Thread: FZ150 -- the power of a bridge camera. 1249mm?

I am still exploring the capabilities of the Panasonic FZ150, so I ran a little experiment today. I switched on all the stabilization and digital zoom capabilities, stood in one spot and shot some pictures.

1X/ 25MM equivalent:



10X/ 265MM:



20X/522MM:



24X/599MM, the limit of the optical zoom:



50X/1016MM, digital zoom:



199X/1249mm, digital zoom:



Admittedly, the last one is pretty rough, put still good enough to identify a bird.

All shots were hand held.

That is pretty darned impressive, you'd be able to identify most birds before you reached the limits of your last shot. The results at the extremes are not top quality photography but more than useful for clinching an id.

Barrie

that 50x shot looks pretty nice. If you crop that one similar to the 199x shot I think it would be cleaner. Superzooms are supercool.

Luke,

I'll give that cropping a try. I remain astonished at the performance of this camera.

Now, if the good folks at Panasonic would just produce a version that is weathersealed . . .

In the meantime, I carry a small shoulder pouch with a ziplock bag inside.

Originally Posted by grebeman

That is pretty darned impressive, you'd be able to identify most birds before you reached the limits of your last shot. The results at the extremes are not top quality photography but more than useful for clinching an id.

Barrie

Barrie - I have just bought a Fuji HS30 EXR for exactly that - it has a 30x optical zoom, up to 720mm, then twice that with the Digital zoom

I wanted to use it for bird ID ........... at the limits of the zooms, i.e. 720mm and x 2 of that, 1440mm, it will just not spot focus fast enough and sometimes it will just not spot focus at all in anything other than very good light

Jock, how quick does the FZ150 spot focus?

Originally Posted by BillN

Barrie - I have just bought a Fuji HS30 EXR for exactly that ....... it will just not spot focus fast enough and sometimes it will just not spot focus at all in anything other than very good light

Good point Bill, as with everything, there are pros and cons, certainly an important consideration with record type shots to confirm bird id, even more so since they often are to be found in less well lit places than the tip of that conifer.

Barrie

Bill,

The spot focus is quick, about .1 sec according to most of the reviews I have read.

This photo, taken in mixed light, was taken at long range with lots of zoom and snapped into focus very quickly.



Cheers, Jock

Impressive!
Panny does good super zooms
cannot beat the versatility.
I have a great of fun with my HS30EXR:)

The zoom ranges of these types of camera are pretty darn impressive.

Yup. Pretty impressive. At it's clear that up to 1000mm equivalent is completely usable.