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Wow, what a camera!,
This camera is everything the FZ100 is and they fixed all the shortcomings to produce the FZ150. The buttons in the back of the 100 were too easy to push. I was constantly pushing the playback button when holding the camera with one hand. No more. The button is recessed and the problem is gone. Most if not all the accessories that work on the 100 also work on the 150. Aftermarket batteries actually show capacity now!
When focusing, when the camera focuses it beeps now so you don’t have to be looking at the screen. That is great for using Red Dot Sights on this camera. Night shots are awesome with the Handheld Night Shots Mode. It takes several pictures and combines them for great shots with no blur. The camera has way less noise then the FZ100. Even at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 the noise is better than the FZ100 was in ISO 400. Camera focus in the picture mode and in the video mode is much faster. You can take 12 frames per second burst inside now at all ISO’s. The 100 will not do that.
The camera works great in iA (intelligent auto) were the FZ100 was real noisy in that mode. The camera will zoom to 62.4X in the 3mp picture mode with I-Zoom turned on. I like setting the camera at 8mp picture size, which gives me 39.1X zoom. It records in 1080P video!
The flash works great! It goes out over 30 feet and lights up the rooms very well. I will post some pictures of that. Pictures are very sharp, not noisy, and crisp.
This camera is everything that the FZ100 is and much more. This camera is a REAL WINNER! Great job Panasonic!
I just went outside and put the camera in the 12 frames per second mode, shot 12 shots, waited 1 second, shot another 8 shots, waited another second, shot another 8 shots.
Someone mentioned the Canon SX40IS, so I checked it out. The cameras are similar in a lot of ways. Each one has it’s strengths and weaknesses. The killer for me is the burst mode. The Canon will shoot at 10 frames per second for 8 shots. The Panasonic will shoot at 12 frames per second for 12 shots. Not that much different there. The part they don’t tell you is the Panasonic after taking the 12 shots, wait 1 second, you can take another 8 shots, wait one second, another 8 shots. In the 5.5 fps burst it will go 30-35 shots before slowing down. The Canon will not do that. At 5.5 fps in Auto Focus the camera will go 30 to 35 shots and focus between each shot. In the Canon the rate of burst in Auto Focus is .8 fps. Yes, .8 frames per second. Less than 1 frame per second and focus in between shots. That in my opinion is a deal killer. That is exactly why I chose the Panasonic FZ100 over the Canon SX30IS. It is just too slow for any kind of action shots.
I was at an Animal Safari this last Sunday and had a problem with the camera focusing on the bars of the cage instead of the animal. Sometimes it focused on the animal and sometimes it would not. Finally I used the button on the left side of the lens. It is a ZOOM/FOCUS button, and to change it to a zoom, go to Menu Set, Setup Menu, Page 2, the third one down (Side Lever) and change it to ZOOM or to FOCUS. I changed it to FOCUS and put the focus lever in manual focus. From that point on I had no trouble focusing the bars out of the picture. This camera is awesome!
Another thing that happened to me is I was inside a display area. It was dark inside. All the displays were encased in glass so flash was out of the question. I was in Aperture Priority and for some reason the pictures kept coming out too bright. I changed the Aperture, no help. Then I put the main dial in iA (intelligent auto) and took a picture. It came out perfect! The FZ100 was always a problem in iA, usually because of the noise. Not this camera! It gets it perfect every time. If you are a novice and don’t want to mess with camera controls, this is the camera for you. Anyone can shoot it and get great pictures as long as they can frame a shot and push the shutter release button! If you want to take full control, fine, the camera will do that too. This camera is great for the novice and the experienced photographers! Panasonic got it right this time!
I have noticed that my camera tends to be towards the warm side in color temperature in Auto White Balance. That is totally adjustable and it is explained on pages 114 and 115 of the manual.
I am listing this and guarantee it will get someone. If you try to take a picture with the flash and it will not go off, the flash is open and it is dark enough for it to go off and it does not……. Your camera is in the Burst Mode!!!! That gets lots of people all the time.
Part of the picture on playback is flashing in black and white…. Your HIGHLIGHT is turned on and the picture is saturated in the black and white saturated area.
To turn it off go to the SETUP menu, page 3 at the bottom…
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|A winner!,
For many years, I used SLR cameras and purchased a DSLR a few years back. I finally realized that some super-zoom cameras were on the market that would take pictures good enough for everything I did and would not require me to carry around multiple lenses. I bought a Panasonic FZ35 and was quite pleased with it. It turned out to be one of the better super-zooms ever made. My complaint was that I would like a longer zoom. I decided to try out another Panasonic camera but was put off by the tepid reviews of the FZ100.
Since the FZ150 had not yet been released and there were only a few reviews of the camera, I purchased the highly praised Sony HX100V even though it lacked some features I would like to have. I was pleased with the pictures it took – up to a point. Thanks to a generous return policy of Amazon, I returned the HX100 and bought a Panasonic FZ150 which was the right move for me. I reviewed the Sony camera and you can read it elsewhere but this is a review of the Panasonic FZ150.
While the zoom of this camera is not as great as some competitors, the intelligent zoom makes up for this. I was able to take high quality pictures of distant objects under a variety of lighting conditions using high zoom and generally hand holding the camera. Impressive! The FZ35 did a good job of keeping noise low up to about ISO 400. The FZ150 does the same but up to ISO 800. Even ISO 1600 shows low noise. I was able to read license plates from 3-400 feet away even in low light. I suspect that Panasonic has found the 12 MP resolution using a small sensor is a sweet spot and allows good noise reduction even at high ISO.
I was able to take excellent closeups, the wide angle works well with minimal distortion and you can choose to record in RAW for better control in post production. And all of this works rapidly and reliably. The image stabilizer worked well in all but extreme closeups.
To test both the video and burst modes, I stood near a train track and took pictures of oncoming and leaving trains. The burst mode is outstanding and the video is as good as can be expected from a super-zoom. The sound is excellent although in a quiet situation, you can hear the zoom being changed during recording. I like being able to choose AVCHD or MP4 for video recording. This gives you some control over video size, video quality and easy of use by various operating systems.
The Sony has a panoramic mode while the FZ150 has a panoramic assist mode. With the assist, you can fairly easily set up successive pictures for merging using software. I found this assist allows you to control the resolution of a panorama better then when the camera creates the panorama. This is not a big deal since I mainly use this type of assist to merge 2 pictures rather than merge 5 or 6 shots and the software merge is fast.
I was impressed by how well the FZ150 handled white balance. Outside, the automatic worked flawlessly. But this was also true indoors. I watched the camera readjust the white balance as I moved it between scenes illuminated by different light sources. This produced shots with correct color balance. With the FZ35, I had to manually switch white balance to maintain correct color rendition.
A couple of other super-zooms do not have lenses with threads for filters. I was pleased to be able to use a UV filter (mainly to prevent lens scratching while walking through the woods) and use a polarizing lens as needed. I noticed that there are additional lens modifications available that fit the threads.
Unfortunately, printing a full manual appears not to be in the cards any more. The manuals, both basic and advanced, are available in PDF format which allows you to print off sections as needed. But I still would like a printed manual provided by the manufacturer.
The articulated viewing screen has good resolution although not as high as some competitors. I very much like being able to turn the screen over and close it. This protects the surface of the screen. You can use the EVF viewfinder which I like to use but did find myself using the LCD screen whenever I could.
The FZ50 apparently requires a coded battery in order to see the amount of charge remaining in the camera viewer. I bought a non-Panasonic extra battery for the FZ150 and find that the amount of charge is shown in the viewer. This is a $ saver since non-Panasonic batteries cost less than those from Panasonic.
I have used most every mode on the camera and find them all to do exactly what they are supposed to do. In summary, I would recommend this camera to anyone who wants to buy a super-zoom. You can use automatic features if you are a neophyte or use the variety of settings if you are a knowledgeable enthusiast. In both cases, you will be pleased.
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|Great features, great lens, less than stellar engineering,
I researched this purchase for several months, watching videos made by others using the camera, and pictures taken. I was very impressed with the video quality and picture quality from my research. It also had all the features I wanted (RAW shooting, flip-out LCD screen, a relatively decent “superzoom” lens and small size). I was aware of complaints of build quality, and the user interface, but I wasn’t as concerned about that as with the features for the price.
After using the camera for a few months, I have several things to mention.
1.) The HD video quality is top-notch. Very impressive. I love the camera’s ability to zoom and refocus while capturing movies. It makes my shots seem more “cinematic”.
2.) The photo quality is also excellent, pleasantly saturated colors (adjustable), although a bit grainy at the higher ISOs (not surprising given the camera’s sensor size)
3.) The build quality is indeed less than stellar. It seems a little more “plasticky” than it’s competitors. This probably adds to the camera’s light weight (which I do like), but when I use it, I feel like I have to be more careful than with other simlar camera’s I’ve handled. Consequently, I carry it in a well-padded bag.
4.) The interface is a bit confusing and overly complicated. Panasonic should take a lesson from Canon on interface design.
5.) The buttons are a little small and tightly arranged. Although I’ve gotten used to it, it does make using the camera feel a little cramped – not a huge issue.
6.) In at least one instance, the EXIF data indicated the flash did not fire, when in fact it did.
7.) This is perhaps the most troubling issue (a glaring design flaw, in my opinion), and the main reason for not giving this product a full five star rating – In some pictures using the flash, white disks or “soap bubbles” (as the camera’s manual calls them) appear superimposed over the subject. This phenomenon is mentioned in the PDF manual on page 197 (you can download a PDF of this Manual from Panasonic’s website and read it yourself). I did read the PDF manual all the way through before buying the camera but I did not expect those artifacts to be so common (the shot in the manual showing the artifacts is not a picture style I typically shoot). The manual says they “may appear as a result of the flash reflecting off of dust particles in the air”. To me, this is a major design flaw and has already ruined a number of my shots. I have never seen such artifacts from any cameras with on-board flash. At times the artifacts are subtle enough to where you don’t see them until you download the pictures from the memory card to your computer and examine them – too late to re-shoot the photo without the flash. Of course, I have never seen the problem in video clips, but I have never used a video light source with the camera so I can’t say if they wouldn’t appear in that case.
I am hopeful a firmware update will fix the EXIF and “soap bubbles” problems. If so, this would be a five-star product, in my opinion. In the mean time, I have created my own “DIY” flash diffuser for the pop-up flash that will hopefully eliminate or lessen the problem. If I can post a follow-up review, I will report the results of the change.
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