FZ330 (FZ300) questions (1 Viewer)

[TheGiantHogweed]

Hi.

I've been looking at this camera for well over a year now.

My camera is currently the TZ100. I'll start off by saying that I am not expecting the FZ330 to be an upgrade in image quality as it has a much smaller sensor. However, I do sometimes find the 10x 250mm zoom not to be enough on my TZ100 - especially in wetlands and other areas when birds are far away. The TZ100 is excellent for tame garden birds and the zoom is good so long as the subject is close.

For 6 months over a year ago now, I had the FZ82. I was really impressed initially by the zoom on this, but I realised that most of the sort of pictures I took with it suffered what any camera with a long zoom will in the same conditions. Such as a blurred result relating to heat rising off surfaces over the distance. The main issue with the FZ82 was that much over 800mm zoomed in, far too much noise was introduced, unless it was a perfectly bright day.

I need to have a better understanding of photography, but one stand out feature of the FZ300 to me looks like it is the fixed range aperture that remains at 2.8 when zooming in fully. 24x at 600mm should be reasonable for me. Back when I had my TZ70 that had a 30x zoom, that practically is all i now see myself using. i often zoomed in at 1200mm on my FZ82 then realising that i will have been better off leaving it at 600mm. I understand there will be cameras out there that can zoom much further than this with less noise than the FZ82, but having had 3 Lumix cameras and liking the interface, I really want to stick with Panasonic.

I don't want to spend more than £500 ideally and I'm trying to work out if it is worth spending this much when my TZ100 will almost certainly be better at most things when not zooming.

There are many good looking things about the FZ300 though that are tempting me.



The fixed range aperture as i mentioned even at full zoom - If I'm right, this will help me get similar shots to my TZ100 when I don't zoom - have the subject in focus with the background softened. When I zoom in on my TZ100, the images become a little softer and significantly more of the image rather than just the subject is in focus (relating to the aperture increasing to 5.9), which with birds i often want to avoid.

Water resistant body - I've often wanted to take videos of some things in the rain with both my TZ100 and FZ82 and had to wrap the body up in something temporary which is not ideal.

Microphone input port - This is a huge bonus. I am in fact thinking I may use this camera much more for video rather than pictures. If the microphone records the audio directly to be embedded in the video and no work is required, i can certainly see myself buying a microphone to help reduce wind noise.




Anyone with experience of the FZ330 (or fz300), I would appreciate some advice on weather it may be suitable for what I'm wanting.

The other advantage is that Graham Houghton has done many videos on this, and I can say that even from watching his other videos on lumix cameras has helped me a huge amount to get used to the menu on my TZ100.

I do have learning difficulties and very poor memory, so I need to constantly keep watching the same videos. I took some useful info to take some of my best pictures during the first lockdown with my TZ100, but most of that information on how to set up cameras goes out of my head. At least I know that with the panasonic interface, i can get there again with help.

Hopefully the videos will help me with the FZ300 in the same way if I get it. Just need to find out a bit more about it.

 

[njlarsen]

Not a direct answer to your question but one comment that might still be relevant. I have found that when working with longer zooms, I often have an advantage if I take shots in series rather than single shot. I use the middle setting for continuous shooting so that I get live view in between. If I take 3-4 shots, I often see that no 2 or 3 is sharper than the first. The first possible explanation is that pressing the shutter can induce some shake into the system that then gets less with time. The second possible explanation which is more relevant for more distant birds: air movements that influence the quality of the shot are not constant, there can be instances that are better then others and shooting a series makes it more likely you will capture one of those.

A possible problem with longer zoom is that the shutter speed might be falling simply because you sample less light. This can result in more camera shake, magnified by the long zoom, and this might be part of the problem you experienced with the longer zoom camera you mentioned.

If you have set the camera to use a certain shutter speed, then you are likely to have increased ISO for the stronger zoom, and that would result in more electronic noise.

Hope some of this is helpful
Niels

 

[Swissboy]

......................................
For 6 months over a year ago now, I had the FZ82. I was really impressed initially by the zoom on this, but I realised that most of the sort of pictures I took with it suffered what any camera with a long zoom will in the same conditions. Such as a blurred result relating to heat rising off surfaces over the distance. The main issue with the FZ82 was that much over 800mm zoomed in, far too much noise was introduced, unless it was a perfectly bright day.

I need to have a better understanding of photography, but one stand out feature of the FZ300 to me looks like it is the fixed range aperture that remains at 2.8 when zooming in fully. 24x at 600mm should be reasonable for me. Back when I had my TZ70 that had a 30x zoom, that practically is all i now see myself using. i often zoomed in at 1200mm on my FZ82 then realising that i will have been better off leaving it at 600mm. I understand there will be cameras out there that can zoom much further than this with less noise than the FZ82, but having had 3 Lumix cameras and liking the interface, I really want to stick with Panasonic.
..................................

I do not know the FZ82, but I have had various FZ models. I wonder whether the"1200mm" zoom is not a digital zoom. Anything over what the optical zoom offers is not improving picture quality.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

I do not know the FZ82, but I have had various FZ models. I wonder whether the"1200mm" zoom is not a digital zoom. Anything over what the optical zoom offers is not improving picture quality.

It was a 60x optical zoom, so 1200mm certainly is all optical. But as the aperture goes to 5.9, when fully zoomed in, it does lose a lot of light, and I think that is part of the reason for it often becoming too grainy.

I could still occasionally get surprising results even when using the intelligent and digital zoom which went to over 2400mm i think. But I learned to not to get too carried away with this as it only sometimes was a benefit over just zooming into an image after it was taken. Even though you obviously get far better with the right equipment, I didn't expect this camera to be able to get a shot this clear of the moon.

I don't need this much zoom though, and that was one reason why i sold this camera. I can imagine that 600mm will be just fine. And as the FZ330 has a fixed range aperture, I assume it won't lose light when zooming in the same way.

The thing I don't quite get is that some video reviews on youtube say that smartphones take better pictures than the FZ330. I believe they will have better software, and some now even have larger sensors, but I feel that it will more likely be the users not understanding how to get the most from it with the manual settings.

If they are right, it is a bit worrying that a premium smartphone would be better than a dedicated bridge camera that is around £500 that is specifically for picture taking.

I'm not sure I believe them though!