Cheap Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150EB-K Compact Camera with Full HD Video Recording – Black (12.8 MP, 24x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD – Review & Rating
List Price: £474.11
12
Dec 2011
UK Sell Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150EB-K Compact Camera with Full HD Video Recording – Black (12.8 MP, 24x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD Deal
The FZ100 just got better,
— Introduction —
The FZ150 is an incremental update of the already excellent FZ100. This review will be updated as I use the camera more. At the moment, I’m still ploughing through the manual to see what’s new.
If you’re interested in the FZ series, please refer to my review of the FZ100 which I got to know pretty well. Panasonic Lumix FZ100 14.1MP Digital Camera – Black (3.0 inch TFT LCD Display, LEICA DC Lens with 24x Optical Zoom and Full HD Movie)
Anyway for now, this review purely focuses on what changes can be found in the FZ150 from the original FZ100.
— What’s New —
The lens: Panasonic have wisely decided to stick to their gem-like 25mm-600mm Leica-licenced lens and simply polished it to an even greater sheen. The result is an excellent lens made even better. A new nano-coating to reduce unwanted light pollution, the already fast auto-focus has been made even faster, and an additional zoom control has been added to the barrel of the lens. The new zoom control allows you to cradle the camera in your left hand and control the zoom with your thumb. The switch can even be reconfigured to act as a focus control instead of zoom. It’s a classic example of Panasonic providing more than one way to use a function, and fits in precisely with the whole concept of a bridge camera: Additional creative control. The existing context-sensitive “focus” button remains where it was, which is no bad thing. Additionally, the auto-focus modes have been re-jigged a little. Out is “Pre AF” and in are “Continuous AF” (purely for video) and “Quick AF” (purely for stills). Quick AF focuses the lens without user input when the camera is held steady. Sweet!
The sensor: The old sensor was really the Achilles heel of the FZ100. Not quite as bad as some people would have you believe, but not as good as the best of the competition. The new 12MP sensor with its’ larger pixels is considerably better at higher ISOs than the old 14MP, and knocks the wind out of the FZ series critics. In low light, you now have a lot less noise to put up with, and there’s even a new 6400 ISO speed for you to not bother with. Actually that’s a little unfair, as even the FZ100 was surprisingly acceptable at maximum ISO for movies, and I anticipate the FZ150 being even better. Whilst auto ISO is capped at ISO 400 on the FZ100, it’s now capped at ISO 800 on the FZ150, reflecting the improved low-light capability. A new ISO-related feature is that of [ISO Increments]. Instead of the FZ100′s sensitivity choices of ISO 100-3200 in steps of 1 EV (100, 200, 400 etc.), the FZ150 allows changes to be made from 100-6400 in steps of 1/3 EV. (100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320 etc.) At first glance, this seems like a pretty minor change, but it is indicative of the additional capability of the new sensor. This extra control should make the useful iExposure (now renamed iDynamic) even better. iDynamic mode allows the camera to take a fair stab at guessing what exposure various parts of the picture require, and varies the sensitivity of the sensor accordingly. An example of a need for this is a picture taken out of a window. Generally, either the interior is exposed correctly but the “view” is just a white mess, or the view is great but the interior is just a black frame. iDynamic can be turned off, or applied as a low, standard or high modification. When used appropriately, it was a pretty useful facility on the FZ100. I expect the FZ150 to improve on that and I’ll update my review when I’ve had a good play with it.
The stabiliser used to have four settings. Off, Auto, a mode for people who tremble while they try and hold a camera still, and a mode for ham-fisted chimps who stab excitedly at the shutter release as they take the photo. (Yes I’m talking about you, you buffoon!) Now there is simply OFF and ON. How Zen, not to mention very sensible.
The Modes: The FZ100 is not a camera short of modes or adjustability. In fact I think a lot of people will have been completely baffled by the plethora of modes and film types offered by the FZ100. The FZ150 has ushered in some changes. Firstly, the Intelligent Auto Mode has been extended to add iHANDHELD NITE(sic) for stills, and iLOW-LIGHT for movies. I think iHANDHELD NITE is pretty cool, so I’ll explain it. Normally, when light levels fall, colours get muddy and fine detail is lost and speckles of “noise” appear. Noise is simply the term used to describe sensor pixels which do not return correct levels of colour or brightness. Much like the human eye, camera sensors have to work harder at resolving correct colour and brightness in low light. But what iHANDHELD NITE does, is to take a series of photos and compare them with each other. These images are then combined so that noise can be eliminated by comparison. Essentially the camera plays “spot the odd pixel out”. It`s a a…
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|A splendid do-it-all camera,
I bought mine on pre-order from fotosense for £369. It was delivered as soon as they became available. I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks, but have taken it on holiday to Turkey to give it a good workout (approx 400 shots and video). The long and the short is, its a terrific camera. I must own up to a penchant for Lumix cameras, and also own a TZ8 and an LX5. I previously owned an FZ18 and very much regretted trading it in. The FZ45 had mixed reviews, but the indications from the review websites were that Panasonic had got it right with the FZ150, and were back on form. I have to agree with that. I have learned over the years how to get the best from these compact cameras in order to get the sort of photo I like, but it is much easier with the FZ150. There are loads of options, some of which I haven’t tinkered with, but I’m getting there. One immediately obvious improvement was that I could get excellent shots of the moon, craters and all, HAND HELD. I struggled to do this with the FZ18 even on a tripod. I try to keep the ISO below 400, but have got excellent night shots without flash by letting the ISO go higher. It does lovely slow flash shots at night(I’m in a dance group, and these give the best effect of movement), but the shots in good light are very good indeed. I don’t have an SLR, so can’t compare, but they are almost as good as my LX5, which has very-near LX5 quality. Video is great, and very easy to use. I took some really nice shots paragliding in Oludeniz. All in all, a very good buy. You will not be disappointed.
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|It’s not a G2 but I love it!,
I tried the FZ45 and sent it back because of the noise. But the FZ150 is much better. I have used the FZ8 and the FZ28 for some years for stills photography and have been very pleased with the results, and was attracted to the improved functionality of the FZ150. The jog dial is much more convenient than the old toggle, although it is a little stiff to the touch, and has a raised bump just underneath it which makes it a bit tricky to get a purchase – not nearly as good as the wheel on the G2 – why would that be? Also, I am extremely happy with the fact that the playback mode now switches to shoot mode when you half press the shutter – just would have been even better with the screen to viewfinder eye sensor switch like the G2. I love the flip screen – even though it’s not a touchscreen like the G2. I can do most of the things I need to do on this camera that I can do on my Nikon D300, and without having to go into deep menus.
It’s noticeably heavier than the FZ28. I could dangle the FZ28 from my fingertips without really noticing it was there – the FZ150 is 20% heavier and I do notice it. I didn’t need the extra zoom – 18x was plenty – this is 24x.
Manual focus is a little awkward still, but practise will help – and to be honest I hardly ever use it on this camera as the autofocus is really fast and accurate. The two speed zooming is very smooth – none of the jerkiness of the FZ28, and I also really like the zoom switch on the side of the lens.
My biggest gripe is that there is no full paper manual. Trying to scroll down a pdf on my phone when out taking photos is really slow and irritating.
I shoot in raw, and process using Lightroom and Photoshop. This camera is supported by Lightroom 3 but not by CS4 (ACR 5.7). You can get round this by converting Raw files to DNG on import. Any version of ACR should recognise this format.
Afraid this review sounds a bit on the negative side – not my intention. I think I’m picking out the few gripes just because overall it is such an absolutely super little camera. I took it away for the weekend when – on holiday – I didn’t want to be carrying all the heavy Nikon gear around or having to change lenses. I was shooting in quite difficult, high contrast light conditions and it coped really well. I think the problem is that I also have the gorgeous G2 – otherwise I would be ecstatic! But to cover the range that this camera covers with the G2 would mean spending a lot more money, and the best camera is sometimes the one that goes from wide to telephoto in seconds and is light enough to hang over your shoulder for a whole day’s walking.
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