Need high-speed video with decent photo capabilities: Lumix FZ100 or something else?

thezeronumber

thezeronumber

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I've been yearning for a decent Camera/Camcorder for a while now. I have always loved Photography (took a course in College) and Video/Image editing is a large part of my social life, so it's only natural that i have desired to take/record my own footage and use that with the skills i am already familiar with. As is routine for me, every few months i scan the Photo/Video scene to see if anything new is happening. Only a few weeks ago did i notice that prices were actually pretty good and something once out of my league was now practically at my finger tips. A couple of weeks on and i started digging around for something i can buy.

I have since come to realise that high-speed video capture is a big thing on my "must have" list. Why? Well, one of my hobbies is the RC scene. I'm still relatively new to it but i currently own a 10th scale Monster Truck that hits 30+ mph on a good day, with a simple change in battery voltage upping that top-end speed to 45+. I (as well as the RC community) would absolutely love to see some footage of it in action, yet slowed down to a point where you can see things the human eye would usually miss. So for that reason amongst others, high-speed video capture is a must. With that said, i am also looking for a product which can offer both decent Photo and HD Video capabilities. Everything else (such as high-speed shooting) is considered a great feature but nothing that important.

After a couple days of researching i had come across 3 likely candidates for high-speed recording, decent image quality, and good HD video - all of which are Bridge Models: The Casio EX-FH25, Fujifilm FinePix HS10, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100. In short, the Casio and Fuji were pretty closely matched but the Panasonic blew them both out of the water. Right now i am liking the FZ100 a lot because it offers beautiful image quality for a Bridge Camera and has stunning HD video; dare i say topping those of dedicated Camcorders. And of course it has the high-speed recording mode with a multitude of other useful features (24x Optical Zoom, 11 fps burst shooting, etc), all for the tidy sum of £345. My "max limit" still lies at £600 though (this is excluding accessories like memory cards and a tripod), which makes me wonder if there is anything else out there which i can consider. After all, if i were to buy the FZ100 i am only using just over half of my budget. Curiosity is getting the better of me here!

I'm up for going down the DSLR route, it's just that the only viable options so far have been with Bridge Cameras as they are the only products to offer high-speed video modes. And while i commend the superb image quality a DSLR can bring, a Bridge for me is just as brilliant as it can still get great photos without the necessity of multiple lenses and lugging a lot of equipment around. Plus i'm a dab hand with Photoshop and would end up improving them in PP anyway, heh.

[TL;DR]​
I am after something that can do high-speed video recording which lasts more than 10 seconds, while producing decent quality stills and with some form of HD recording (regardless of resolution or pro/inter type), all for up to £600. It may sound a bit pretentious but i am curious to any other possible options out there! Any suggestions? :)
 
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"records high speed movies at 220fps in QVGA size"

That Panasonic would be ideal, but according to wiki QVGA is 320x240, would that be good enough?

A 550d will shoot 60fps @ 720p, would that be good enough? Not exactly Tornado cam i know.
 
Being a small Camera that runs off its own power instead of a Desktop computer, i was expecting the resolution. It's not going to be ground-breaking stuff but still enough to make out the most important details at that slowed speed. The Casio and Fuji offer higher resolution by a small degree, and it does show in the examples i have seen, but their HD movie and photo quality is nothing compared to the Panasonic. Not by a long shot.

Halving 60 fps isn't enough either, especially when you factor in some of my subjects will be going at 40+ mph!

That EX-F1 was the first Camera i came across which had slow-motion: It probably does it the best too. Alas, the reason it's that price in the first place is because not a lot of places stock it anymore (it was released early 2008) and the bigger brothers, such as the EX-F25, have taken over.

Thanks for help so far. :)
 
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the only thing I will add is that only the fuji of the ones you have mentioned have a twist manual zoom, so you can zoom faster and also quietly....
 
thezeronumber said:
The manual twist zoom is anything but quiet. It's very "sticky" and noisy on the HS10.
Click to expand...

The one I played with wasn't, but can it be noisier than a motorized one?
 
lawrie29 said:
The one I played with wasn't, but can it be noisier than a motorized one?
Click to expand...

I would say it's on-par with some of the average/better muted motorised ones. An improvement on motorised, sure, but still loud in comparison to other zoom rings. From every example i've seen the HS10 has been quite noisy. It might be a touch softer than the FZ100 but not by a huge margin; this is going by my standards of course. The zooming sound isn't such a huge factor for me when most of the videos will either cover general friend/family scenes or will be used in amateur film-making where i can mute out the unwanted noises in post-production or have another sound clip/track play over them.
 
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