Panasonic FZ20 & FZ5 Lens & other questions...

[Acoustic Brad]

Hello folks, first time posting as I've just been reading this site for a couple days. Was a long time photographer of architecture detail closeups and sports 10-15 years back with all Nikon equipment, worsening health caused me to sell it all 5 years back as I could no longer lug around the heavy lenses, tripod etc.

I've been keeping an eye on digital equipment for awhile and was impressed with the Canon S1 IS but not enough to buy it, I thought if it only had 5MP, 1.8-2" LCD and Lithium battery I'd have bought it and finally I'd seen the report on the Panasonic FZ20 and became very interested. I've never held one in my hands though as they are never in stock where I live, constantly sold out. I was thinking this was the camera for me until the release of the FZ5 which is due any day here.

My questions are the lens in the FZ20 & FZ5 very much the same outside the 2.8-3.3 aperture at zoom setting? I can easily live with the 3.3 aperture as when I used to photograph many years back you would be carry around a lens the size of a missle to get a 36-432 lens at 3.3. I read this report on the FZ5 model : 13 elements in 8 groups, 3 aspherical lenses, including 1 dual-sided element & this on the FZ20 model : 13 elements in 8 groups 1 ED lens, 3 Aspherical lenses.
So is the lens on the FZ20 an ED lens and not on the FZ5? If so are you noticing much difference in sharpness in the pictures these days? I went from using a Nikon 70-210 F4.-5.6 to a Nikon 80-200 ED 2.8 because the picture sharpness was far, far better than the smaller lens 15 years ago, is this the case between these 2 lenses or are they fairly equal?

Another question I have about these cameras is the low light problem with the view screens, how low a light is it that causes this? For example photgraphing at a family wedding reception that I have coming up where it's lower light when shooting on the dance floor, will I be able to see what I'm shooting through the LCD?
Also when using the viewfinder do you get 100% of what you are shooting? I used a friend's Canon A70 recently and shot throught the viewfinder only to see the cropping was like nothing that I'd framed - only the LCD gave me 100% of the shot.

I am still torn between the FZ20 & FZ5 like I see a number on here are but am leaning towards the FZ5 because of it's size and my health limitations, I'm afraid if the FZ20 is as big as an SLR I'll rarely carry it with me whereas I think I would be taking the FZ5 most places I go. I would miss the manual focus but imagine the autofocus is good enough for most shots as I last used a Nikon 8008 SLR camera which was slow as could be. The weaker flash is a concern but I honestly know I wouldn't be carrying a spare flash around to put on the hotshoe because of my limitations. The 2" LCD is better but 1.8" still seems very good.

A lot of rambling here but I'm actually getting interested in photography again and am quite excited that I could possibly get back into it to some degree again. I never thought I'd see the day where I could carry around a small camera body with 36-432 lens and IS and built in flash in this small of size. I'd pretty much given up photography for good until this.

Don't worry all my posts won't be as long as this.
Thank you for any help, this is a great place to learn.

Brad

[Balrog]

As far as I've seen, most review sites put the image quality of the FZ5 and the FZ20 as pretty much equal. The viewfinder is an EVF (electronic viewfinder) which means you're not actually seeing the live scene - you're seeing a tiny LCD in there that shows the exact same info as the LCD on the camera back - which is good because it's 100% frame coverage with no parallax errors, but bad because it has the same attendant issues - tiny amount of lag in what you see, and the low-light issue.
Not having personally used these cameras (hope to get an FZ5 very soon) I can't say how much trouble the low-light issue causes, but from what I've heard it's not as bad as some reviews make out .. i.e. it'd have to be REALLY dark before it becomes unusable.

[pmnapier]

I'm afraid if the FZ20 is as big as an SLR I'll rarely carry it with me whereas I think I would be taking the FZ5 most places I go.Brad
I'm thinking it would be good if you somehow could get your hands on an FZ20. I do not own one but have considered it and handled it plenty over the past few months in local stores as I've shopped and compared various models. Coming from an SLR background, my feeling is the FZ20 is really not THAT big relative to SLRs. It's smaller than any SLR I've ever owned - especially when taking the lens into consideration. Yes, the FZ5 is smaller, but it will very likely still be on your shoulder or around your neck. I think most people who find the FZ20 big are comparing it to "pocketable" cameras. So before you give up the manual focus, larger LCD, and stronger flash, you might want to handle them both to see if the size difference is significant for you. Next best option might be to take the FZ20s dimensions (found on nearly all review sites) and compare them to your 8008. Just a thought. Good luck.

[Riddick51]

As far as I've seen, most review sites put the image quality of the FZ5 and the FZ20 as pretty much equal. The viewfinder is an EVF (electronic viewfinder) which means you're not actually seeing the live scene - you're seeing a tiny LCD in there that shows the exact same info as the LCD on the camera back - which is good because it's 100% frame coverage with no parallax errors, but bad because it has the same attendant issues - tiny amount of lag in what you see, and the low-light issue.
Not having personally used these cameras (hope to get an FZ5 very soon) I can't say how much trouble the low-light issue causes, but from what I've heard it's not as bad as some reviews make out .. i.e. it'd have to be REALLY dark before it becomes unusable.
yes, there will be some lag. there is the speed of light from the object to the lens. the light must travel through the earth's rough and tumble atmosphere. then it passes through the glass. the glass of the lens slows it down a bit also, so we don't experience a perfect "c", speed of light in a vacuum. finally, the light from the object reaches the receptor in the camera and is transmitted electronically to the lcd.

[Shenook]

I own the fz20 and all the pertinent acessories discussed through this whole panasonic forum.

I have used both as of yesterday.

I myself could not live with only using a slave flash so the fz20 is for me until I can afford a high end SLR.

The fz5 is smaller. I don't really think you give up much at all cause I took a few pics and they are of equal quality.

The Weight of the fz20 and fz5 is negligible. There isn't that much difference. The fz20 is a bit bulkier but it is much lighter than some high-end DSLR's i've handled.

I would suggest purchasing an FZ20 from a place with a good return policy so you can return it and get an fz5 instead if you feel the fz20 is too big or heavy for you. I'm sure it could be the previous rather than the latter because it's very light in comparison to what you were using.

You lugged around some huge lenses before. The FZ20 with its' "on the go" zoom lens with take care of most of your basic needs and adapters dont' add much weight nor do the filters. The exception might be your tripod and external battery. Both of course are not needed in normal situations but the tripod is indispensible in low-light situations like a wedding reception.

Now for low-light picture taking. It DOES take getting used to. The little red light used isn't something I was accustomed to but you "can" get it framed properly if you get used to it. But do NOT expect your buddy to understand when he grabs your camera and says he can't see anything. I'm sure you know what I mean.

Anyway, not much more input I have cause you probably have much more experience than I actually taking pictures.