Its electronic viewfinder (EVF), like most EVFs, is bit coarse to look at, but again, is roughly equivalent with its competitors'. In continuous shooting mode, it doesn't go blank as some EVFs do between shots. Instead, it shows you the last image shot, which doesn't help if you want to recompose or try to follow a subject while shooting a burst of shots. This makes burst shooting something of a crap shoot and much less useful, though this is true of all EVFs. If you haven't ever shot with an EVF camera, we suggest you try one out in a store before you make your final decision.
Since the camera is styled like an SLR, it's no surprise that you'll likely want to use two hands, especially since Panasonic put the focus controls on the left side of the lens barrel. We found this convenient when switching between AF modes, choosing a focus point, or making a quick switch to manual focus. All other buttons find their home on the right side of the camera, and all are in reach of either your thumb or your forefinger. The focus/autoexposure lock button would've been more comfortable to use if it was a bit further to the right, but it wasn't out of reach.
Two dials, one in the front of the grip and one on the back, let you change aperture and shutter-speed settings, respectively, when in the appropriate exposure modes. This made shooting in manual mode faster and more convenient than with cameras that make you hold a button while turning a dial to set either aperture or shutter speed in manual mode. In addition to one ring to control the zoom, Panasonic includes a second ring on the lens barrel for manual focus. When you move the ring, a box pops up in the center of the LCD or EVF with a magnified portion of your subject to make it easier to see if you're in focus. If you press the shutter button halfway, the box disappears, or it won't appear at all if you press the button before touching the ring. You can still change the focus though, so be careful.
A 710mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery powers the camera, is conveniently placed inside the grip, and loads from the bottom. Panasonic says that it's good for approximately 360 pictures in program AE mode, when measured according to the industry standard CIPA guidelines. The FZ50 stores images to SD cards, which load into the right side of the camera. The camera is SDHC compliant, which means that you can use it with SDHC memory cards. These cards allow the SD format to grow to capacities larger than 2GB but aren't compatible with all card readers or cameras.
In addition to the usual run-down of AF and AE modes, Panasonic includes two high-speed focusing modes, as well as 9-zone selectable spot focusing. There aren't many other stand-out features though. One of the niftier ones is the flip animation mode, which lets you shoot as many as 100 320x240-pixel images, then string them together into a video clip that's as long as 20 seconds. Another nice touch is the High Sensitivity scene mode, which brings the camera's sensitivity up to an equivalent of ISO 3,200. In all other shooting modes, the sensitivity tops out at ISO 1,600, which is still impressive. The FZ50 includes 15 scene modes, in addition to the high sensitivity mode, so if you're one of those shooters who doesn't like using manual exposure controls, you don't have to.
Tweakers, take note. The DMC-FZ50 can record raw images, as well as the usual JPEG, so you have more flexibility than some non-SLRs offer when adjusting for things such as exposure or white balance after the fact. Another nice anomaly is this camera's 16:9 video mode, which records at a resolution of 848x480 pixels instead of just chopping down the 640x480 pixels of the 4:3 video mode. Also, there's a white-balance adjustment mode, which lets you shift the various white-balance settings to make them more blue, green, amber, or magenta, or a combination of those as they fall into the x/y grid offered by the control.
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Time to first shot | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
As we mentioned earlier, we same some minor speckles of noise even at ISO 100, though it was mostly in shadows and darker colors. At ISO 200, it grew a little, but in both cases, it most likely won't be noticeable in prints. At ISO 400, noise was more apparent and showed in all colors. We also noticed a slight fall-off in the sharpness of finer details. At ISO 800, noise was obvious, but images were still usable for prints, especially at smaller sizes. At ISO 1,600, we saw abundant noise and most fine detail was obliterated. We suggest that you shy away from using this setting and stick to lower ISOs. Despite this, we were pleased to see that Panasonic has started to make some headway in keeping noise under control in their cameras.
The automatic white balance turned in horribly warm images with our lab's tungsten lights. The tungsten preset was much better but still not totally neutral. Manual white balance yielded the best results. On the plus side, the camera does an excellent job of balancing fill flash with existing lights.
Though it's much bigger and more expensive, Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ50 offers serious competition to our current superzoom favorite, the Canon Power Shot S3 IS. This Lumix won't take away the S3 IS's crown, but it's worth a look if you can get over its large size and somewhat bloated price tag.
Product Specifications:
Product Description:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 - Digital camera
Product Type:
Digital camera - Prosumer
Dimensions (WxDxH):
5.6 in x 5.6 in x 3.4 in
Color:
Silver
Flash Memory:
32 MB
Supported Flash Memory:
MultiMediaCard
,
SD Memory Card
Sensor Resolution:
10.1 megapixels
Shooting Modes:
Frame movie mode
Focus Adjustment:
Manual
,
Automatic
Min Focus Range:
11.8 in
Focal Length:
7.4 mm - 88.8 mm
Image Stabilizer:
Optical
Red Eye Reduction:
Yes
Microphone:
Microphone - Built-in
Viewfinder:
Electronic - 0.44 in - Color
Display:
LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2 in - Color
Supported Battery:
1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery - 710 mAh ( Included )
Product Basic Spec:
Video input type:
Digital camera
Digital Zoom:
4 x
Sensor resolution:
10.1 megapixels
Optical sensor size:
1/1.8 in
Optical sensor type:
CCD
Light sensitivity:
ISO 100
,
ISO 200
,
ISO 400
,
ISO 800
,
ISO 1600
,
ISO 3200
,
ISO auto
Gross sensor resolution:
10,400,000 pixels
Still image format:
RAW
,
JPEG
Lens Aperture:
F/2.8-3.7
Optical Zoom:
12 x
Camera Flash:
Pop-up flash
External flash terminal:
Hot shoe
Exposure metering:
Spot
,
Multi-segment
,
Center-weighted
Exposure compensation:
±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
Flash memory:
32 MB - SD Memory Card
Display type:
2 in LCD display
Battery type:
- Lithium ion
Weight:
1.5 lbs