Panasonic FZ15 vs. FZ3

[Singh]

For just $100 more and at the cost of audio from movies you get 1 extra Mega pixel, Manual Focusing via ring, 2” LCD vs. 1.5” LCD, support for add on lenses and Black body colour vs. Silver. Also agree or not FZ15 looks much better and more professional than FZ3 and according to press FZ15 and FZ20 are better build than the FZ3. According to Panasonic the Lens construction of FZ15 and FZ20 is{13 Elements in 8 Groups (3 Aspherical Lenses/3 Aspherical Surfaces, 1 ED Lens)} compare this to the FZ3 Lens{13 Elements in 8 Groups (3 Aspherical Lenses/4 Aspherical Surfaces)} See there is an ED Lens missing in FZ3.

Though not much, the size of the pixels on FZ15 is 1% larger than FZ3 and 27% larger than FZ20, couple this with ISO 64 on FZ15 to ISO 80 on FZ20 and FZ3 you are bound to get cleaner images on the FZ15 compared to FZ20 and FZ3. Remember there are two types of noise free pictures one that is captured noise less and the other that is processed by the camera to reduce noise just like what Noise Ninja or Neat Image does on your PC (Though I must agree that these three cameras use noise reduction, but it is just the level of noise reduction that these use). According to me the FZ15 uses the same CCD and Lens found on FZ10 so its picture quality should be similar to FZ10.

I think the FZ15 is worth the extra $100. Still, I am waiting to see some professional reviews on FZ3, FZ15.

Sadly :mad: Panasonic is not making FZ15 available to the reset of the world (Panasonic please make FZ15 available to the rest of us).

[Golfy]

hoping for DMC-FZ15 in Europe : better shots than DMC-FZ20 for a lower price...
but I feel PANASONIC Europe want money and not consumer pleasure ! :mad: :mad: :mad:

[John_Reed]

I think the FZ15 is worth the extra $100. Still, I am waiting to see some professional reviews on FZ3, FZ15.What are you waiting for, at least vis-a-vis the FZ3? It's been reviewed by every major reviewer, including this site, Steve's Digicams, and dpreview. Jeff Keller, father of this site, says he turned down a chance to review the FZ15. I think his thinking would be that it wouldn't show a significant lot of new material over the FZ20 which he's already reviewed, and he has plenty of other "fish to fry," so to speak. I'm not so sure of that myself, but then, they don't pay me the big bucks for reviewing, either. :rolleyes:

[lumixfan]

Just curious, are there really any real test to show FZ15 has less noise than FZ20 or once or those guesses.

Also If I use FZ20 at 4 megapixel mode, will it be equivalent to FZ15 at 4 megapixel. If we stretch the assertion to extreme, FZ20 at 640x480 or such lower resolution will be very much noise free as pixels will be very large?? I am a beginner in digital photography ....

[Singh]

What are you waiting for, at least vis-a-vis the FZ3? It's been reviewed by every major reviewer, including this site, Steve's Digicams, and dpreview. Jeff Keller, father of this site, says he turned down a chance to review the FZ15. I think his thinking would be that it wouldn't show a significant lot of new material over the FZ20 which he's already reviewed, and he has plenty of other "fish to fry," so to speak. I'm not so sure of that myself, but then, they don't pay me the big bucks for reviewing, either. :rolleyes:
Read the date I posted this thread. I started this thread more than 1.5 Months ago, at that time there was not a single review on FZ15, FZ3 or the FZ20 available on any site.
Secondly, from what I have read Jeff Keller did not review the FZ15 because he was not provided the review model by Panasonic.

[Singh]

Also If I use FZ20 at 4 megapixel mode, will it be equivalent to FZ15 at 4 megapixel. If we stretch the assertion to extreme, FZ20 at 640x480 or such lower resolution will be very much noise free as pixels will be very large?? I am a beginner in digital photography ....

I don’t think that shooting at lower resolution will decrease any the noise. The pixel size remains the same only the number of active pixels decreases. Noise only decreases by shooting at lower ISO value not smaller picture size. The main things that I think on which Noise in the photo depends are:
1. Pixel size (larger the better)
2. ISO value (lower the better)
3. Shutter speed (faster the better)
4. Quality of the sensor and the camera.