little help- choosing the FZ-50

[virtualbeing]

just sold 30d to down size. I have had my eye on the FZ-50 for a while now. Just that 400 ISO and beyon bugging me. The only two cameras i can see that are in the same class is the Fuji 6000 and 9000/9100 the 6000 has newer tech on the sensor and processor. Any way it's a tossup at this point. but i am looking for bottom line quality and of course a croppable image just in case LOL.

How much do you guys like the FZ-50? it looks like the cost is roughly $100 more than the fuji's give or take a bit. But i am going through dSLR withdrawals and have to find something to really get close in quality.

high ISO noise seems to be the biggest concern. Also contrast response which i don't know if is available anywhere. just to see what cameras can do what with holding shadows adn highs together.

not sure which sensor is larger on the fuji's or the Lumix. but the density is also a factor.

any way- any real recs on teh fuji or the lumix. it may be a call of just splitting haris between teh two. BTW i am fairly sure that these are the only decent high-end prosume P&S left as canon and nikon are out. so the choice is essentially these two and not much more. so aat least it is down to two or three (the 2 fuji's)

thanks

[debu_17]

i have a FZ 50.

but i must say that if u shoot more than 3/10 pics at night
or in low light and without flash then inspite of the
excellent handling and best of class optics u bettr
not consider it.
Video (but not audio rec.) is best of class.

pana has provided 2 "night scene" modes in it , like in fz 30 had noise substraction mode.
in this mode the camera itself takes a 2nd shot of the
same pic and subs. the noise component to form the image.
but this requires 2x exposure and a tripod in most cases.

but mark it, fuji is not much near the FZ 50 in pic quality
in normal light at upto asa 400.

the best would be if pana used the fuji sensor!

do not rule out the sony h2, and canon s3
may be a combo of h2+ a small fuji (for low light) may be good combo for a slightly higher price than fZ50.


final choice is individual. i checked the h2,s3 and fz50 ,
before geting the fz 50.

[genece]

The Fuji sensor is larger but I will be darned if I can understand those saying the camera has good detail......less noise sure but in my opinion at the cost of detail.

Makes a good portrait camera but IMHO not much of an ultrazoom.