2 questions about the FZ-20

[Carlitos]

:confused:

Hi,

I just bought a FZ-20 after selling my old good Olympus C-2100 Ultra Zoom, and I got to tell; I´m not quite pleased, maybe it´s because of the picture quality of my old camera, (it tooks great pics!), but mostly I´m concerned about two things: does anybody knows if the lens of the FZ-20 is normally that shaky? I mean, it´s not that I always pushing on it, but when the camera is on, and you (accidentally) touch the (I don´t know how you call it) "cilinder" that comes out, it doesn´t seems very steady to me. Pease somebody tell me if "some movement" is normal on this part of the camera.
I´m also concerned about the photo quality; Of course weren´t my first pictures quite a succes since I was indoors and I was just trying, but i spected more from its 5 Megapixels, i found the pictures a little too noisy (?). Then I took a few shots outside to check it in a different circunstances, and the results wheren´t very good either, then I took a few shots with another resolution (1600x1200, same as my old olympus) and the results where much better, which make me think: why spending 600 Euro´s in a 5 Mp camera if I´m not gonna be able to use its high quality? Isn´t the FZ-15 a better option? or am I doing something wrong with the settings?. Please give me some advise because I was almost convenced about sending the camera back to the store. Is it true that you cannot use the complete 12x zoom in combination with the highest resolution?. Please somebody tell me I.m doing something wrong because I really don´t want to give the camera away, I really like the shape and it feels very nice in the hand.
Thank you already,
Carlos.
P.S. Please excuse my english since I´m a dutch citizen, born in Mexico(!).

[genece]

I am not sure what is happening , but leave me say that I use the highest resolution with Teleconverters and digital zoom with what I consider excellent results and there are others on other forums that have traded the 2100 for a Fluzi , ( and are quite happy) so maybe you just need to experiment a bit.
The lens does move a Bit but I have never used it without an adapter on the camera, so I can not say how much.
My guess is since you have a good idea of what to expect you will figure out what is wrong.
Good Luck

[PixChick]

:confused:

Hi,

I just bought a FZ-20 after selling my old good Olympus C-2100 Ultra Zoom, and I got to tell; I´m not quite pleased, maybe it´s because of the picture quality of my old camera, (it tooks great pics!), but mostly I´m concerned about two things: does anybody knows if the lens of the FZ-20 is normally that shaky? I mean, it´s not that I always pushing on it, but when the camera is on, and you (accidentally) touch the (I don´t know how you call it) "cilinder" that comes out, it doesn´t seems very steady to me. Pease somebody tell me if "some movement" is normal on this part of the camera.
I´m also concerned about the photo quality; Of course weren´t my first pictures quite a succes since I was indoors and I was just trying, but i spected more from its 5 Megapixels, i found the pictures a little too noisy (?). Then I took a few shots outside to check it in a different circunstances, and the results wheren´t very good either, then I took a few shots with another resolution (1600x1200, same as my old olympus) and the results where much better, which make me think: why spending 600 Euro´s in a 5 Mp camera if I´m not gonna be able to use its high quality? Isn´t the FZ-15 a better option? or am I doing something wrong with the settings?. Please give me some advise because I was almost convenced about sending the camera back to the store. Is it true that you cannot use the complete 12x zoom in combination with the highest resolution?. Please somebody tell me I.m doing something wrong because I really don´t want to give the camera away, I really like the shape and it feels very nice in the hand.
Thank you already,
Carlos.
P.S. Please excuse my english since I´m a dutch citizen, born in Mexico(!).

Well, as far as noise, I think that it is in the eye of the beholder--what seems acceptable to one may not be to another. I can't say if yours seems worse, especially since I can't see your pictures to compare to mine!! But if you are not happy, then that is what should matter. As for the lens issue, my lens is perfectly stable and I have nothing going on with my lens that sounds like what is going on with yours. I also don't ever touch the inner lens barrel that extends when you turn on the cam. Never needed to do so.

[Joao Pedro]

Yesterday i noticed that the barrel that comes out of my (2 days old) FZ-20 also shaked a little bit when i touched it. Is it on purpose? is it normal or just a factory defect?
To all of you who have a FZ-20 please answer, because if it´s a defect i still can trade it for another one.

Thanks in advance
Joao Pedro

[FZ20knowitall]

Unfortunately, it isn't a defect. I say "unfortunately", because if it was a defect, we could all get new cameras and get better pics. I am in the same boat as Carlitos. I had an Olympus 2100 and the pics were great. First of all Carlitos, the image stabilization was much better on the Olympus. Why? Because it was a digital stabilization not optical. In our Panasonics the lens actually moves, or floats to compensate for our shaky hands, or movements (say if you are on a moving train, or boat). This means it slightly compensates. With my Olympus I could take pictures practically in the dark and they would be perfectly sharp. You won't get that with the Panasonic. Basically, if you are outdoors and zoomed in all the way your image will be a bit sharper than it would w/o image stabilization. I bought the Olympus C-770 to replace my Olympus 2100, and the only difference is that this new olympus doesn't have IS, and let me tell you I find little difference in sharpness when I shoot with my new Olympus w/o IS and when I shoot the same photo with my Panasonic with IS. It definitely works, but not nearly as well as the Olympus 2100. but Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) yields a higher quality, supposedly, than the way the Olympus 2100 did it.

What I did was learn to be very sturdy when I take the shot, not zoom in too much, unless I have to, and always note the shaky hand symbol to realize that I have to be super steady. I also carry around two tripods. One is a mini (fits on a table and is about a foot = 32cm) I use that for group shots where I want to run into the pic using the timer, I put it on my car etc. The other one is about 6' (which is my height) which I use as often as I can.

As far as image quality is concerned, I read an article that stated that in order for the human eye to see image quality differences you have to multiply the amount of megapixels by 4 in order to see a difference. In other words, if you take a picture using your olympus 21oo, which is a 2.1 megapixel camera, in order to notice a difference in image quality, you would have to take the same picture using a camera with a megapixel of 8.4 or greater (2.1mp X 4). Being that the Panasonic FZ20 is only a 5 megapixel camera, you shouldn't be able to see much of a difference. The 5 megapixels comes in handy when you want to print larger pictures. The Olympus 2100 pics should start to see pixelation (that boxy look) at around 8X10, I found it in some underexposed flash pictures as little as 5x7 photos.

As far as image noise, the FZ20 is a noisy camera, why? Because they took the ccd chip and added more pixels to it. This creates noise. They should have made a bigger chip, this would have decreased the noise. It was kind of a wimpy thing to do. Definitely deceptive. Everybody was "wowing" at the megapixel increase (from 4 to 5--from the FZ10s) but really all Panasonic did was jam in more pixels creating more noise. Unfortunately, the noise can be seen always, as opposed to the megapixel increase which can only be noticed if we really make large prints (probably over 11X14--I haven't run actual tests). It would have been better to keep it at 4 megapixels, none of us would have noticed the difference and our pictures would have been less noisy. It was a marketing thing. They couldn't come out with a better model and keep the same megapixel number--but they definitely should of. Keep in mind the bottom of the line dslr, the Canon Digital Rebel, uses a much larger sensor (it is also slightly different in design, called CMOS) and because of that the camera's ISO goes up to 1600. Which means that the camera can take pictures in low light (2x lower than the fz20) and the ISO 1600 pictures are less noisy (grainy) than the FZ20s ISO400 pictures--this is due to image sensor size and amount of pixels on sensor.

Having said that, I do get great results with the FZ20 and you can easily reduce the noise in PS or other photo editing software. The camera is very versatile and you need to spend time with it to learn how to use it. And when I got my first FZ20 I felt the same way that you did, and I actually returned it saying it was defective, even though I wasn't 100% sure. When I got the new camera I ran some tests, I asked a lot of questions on this forum and on Steves forum(http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_forum.php?id=23
a great forum, btw. I got used to the camera and take great pics with it. But if you are having problems with it, you might want to check out the Olympus c-770 (the c-765 is the same exact camera w/o the hot shoe- so if you don't need an external flash you can save yourself money and get the cheaper one-but I would recommend the external flash the FL-20-it works very well). In my honest opinion the Olympus c-770 takes better quality pictures than the FZ20, and you almost never take a bad picture (i.e. out of focus). The down side is that it doesn't have a low light assist lamp so it takes longer in low light for the camera to focus. It also doesn't have image stabilization, but after the FZ20's poor IS you probably won't notice the difference. I do love the image quality of the Olympus 770. With the Panasonic I really have to manipulate the image to get the quality higher. I kept my Panasonic b/c it has great features, I hook it up to my strobe system (I can hook up my Olympus but it has that low light focusing issue, so I stick w/my Panasonic). Also I am doing semi-professional work and i can't walk into a shoot with a point and shoot (although I do double my photos using the camera on the shoot, and at least half the time I go with my Olympus pics over the Panasonic). The other reason I kept the Panasonic b/c it forces me to hold my camera steady, it makes me a better photographer. I always take note of shutter speed/aperture/ISO and because of that my working knowledge of their relationship becomes stronger. So for me it is like swinging a baseball bat with those metal donuts on it, it makes me take better pictures, esp. when I use other cameras. but if you are using your camera for point and shoot work (birthday parties, friends, gatherings etc.) I would recommend getting the Olympus C-770 or checking out the new Nikon, or Canon -I haven't even seen them at the camera stores yet, so you would have to do research. Hope this helped.

[genece]

Jaoa
maybe have a look here, someone may be able to set your mind at ease and help.

2100----fz (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=11107758)