Panasonic fz200

PeteMo

PeteMo

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I'm looking for opinions on the Panasonic fz200 from past or current owners.

Mainly on image quality in daylight for every day use. We have an 8 month old pup and looking to grab some decent images of her.

I know it's getting on a bit but I came across it by chance while weighing up options and it looks ok for our needs. I don't really want to go down the DSLR route again although I haven't totally ruled that out.

Just curious to hear others views on this particular model.

Cheers.
 
PeteMo said:
Seen it.

I'm after TP users views pretty please :D
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Never used it, but I've looked into this in the past. I do shoot Panasonic, but interchangeable, if I was getting a Bridge for main use I would probably look at the Fz2000 but it's quite a leap in price - how tight is your budget? I would save the bit extra to get the FZ300, it's got some nice upgrades for the £100 or so extra. Touch screen, wireless, much better res LCD, weather sealing, phone app control, 4K video and 4K photo mode, more AF points, at least 1 stop better ISO ... I think it's more than worth it for the extra money. The Z200 looks really old hat today. The Z300 is still 2015, but they improved so much on it.
 
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I'm no longer prepared to spend several hundred on camera gear so £200-£300 is the max budget. That puts both the 200 & 300 in the ring.

How does the depth of field compare to a crop DSLR ?
 
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PeteMo said:
I'm no longer prepared to spend several hundred on camera gear so £200-£300 is the max budget. That puts both the 200 & 300 in the ring.

How does the depth of field compare to a crop DSLR ?
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Ignore the 200, just look at he 300 for now. It's unlikely that many active on here can help you hands-on-wise, so you do have to rely on video or written reviews. It just makes sense to at least watch them before deciding. 2.8 throughout the zoom range is very nice, but the sensor is small, so you are never going to get anything close to the shallow depth of field found on full frame sensors, that's just fact. But if you really cared about that, why wouldn't you just buy an old full frame camera and some cheap old primes? You could realistically buy a used old Canon 5D and a 50mm and save on side for a cheap tele lens for what you'll pay for the Z300

Anyway, here's a good look at the z300, I don't think I can help you beyond that. Maybe you'll get lucky and some Fz200 - 300 users will pop in to give better advice, good luck ;)

 
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I've used both, pretty similar IQ wise but the 330 much better for handling/specs. As a walkabout camera in good light they are great for mainly static subjects, can't see them working that well for a boisterous puppy though. I agree with cagey, a cheap dslr with a fast 50mm on the front would be my choice for puppy shots, you can get cameras like Nikon D80's and Canon 40D's for pennies now and they are faster to use and offer better image quality than the Panasonics.
 
Thanks both.

As per my opening post, I haven't totally ruled out an older crop and funnily enough had thought of something like a D80. A mate uses Canon so was even weighing up a 40/50d.

I'd also come across some old images on my pc of the kids that looked really nice as far as colours and tones go. They were taken with a Nikon D50 & 18-70 !

Not sure I really want to go for something that old now though although that would be a nice cheap combo :)
 
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Just a quick update on this.

After a few weeks chopping & changing my mind, I picked up an old Nikon D80.

It still delivers the goods...

Mabel-21.jpg
 
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