Panasonic FZ150 review

[David247]

Jeff, thanks for the usual great review. It looks like the FZ150 is the camera that the FZ100 should have been. Definitely at the top of the compact superzoom list for the moment. While a lot of manufacturer's are pushing longer lenses and higher megapixels, maybe Panasonic has realized the enthusiast market that these cameras appeal to, isn't just interested in number but in an overall range of control, features, speed and balance. Had an FZ 50 before and this is the first of the FZ cameras since that really intrigues me as a replacement. It is expected that all compact super-zooms are a compromise. Barring something really revolutionary suddenly showing up though I think the FZ150 will be my next purchase in about a month.

I've seen a lot of folks getting excited about the announced Fuji X-S1, but I am skeptical, despite a larger 2/3 sensor (which might be a good idea). Had a Fuji HS10 and was quite disappointed. So much potential but so many short-comings, Fuji always seem to mess up the user interface and compromise on a few critical issues. However if Fuji manages to actually do it right, they could have a success, but that won't stop me from getting an FZ150 now. After all, the idea of a superzoom is to have everything in one package that is easy to carry around as opposed to a DSLR kit with multiple lenses, price is not the biggest consideration. We'll have to see in time, cause right now the X-S1 is just vapor tech, not reality.

I was looking back at some reviews of my very first digital camera, the old Olympus C2100 UZ (UZI), and am amazed at how far the technology has come in 11 years.

[bascom]

What was wrong with the Fuji HS10?

[David247]

What was wrong with the Fuji HS10?

The Fuji HS10 is a good camera with a lot of quirks. The menu system is a nightmare in my mind. The lens is fine in the center but has a lot of corner sharpness drop-off throughout the range. The manual zoom is a great idea but is rough in zooming (difficult to be precise). Images tend towards the soft side all the time requiring more post processing and increasing in camera sharpness tends to create artifacts. It is one of those cameras that could have been great, but they cut corners in all the wrong places. Using it just wasn't intuitive for me. In addition both auto-focus and shooting speeds were annoyingly slow.

On the plus side, the images were relatively low noise compared to most of the compact superzooms at the time of its introduction, and if the implementation had been better it could have been a great camera.

Maybe they will get it right the next time, but I'll wait and see. The HS20 successor added a few nice features, but Fuji bought into the "more megapixels is better" sales myth, and the image quality of the 16mp HS20 was worse then 10 mp HS10 by a significant degree. I'll be watching their future products but the last few years they seem to let the marketing people dictate camera design and that is always a bad thing. They have so much potential and some great ideas but always seem to cut corners in the most erratic ways.

Maybe Fuji will get it right the next time. We'll have to wait and see. They have made some very big claims for X-S1, but all they have is a prototype and no demonstration of their claims, so to me it sounds like the marketing department is still calling the shots. I am from past experience, skeptical, but would love to have that skepticism proven wrong.

EDIT: Found some images from the new Fuji X10 (http://www.lenstip.com/1949-news-Fujifilm_X10_-_sample_images.html) and it is likely the X-S1 will use the same 2/3 sensor. If so there maybe hope as long as they provide a decent zoom and don't try to dumb down the camera so much. But that is some ways away (next year) so my current choice is still to go for the FZ150. But maybe, just maybe Fuji can get it together and provide a true enthusiasts camera that isn't filled with compromises.