Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 10.1 Megapixel Bridge Camera - Black

Best SLR-like Non-SLR Available Today

Strengths: Feature packed. User friendly control/menus. Good handling. Long zoom. Manual focus that works. Manual zoom (avoids hunting). Image Stabilization. Standard hot shoe. Can make RAW images. Flip LCD

Weakness: Digital noise. Weight may be a con for some (not for me).

I’m a lifelong photographer. I had an Olympus 2100UZ I loved for 5 years. It failed about 3 months ago and I bought the FZ50 as a replacement. I wanted a long zoom range, but I didn’t want to have to change lenses to get it. So, I didn’t want an SLR. But, I wanted as many SLR features as I could get in a non-SLR digital – that is, an SLR-like camera. This camera fits that bill the best of...
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I’m a lifelong photographer. I had an Olympus 2100UZ I loved for 5 years. It failed about 3 months ago and I bought the FZ50 as a replacement. I wanted a long zoom range, but I didn’t want to have to change lenses to get it. So, I didn’t want an SLR. But, I wanted as many SLR features as I could get in a non-SLR digital – that is, an SLR-like camera. This camera fits that bill the best of any on the market today. It is probably the heaviest non-SLR, but that’s good for me because I’m an old guy with tremor and the weight helps damp the tremor. It has manual zooming. You twist a ring on the lens barrel like a real camera -- not a joystick-lever that has you going in-and-out, back-and-forth trying to get the zoom to stop in the right place. It also has a manual focusing ring that works like the zoom ring making manual focus more practical.

The person who said “It has a fantastic body and chassis with a weak engine,” hit the nail on the head. Pictures have a lot of digital noise. More than typical for comparable cameras from other companies (Canon, Olympus, Fuji, etc.). I was aware of that when I bought it. It was a compromise I was willing to make to get the other features, but I didn’t expect the noise to be as bad as it is. If you crank up the in-camera noise filtering the image degrades noticeably. I shoot with minimum noise filtering or RAW, and use a noise removal utility. Even with this the noise is a negative.

If I had to replace it today I’d buy it again, but I wish Panasonic would get a cleaner sensor.

By jimmm - Oct 1, 2007

Overall a Great Camera

Strengths: Simple and straight forward. Easy to get started, easy to use and easy to learn the features.

Weakness: A plastic body! A worthless 32 MB SD card. Why bother including one if it is worthless?

This is my second Panasonic Lumix. Previous was the FZ10 which I liked be it just did not have the pixelation power that I needed. These things do drop in value considerably. I paid $500 for the FZ10 three years ago and with the tele and wide angle adapters and a extra battery, I have not been offered more than $100. The features of the FZ50 are similar to the FZ10 so for me it was a pleasent...
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This is my second Panasonic Lumix. Previous was the FZ10 which I liked be it just did not have the pixelation power that I needed. These things do drop in value considerably. I paid $500 for the FZ10 three years ago and with the tele and wide angle adapters and a extra battery, I have not been offered more than $100. The features of the FZ50 are similar to the FZ10 so for me it was a pleasent transition into the newer more powerful model. I continue to be favorably impress with the new features, particularly the resolution of the videos and the speed of the lens on available light for night videos; additionally, the still night shots of the sky, moon and stars are very impressive. The built in flash has a good a range but not very broad coverage and up close the flash can be a little harsh. I use an external flash for most shots and reserve the built in for
quick shots. Close ups are amazing because of the min focus distance. I took a picture of a flower and when I looked at it in Photo Shop I could see the grains of pollen and little bugs on the flower petals. I could not see these things in the camera's LCD.

By gerryc1629 - Apr 3, 2007

just what I wanted

Strengths: Quick startup, astonishing photos in good light, manageable size for 400mm+ zoom equivalent! Excellent lens.

Weakness: higher iso just means more noise, low light means noise, image stabilizer and noise reduction just defeat the purpose of having 10megapixels.

I feel this is the best camera for the money on the market at present time. Very happy with pictures, and camera performance meets or exceeds my expectations. I am shooting action surfing at high speed in sunny to cloudy conditions. With this zoom ability and adjustable settings, it would take thousands of dollars to get a camera setup that does all this in dslr.

By srf4real - Dec 13, 2006

Lumix FZ50

Strengths: Quick "on" to "snap". Clear pictures at high magnification (12x zoom) with very little hint of handshake/bluriness. Manual zoom and manual focus (if desired). Quick/accurate autofocus. Program mode.

Weakness: Heavy and bulky (especially the lens). Plastic camera body. Why even include a 32 MB SD card?? A useful card would be a 1 GB SD (and they're cheap!). I'm considering a 2 or 4 GB card.

All in all, a great camera. Been looking for a reasonably priced digital SLR to replace my old 35mm (with 4 lenses). Loved the fact that I control any/all the parameters the camera uses. PE works nicely, allowing me to choose the depth of focus (f/) or the shutter speed while the camera does the work. I have not seen any blurring of fine features (hair, etc.) caused by the Venus III/steady shot...
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All in all, a great camera. Been looking for a reasonably priced digital SLR to replace my old 35mm (with 4 lenses). Loved the fact that I control any/all the parameters the camera uses. PE works nicely, allowing me to choose the depth of focus (f/) or the shutter speed while the camera does the work. I have not seen any blurring of fine features (hair, etc.) caused by the Venus III/steady shot feature. I set ISO to 100 and have shot in a wide range of conditions. Will experiment with auto ISO later.
Truly easy to use and this camera makes me feel like a pro!

By Sittingbull118 - Sep 28, 2006

A rare substitute for expensive DSLR's

Strengths: superb finder details, standard/optimum levels of sharpness)Improved noise levels and above all FANTASTIC image quality ( Its got the world's best lenses - LEICA)

Weakness: Everybody seems to be branding panasonic cameras about a noise problem( almost all cameras have that,except DSLR's) This could be a publicity problem for this camera)

I borrowed it from a friend and used it to shoot for about 3 days. A solid all rounder that is capable of knocking popular DSLR’s off the rack if your shoot in bright day light conditions. Accurate colors that are well saturated look nice and vibrant in the prints. The optical image stabilizations perform the best ever! Noise levels have been improved and so has the flash ( Fuji is one camera...
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I borrowed it from a friend and used it to shoot for about 3 days. A solid all rounder that is capable of knocking popular DSLR’s off the rack if your shoot in bright day light conditions. Accurate colors that are well saturated look nice and vibrant in the prints. The optical image stabilizations perform the best ever! Noise levels have been improved and so has the flash ( Fuji is one camera which can beat many ultra zoom camera’s in low noise levels) you can print big pictures as well if you are shooting in day light conditions. If you are shooting in low light ensure you run your images through a noise reduction software and then print! ( I did it for me earlier camera’s as well) Only DSLR’s steam ahead of the ultra zoom camera’s here! The control of the cameras is awesome and mind you it’s a HUGE HEAD TURNER in public places! It looks awesome and rocks!

I definitely recommend this camera!

By albert_manoj - Sep 28, 2006