My Panasonic FZ20 is on the way. (1 Viewer)

[Wes]

Just called and found a local Circuit City has it in stock, How often have they been running them for $549.? They are giving a $50. gift card with this camera if you buy on the web site and you can still do a store pickup. But the price right now is $599. Should I pull the trigger and hope the put it on sale within a month?

Wes

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

If I were you, I wouldn't wait for a better deal. Just find the best deal you can get right now and go for it. If you wait too long, you'll miss all the great autumn colors and have a nice new camera w/ not nearly as much to shoot for the winter season.

FWIW, digicam prices always come down until they are discontinued the next year. The key as usual w/ these things is to get what you can when you actually "need" it -- well, actually, you should give yourself at least a couple weeks to warm up to a new camera before any big vacation, honeymoon, event, etc. and longer if possible.

_Man_

 

[Holadem]

Are there any reviews of this thing yet? I can't seem to find any!

--
H

 

[Patrick Sun]

Looks like you'll have to wait until October to get reviews from the 3 main digital camera review sites.

 

[BruceH]

DPreview has a "preview" that is fairly detailed. (Sorry, I can't post links yet...)

It seems as though the problem is that Panasonic is not loaning out very many review samples.


Bruce

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Aaron's capsule FZ20 review:

Took it on the HTF trip.
Loved loved loved using it. It feels very solid, operates fast, and the menus and functions are easy to get used to.
I didn't measure battery life, but only had to recharge once during the week (I took about 200 pics total).
Initial review of the pictures (taken mostly in 3 MP mode, some in 5 MP mode) on my PC and 55" TV at home shows excellent results.

There you have it!

I'll post some samples at some point soon.

 

[Travis Hedger]

One thing I was pleasantly surprised on this weekend was the burst mode.

I set it to H and was out in full sunlight shooting a few birds, at one press of the shutter I heard SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP and in less than 1 second I had 4 pictures written to the card and ready for viewing.

VERY NICE.

 

[Chris PC]

In Canada the FZ20 is at Henrys for $899.99. Looks like it directly replaced the FZ10 without a price hike. Thats something worthwhile noting.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The MSRP of the FZ20 (US$600) was a VERY pleasant surprise when it was released! Many places still sell the FZ10 for more than I paid for the FZ20 the 2nd week it was available!

 

[Chris PC]

The FZ20 apparantly has a tad more noise than the FZ10? Is this true? I understand the 5 MP CCD's are a tad noisy. Not sure exactly how much worse it was. It would be nice to find an FZ10 discounted due to the FZ20 out there. I think they've cleared them out. I still wish the FZ10 and 20 had video recording of 640 x 480 @ 30 fps. The Konica Minolta has that. They did ditch their 800 x 600 mode though. I'm not 100% on the quality of the Z3, but it is the only 4 MP digital camera with a stabilizer technology, 10-12x zoom lens and 640x480@30fps video.

Anyways.....

Hope the FZ20 fairs well for you. It does look cool. I imagine a 5 MP 12x photo is noticabley easier to blow up than a 4 MP 10x photo. What I'm getting at is you can get closer with the FZ20 not just because of the extra 40 mm of zoom, but the additional mega pixels. If you zoom into the 5MP FZ20 picture to match the resolution of the FZ10, you're closer both because of the zoom and the extra MP.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I've read that about some of the Canon 5MP (G5 vs. G3) cams, but not about the FZ20. Where did you read about it?

I haven't had any noise issues with mine.

 

[Chris PC]

Image noise was mentioned here:


http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/pa...ew/index.shtml

Again, it wasn't a major issue.

Overall the person liked the camera. It seems nice that it doesn't have the chromatic problems. I may think seriously about this camera. I only wish it had a VGA @ 30 fps video. Oh well, I can live without that.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

About noise issue, sometimes, people do blow things out of proportion. And if you're coming from film to digital for the first time, it probably won't bother you at all. People just get too used to looking at low noise images at 100% magnification and are a bit spoiled about it. It was a sore point w/ the G3 vs G5 comparisons, and then, it became a big deal in the 300D/10D vs D70 comparisons even though the differences were really negligible. And of course, everyone's heard all the noise over the Sony F828 too.

Of course, it *is* nice to have less noise (and less PF and whatever other artifacts), but it's not always the end of the world though.

Personally, I find the grainy look to be a good thing sometimes, and even add grain to some of my pics at times. And also, there have been many who feel that Canon applies too much in-camera NR on their 300D/10D images, which seems to give people a plasticky look w/ missing fine textures/details in skin.

_Man_