Planning to buy FZ-30.Please help.

LocksleyR · #1 12-25-2005, 09:05 AM

Friends,

Firstly, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

I found a seemingly irresistible offer, GBP199, for a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-30. I live in England. This will be my first major purchase of a D.Camera. I am an amateur and will do little printing.It will be used mostly for chronicling life as I come across it. Will store on my computer and share with friends etc. I really wanted to buy this camera as the price is very tempting, of course apart from the features. But, some of the opinions expressed on this forum about its noise levels etc, are scaring me from committing my self to this buy.Help me out with my decision. Or do you suggest any other camera with comparable features,performance and price?

Thank you all.

Best-
Locksley.

coldrain · #2 12-25-2005, 10:28 AM

The FZ30 may be noisy, but for that money (that is about 300 USD or euro, is it not?) it is a very nice price. Just look at the pictures from Jeff Keller's review, and if you do not mind the noise there (and its size), then by all means get the FZ30. It is a well constructed camera with a nice zoom ring on the lens.

genece · #3 12-25-2005, 10:44 AM

There is no Ultrazoom camera close to the FZ30... coldrain just needed to give his noise speach again.

If you understand that you must use a flash for most indoor photos the FZ30 can not be beat.
And that flash indoor thing applies to most cameras with few exceptions.
DSLR's--Fuji F10 or 11--- sony R1
Perhaps there are some other but none will be ultrazooms.

You will not notice noise on properly exposed photos displayed properly on your monitor or printed up to 8 X 10 or so.

TheThorn · #4 12-25-2005, 11:54 AM

At that price, you can't go wrong. Grab it.

I just bought an FZ30, and I love it. The noise is there, that's true, but properly exposed pictures, at low ISO numbers minimize it.

And if you're a perfectionist, and are trying to print large prints where the noise might be noticeable, use some of the money you saved on the camera to buy a copy of NeatImage, it will take care of the noise (and it's shareware, so you can test it out first if you want to).

Myself, the noise levels don't bother me except on low light shots without the flash, like Gene said.

skyrocketfw · #5 12-26-2005, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LocksleyR

Friends,

Firstly, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

I found a seemingly irresistible offer, GBP199, for a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-30. I live in England. This will be my first major purchase of a D.Camera. I am an amateur and will do little printing.It will be used mostly for chronicling life as I come across it. Will store on my computer and share with friends etc. I really wanted to buy this camera as the price is very tempting, of course apart from the features. But, some of the opinions expressed on this forum about its noise levels etc, are scaring me from committing my self to this buy.Help me out with my decision. Or do you suggest any other camera with comparable features,performance and price?

Thank you all.

Best-
Locksley.

Locksley:
Where in England did you find FZ30 for GBP199? I also live in England.

Thanks.

BonjiB · #6 12-26-2005, 10:30 PM

My fz30 rocks and when you slap a sunpak 383 onto it and learn how to use it properly there's not many shots that come out bad or need to be re-shot. The sunpak is very user friendly and has a very effective auto mode. The settings are very self explanitory and the little guide booklet that comes with it explains what might not be obvious. Iso 200 on the fz30 is perfectly acceptable if properly exposed. Some may think it's a little noisy but it looks more like film grain than nasty digital noise. Even so, printed at 8x10 or smaller it's really not an issue for me. iso Grab some full sized iso 200 shots and see what you think. I've printed iso 200 stuff straight from the camera that looked great at 8x10. 400 is pretty noisy, completely useless without postprocessing in low light situations without a flash (which is the only time you'd really use it) but they do clean up nicely using a little photoshop and neat image. If you've got a sunpak there isn't much need for iso 400 anyways. Good luck on your purchase. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I absolutely love my fz30 and until i can drop at least 2 grand on a nice slr and lenses i'm firmly convinced that it's the best superzoom out there and i've shot with and reviewed many images from all the superzoom cameras before making my descision. Good luck.

BonjiB · #7 12-26-2005, 10:30 PM

My fz30 rocks and when you slap a sunpak 383 onto it and learn how to use it properly there's not many shots that come out bad or need to be re-shot. The sunpak is very user friendly and has a very effective auto mode. The settings are very self explanitory and the little guide booklet that comes with it explains what might not be obvious. Iso 200 on the fz30 is perfectly acceptable if properly exposed. Some may think it's a little noisy but it looks more like film grain than nasty digital noise. Even so, printed at 8x10 or smaller it's really not an issue for me. Grab some full sized iso 200 shots and see what you think. I've printed iso 200 stuff straight from the camera that looked great at 8x10. 400 is pretty noisy, completely useless without postprocessing in low light situations without a flash (which is the only time you'd really use iso 400 anyways) but they do clean up nicely using a little photoshop and neat image. If you've got a sunpak there isn't much need for iso 400 anyways. Good luck on your purchase. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I absolutely love my fz30 and until i can drop at least 2 grand on a nice slr and lenses i'm firmly convinced that it's the best superzoom out there and i've shot with and reviewed many images from all the superzoom cameras before making my descision. Good luck.

LocksleyR · #8 12-27-2005, 06:39 AM

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your great inputs.They are extremely helpful.I have adobe photoshop6 in my 'puter.Though I am not an expert, will it be useful in cleaning up noisy pictures? I think I will go for a FZ30 even if I have to wait for sometime for the prices to fall.

Skyrocket, I am sorry mate.The deal was on an FZ20 at Jessops in Coventry.As I walked in yesterday, the fellow there told me that the deal is on FZ20 but not on FZ 30.

My mistake or that sales guy's mistake.

Once again, thank you all for your help.

Best-

Locksley.

Koosla · #9 12-27-2005, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LocksleyR

...I have adobe photoshop6 in my 'puter.Though I am not an expert, will it be useful in cleaning up noisy pictures?

Uhm, not really. With PS6 you will be able to clean some noise, perhaps in easier, open areas like skies, and maybe sumdge some more of it in trickier areas, if you're careful.

But there are far better solutions which will give you much better results; namely, Noise Ninja, Neat Image or Noiseware.

Noiseware actually has a free edition (Noiseware Community) which, though not as versatile as the commercial one, it's pretty much as powerful at reducing noise.

genece · #10 12-27-2005, 08:13 AM

Most all of the NR programs have a demo but the Paid versions are better , while I like Neat Image and also like the plugin version .. Picture cooler is a very good stand alone program with a demo and the paid version is 15 bucks.

But you may be like me and find very little need for any NR.

And while its been a while since I used PS6 I do not think it had a NR filter but start hunting for free actions to do just that.