ISO comparison

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ47's photo quality has improved from this camera's predecessor, the FZ40. If you're a pixel peeper you probably won't be thrilled with the noise and artifacts you can see when photos are viewed onscreen at 100 percent. But unless you're planning to regularly make prints above 8x10, you'll likely be very happy with the results. Like most point-and-shoots the FZ47 does well up to ISO 200, so the more light you give it, the better your photos. However, ISO 400 is still good for small prints and so is ISO 800, as long as you don't do much enlarging and cropping. I'd stay away from ISO 1600, though, as colors desaturate and you'll get a lot of yellow blotching from color noise.