I’ve been looking for a new digital camera for some time now. Every time I looked at a new camera, I decided that the improvement over my current camera (an old 2 megapixel Olympus!) wasn’t worth the money. Mary-Anne decided to buy me a new camera for my birthday last week, but didn’t know which one to choose. We went to a camera store, where the owner advised me. I wanted something with a good zoom range and good picture quality, and expected to buy a digital SLR. The store owner convinced me to buy a Lumix DMC-FZ30: 8 megapixels with a 35-420 Leica zoom lens. I’d heard that the Lumix cameras had a rather ‘noisy’ sensor, but the owner showed me some photos he had taken, which looked good. I was convinced, and walked out of the store with the Lumix.
My first photos were something of a shock.The lens is fantastic: very sharp, and the zoom range is amazing. The rest, though, is not so great. The reports about the noisy sensor are entirely true. I have no idea how the store owner managed to get the quality he showed me; even in normal daylight, areas in light shadow are mottled with green and purple. As the camera increases its sensitivity as the light fades, the noise increases dramatically. I was not at all happy, and went back to the store the following day. They gave me a Canon EOS 10D to try for a few days as a comparison. It’s in a different class, unfortunately in terms of price, too. The lens, a good Canon, couldn’t match the Leica zoom on the Lumix in terms of sharpness, but the sensor in the Canon is far better. I returned the Lumix to the store last Thursday, and was given a full refund with no argument. I’m now back to my old Olympus, and considering whether I’m willing to pay for an SLR and good lens, and lug the weight around…
(Unfortunately, I can’t post any photos where you can see what I’m talking about; I’ve already deleted all but the best photos I took with the camera.)
6 thoughts on “Looking for a camera”
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Don’t post the photos 🙂 I believe you. I’m on the same journey through the camera jungle. Inroom pictures are too much for most compact digital cameras.
Hmm, we bought a Panasonic FZ30 two weeks ago – probably wouldn’t have, if we had read this post…
It seemed a good price (CHF 800) for 12x optical Zoom and manual focus and all that. I’ll have to try it out a bit and maybe sell it if we come to the same conclusion (and find something better in the same price range!).
Have you looked at the lower priced Canon 350D (CHF 1000)? What do you think of that? Of course not 12x Zoom, but it seems reasonably priced(?)
Yes, I’ve looked at the 350D, although not tested it personally. I’ve decided to wait for a while to see what Sony releases now that they’ve taken over Minolta cameras. They’ve announced new SLRs for “summer”. The reports I’ve read of the old Dynax 5Ds were rather mixed, but a combination of the Dynax (anti-shake in the body, not the lens, so it works for all lenses) and the DSC-R1’s image quality would be good.
I have to keep forcing myself not to buy the 350d, though 🙂
CHF 800 for the FZ30 is OK. I would probably have kept it at that price. The photos aren’t that bad, but not worth the CHF 1200 I paid. A 350d with an 18-200mm (28-300 equivalent) zoom would cost around CHF 1500. That’s much less zoom range than the FZ30, and probably a lower quality lens, too. The FZ30’s lens is really spectacular.
OK, I feel happier – knowing that for CHF 800 i probably couldn’t get a much better camera than the FZ30 😉 So, off we go now to “Seliger Moos” to take some photos… (CHF 1200 is 50%[!] more than i paid – seems a bit overpriced to me). I buy at brack.ch at dealer conditions but http://www.architronic.ch has veeeery good prices for “normal people”.