that they can recommend. i have some larger shoulder bags from my 35mm days but these are all too big for this camera.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 11 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top