On 5/1/07, AG Schnozz <agschnozz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The FZ50 is a slick camera and worthy of checking out. There are
> some serious UI blunders like no facility for AF+MF, but the focus
> was fast and accurate. Also, the camera is unable to chew gum and
> walk at the same time--only one RAW shot at a time, which is a
> disappointment because in-camera JPEGs suffer from noise-reduction
> smearing.
I still have an FZ20, which I used a lot before I got the E-1. It was
doing the long stuff while the C-8080 was going wide, but I found
myself grabbing it first a lot of the time. So occasionally I looked
to see what Panny was doing with the FZ series in later iterations.
I'm sure they've improved the MF capabilities. My recollection with
the FZ20 is that you could AF and then take over with MF, just not go
back to AF without starting the sequence over again. The MF
enlargement rectangle anticipated the 10X view in Live View B of the
330, but it's crude by current standards. Still, the feel of the MF
ring on the lens is good -- better than anything comparable.
Saturation and contrast settings need to be tamed somewhat. The sweep
of the 12x lens is quite breathtaking and the IS really works. I
don't remember ever using ISO 400 in earnest for anything. WB on the
FZ20 is not in the same league as anything made by Olympus that I had
any experience with.
It's nice that the FZ50 shoots RAW. I wouldn't mind so much if it
shot only one at a time if write times were reasonably fast. Is there
a P&S that really and truly supports RAW? With a fast card, the C7000
will write a RAW file in less than 5 seconds. Playback is an
excruciating 10 seconds or so. Ouch. The C8080 -- creme de la creme
among P&S arguably -- is 10 seconds both ways. Double ouch.
When I get home I'll check to see if the FZ20 flash shoe matched Oly
way back when.
Joel W.
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|