FZ150 or 600D (1 Viewer)

At the moment I have an FZ38 plus Tcon 17. It works well for me as a grab and shoot rig for "targets of opportunity". I have attached a couple of "opportunity" shots taken this morning of a green woodpecker inspecting a concrete lamp post. These were taken through double glazed bedroom windows. They have been cropped but otherwise are the jpegs as taken by the camera plus the Tcon 17. The lamp post was about 20 metres away.

The dilemma is should I invest in the FZ150 or, for a little more money, buy a Canon 600D body which is discounted and subject to cashback at the moment due to the probable arrival of the 650D next month. I currently have a Canon 350D and some low cost, non L lenses (an FD100-300 ultrasonic zoom being the main birding lens with this camera).

In reasonable light there is little difference between the FZ38 and the 350D

Is the FZ150 going to be that much better than the FZ38? Will it outperform my current Canon optics?

At the moment I am leaning towards the 600D and keeping the FZ38 for its current role. However I doubt I will be spending a lot of money on an expensive lens for the Canon.

Cheers.

Welcome to Birdforum!

Niels

Hi there
Welcome to BirdForum.

I think that if you were going to get the 600D and maybe the 100-400mm IS lens then I'd say go for that. However, if you're not wanting to spend big on a lens then I'd probably go for the FZ150. Your FZ38 has a zoom range of 27-486mm. The FZ150 has a range of 25-600mm. That extra 100+ mm will make a difference. Obviously you can use the 1.7 teleconverter on the FZ150 which will make the ultimate reach up to around 900+mm. You'd have to spend an awful lot on a Canon lens to get that sort of reach for your 600D.

The low light performance of the superzooms has improved a great deal, even since the FZ38, I think. So, all things considered, I'd recommend the FZ150 route unless you want to upgrade the lens as well for the 600D. Basically, they're both great cameras, it's just a case of what reach/lens you want access to.

Good luck with what you decide,
Hobbes

In addition to Hobbes' excellent comments you should think about what you are going to do with the end results - if you're printing out large size photos you might want to think about getting a somewhat longer lens for the Canon than your existing 100-300. However the results with the FZ150 are perfectly adequate (for example) to show on BirdForum, sending by e-mail to friends and family or putting them on an electronic photoframe.

I think you can expect better results from an FZ150 over the FZ38, and the quality would come close to that of your current Canon optic (but with better reach as Hobbes has already indicated).

Thanks for your comment, Hobbes and Mark.

I will give a bit more thought to exactly why I want to use the camera. WRT birding it is for record and identification. So it seems the FZ150 is probably what will suit me best.

Thanks again, TomR

Mark Etheridge said:

...I think you can expect better results from an FZ150 over the FZ38,.....

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I can't comment on a comparison with the Canon. But I have a FZ35/38 and a FZ150, and the difference is amazing in many respects, not just the reach. I think the new model has much better reaction time, and the image quality on the long range (tele) side is much crisper.

Swissboy said:

I can't comment on a comparison with the Canon. But I have a FZ35/38 and a FZ150, and the difference is amazing in many respects, not just the reach. I think the new model has much better reaction time, and the image quality on the long range (tele) side is much crisper.

Click to expand...

Agreed!
The stance I am taking now is that for record shots and long distance shooting either use a superzoom (FZ150 Pana or HS30 Fuji for example) then for birds that are closer that you want a stunning full frame shot of use a DSLR.
This is not to say that Superzooms aren't capable of stunning full frame shots, of course they are. But DSLR's do have, in my experience, a little bit more quality, as long as they are coupled with the right lens.
In addition to this, the poor light we often have in the UK may require use of higher ISO. Due to the smaller sensors found in Superzooms you will get some noise when going above ISO 800, although from experience the Fuji HS30 combated this very well, and I have heard similar things from the Pana FZ150 and Canon SX-40.
I have had the same dilemma recently and I am going down the DSLR and digiscoping route (Although most of my digiscoping is rather amateurish without the use of brackets or high end point and shoot cameras etc).
Just my 2 cents.