Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
Encyclopedia
Panasonic Lumix
DMC-FZ50 is a superzoom
bridge digital camera
by Panasonic
. It is the successor of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
.
While the FZ30
was a major upgrade of the FZ20
both internally and externally, the FZ50 differs relatively little from the FZ30. The main differences are:
The camera is known for its high-quality optics and effective optical image stabilization
system. Many professional reviews have commended it for its excellent pictures at ISO 100, but it has a reputation for excessively "smeary" noise reduction at higher ISO settings; this can be negated by using the RAW capture mode. It uses proprietary Lithium-Ion batteries. There is no storage built into the camera; an MMC, SD, or SDHC card is required. High-speed SD cards up to 2 GB and SDHC cards up to 16GB are supported.
The camera has many SLR-like handling features: dual control wheels for aperture and shutter speed, manual focus (focus-by-wire) and zoom rings, and a flash hot shoe. It is among the largest non-SLR cameras built, and is positioned at the high end of the bridge-camera market.
Zooming while recording movies is supported since the zoom is manual. The camera also includes an "extended optical zoom" system providing greater optical zoom ability when shooting at lower resolutions, giving up to 19.3× zoom at 3MP. Essentially, this just crops the center out of the image in-camera, but can be useful for metering and framing purposes. Apertures from 2.8 to 11 are supported, though the largest apertures are not available at high zoom levels (3.7 at full zoom). Shutter speeds range from 60 secs to 1/2000 sec, although shutter speeds faster than 1/1000 sec. are not available at the widest apertures. Several different auto-focus modes are available. The AF-macro setting can be selected for all camera modes. Macro capability is not outstanding (5cm minimum focal range at 1× zoom), and the tele-macro capability present on the lower-end Panasonic FZ models (the ability to focus down to 1 m at 420 mm) is not present; the FZ50 can only focus down to 2 m at 420 mm. However, the FZ50 is commonly used to record high-magnification macro images with an inexpensive conversion lens; the most commonly-used lens for this purpose is the 8-diopter Raynox 250.
The FZ50 has a screw mount to accept 55 mm filters, and is compatible with a wide variety of Panasonic-branded and third-party lens converters which can provide greater wide angle, telephoto and close-up capabilities.
The FZ50 can also record in a RAW format which is supported by Adobe Camera Raw and the free UFRaw
plugin for GIMP
and many other third-party programs; the camera comes with a special version of Silkypix for conversion. RAW files are recorded in around three seconds with fast SD cards, which is one of the best results among non-Digital SLR cameras; however, there is no RAW buffer as on many digital SLR's. Unlike its predecessors, the FZ50 does not support TIFF format.
The zoom and focus mechanism is internal: the lens does not physically extend beyond the camera housing when focusing and zooming. Startup is under one second, as the lens does not need to be extended.
Lumix
Lumix is Panasonic's brand of digital cameras, ranging from pocket point-and-shoot models to digital SLRs.Compact digital camera DMC-LC5 and DMC-F7 were the first products of the Lumix series released in 2001. They are equipped with Leica lenses....
DMC-FZ50 is a superzoom
Superzoom
The term hyperzoom or superzoom is used to advertise photographic zoom lenses with unconventionally large focal length factors, typically more than 5× and ranging up to 15×, e.g., 35 mm to 350 mm. The largest ratio for digital SLR cameras is held by the Tamron 18–270 mm, giving 15×....
bridge digital camera
Bridge digital camera
Bridge cameras are cameras which fill the niche between the single-lens reflex cameras and the Point-and-shoot camera. They are often comparable in size and weight to the smallest Digital SLRs , but almost all digital bridge cameras lack an optical viewfinder system...
by Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
. It is the successor of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 is a bridge digital camera by Panasonic. It is the successor of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. The highest-resolution pictures it records is 8 megapixels....
.
While the FZ30
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 is a bridge digital camera by Panasonic. It is the successor of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. The highest-resolution pictures it records is 8 megapixels....
was a major upgrade of the FZ20
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 is a superzoom bridge digital camera by Panasonic. It is the successor of the FZ10. The highest-resolution pictures it records are 2,560 by 1,920 pixels . It has a polycrystalline, thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display and EVF . It records to Secure Digital media....
both internally and externally, the FZ50 differs relatively little from the FZ30. The main differences are:
- Higher resolution 10.1-megapixel CCD
- Venus Engine III processor (with its characteristic unusual noise reduction algorithm)
- 2.0-inch flip-out 207k high resolution LCD (FZ30 has 235k)
- TTL Flash hot-shoe
The camera is known for its high-quality optics and effective optical image stabilization
Image stabilization
Image stabilization is a family of techniques used to reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera during exposure. Specifically, it compensates for pan and tilt of a camera or other imaging device. It is used in image-stabilized binoculars, still and video cameras, and astronomical...
system. Many professional reviews have commended it for its excellent pictures at ISO 100, but it has a reputation for excessively "smeary" noise reduction at higher ISO settings; this can be negated by using the RAW capture mode. It uses proprietary Lithium-Ion batteries. There is no storage built into the camera; an MMC, SD, or SDHC card is required. High-speed SD cards up to 2 GB and SDHC cards up to 16GB are supported.
The camera has many SLR-like handling features: dual control wheels for aperture and shutter speed, manual focus (focus-by-wire) and zoom rings, and a flash hot shoe. It is among the largest non-SLR cameras built, and is positioned at the high end of the bridge-camera market.
Zooming while recording movies is supported since the zoom is manual. The camera also includes an "extended optical zoom" system providing greater optical zoom ability when shooting at lower resolutions, giving up to 19.3× zoom at 3MP. Essentially, this just crops the center out of the image in-camera, but can be useful for metering and framing purposes. Apertures from 2.8 to 11 are supported, though the largest apertures are not available at high zoom levels (3.7 at full zoom). Shutter speeds range from 60 secs to 1/2000 sec, although shutter speeds faster than 1/1000 sec. are not available at the widest apertures. Several different auto-focus modes are available. The AF-macro setting can be selected for all camera modes. Macro capability is not outstanding (5cm minimum focal range at 1× zoom), and the tele-macro capability present on the lower-end Panasonic FZ models (the ability to focus down to 1 m at 420 mm) is not present; the FZ50 can only focus down to 2 m at 420 mm. However, the FZ50 is commonly used to record high-magnification macro images with an inexpensive conversion lens; the most commonly-used lens for this purpose is the 8-diopter Raynox 250.
The FZ50 has a screw mount to accept 55 mm filters, and is compatible with a wide variety of Panasonic-branded and third-party lens converters which can provide greater wide angle, telephoto and close-up capabilities.
The FZ50 can also record in a RAW format which is supported by Adobe Camera Raw and the free UFRaw
UFRaw
UFRaw is an application which can read and manipulate photographs in raw image formats, as created by many digital cameras. UFRaw is available both as a stand-alone utility, as a GIMP and CinePaint plugin, and in F-Spot via the DevelopInUFRaw extension...
plugin for GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
and many other third-party programs; the camera comes with a special version of Silkypix for conversion. RAW files are recorded in around three seconds with fast SD cards, which is one of the best results among non-Digital SLR cameras; however, there is no RAW buffer as on many digital SLR's. Unlike its predecessors, the FZ50 does not support TIFF format.
The zoom and focus mechanism is internal: the lens does not physically extend beyond the camera housing when focusing and zooming. Startup is under one second, as the lens does not need to be extended.
External links
- Product info from Panasonic.
- Review at Digital Camera Resource Page (refer to for greater detail regarding model differences.)