bugbait

No articulating screen, let alone a touch sensitive. Hello, anybody awake in there Nikon? I was ready to jump into a new system, but this offering just doesn't seem like a sincere effort. My money is more sincere by a large margin.

Photos are essential as they offer smooth & complex hue saturation and value.
The old man is ideal. The blown out female image is not as useful to me as there is absolutely no texture to her skin. Real women have texture, and so do the images of them. The lip area was also very useful part of the old scene. The child is adorable, but even if it is your own child or a paid (parent) model; I do think it is inappropriate to use a child for the intense viewing of thousands of strangers. I feel strongly on that point.

There is a lot to like about the scene, but do not finalize until you get lots of feedback from users and have implemented some of their suggestions. Such as adding back in shadow areas, that is a must for most folks.

Thank you for the effort.

Glad to see the updates. Polls would be helpful, especially voting for user desired reviews of gear.

Its complicated.

If you haven't been in conflict you might not be equipped to follow through. If you are going to put yourself in the middle - give it up to a little skill, a heap of guts, and a whole boat load of chance; whether you walk away afterward, leave in an ambulance or meat-wagon or spend the rest of your life in prison. If you are willing to risk it all and the livelihood of your family then go in full gusto, like you REALLY bloody well mean it. That is my advise anyhow not as a journalist, but as a man that has proven he has too much in his pants and not enough in his head.

You could stare at the situation for thirty minutes and you might still not really know what is going on. But you will make your play or not in the first minute.

Like I said its complicated.

DXO Suggestion page does not list Panasonic FZ cameras. Will they ever support the FZ150?

Dozens of users here on the forums have been
enjoying this camera already.

Well, yep it was stupid beyond belief, just amazingly stupid they did that, and more than one person would need censure or dismissal. No that was not for comic effect. It was a cheat plain and simple or at least equals the same thing.

As for when such a thing would ship in PS*, I would imagine they would need specific highly classified data for each lens and or camera from each manufacturer. Even if a particular manufacturer was forth coming it wouldn't mean it would do as equally well as the other manufactures as they complied.

I think I will be buying another tripod or two before I see this in PS for most cameras.

My mistake gingerbread 2.3.4. The HC is too unstable to use, last time I checked.
Here is the link in case someone wonders.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1045018

I pasted the link in. They worked fine. That looks sweet. Totally useful.

I'm running 2.6 Gingerbread and a Honeycomb Release candidate on my Nook Color. I move files about wirelessly. So maybe this could happen. Android developers are busy little beavers. By Christmas when I will likely buying my first Canon DSLR, this might be ironed out. Maybe...

OK, I appreciate the article because the Nikon's rational for the system makes more sense now. Middle of the road product and services, although slight profit margins can mean the difference in having the cash reserves to survive in rough patches of years and or decades.

I am late in my decision process but if I was not I would be expending too much time on following this system. I am going to dismiss this offering entirely and that is fine as it is not for folks like me.

I was leaning toward them for a while. But if they don't have the Canon color accuracy nor an exclusive in quality at an interesting price point; this kind of roll out is frankly a bit irritating.

Nikon know their bottom line, but they are certainly moving further and further away from me.

I suspected this was brought forward as a hurry to beat a Canon announcement. With pros taking such a cool view, Canon could cancel those effort, no hurry now.

Anyhow that is what I am taking away from this.
bugbait

This is a particularly useful article. The com-positional theory would also be helpful in other forms. Such as nature sculptures. This reminds me of Bernini. He surrounded his masterpieces with complimentary but not over-powering elements.

On a humbler scale I am designing a pendant today and will reflect on your article while doing so.

The butterfly with similar colored background; is to my eyes brilliant. That is a marvelous use of DOF and a beautiful lively photograph.

Thank you my friend. i look forward to enjoying the series.

Very good point Patman888,

SX230HS is an excellent camera. I had one so I know. Zoom should be most important in a zoom camera. Of course quite zooming etc can send one over to another brand.

But folks like me fretting over the remote jack, raw, 60p vs 24p, well it just doesn't matter for the birders and family. I expect the vast majority of purchasers will LOVE their SX40, in low light included. And two modes of slow motion etc is pure icing on a tasty cake.

Some of us with business needs like myself; believe it or not barely care about zoom at all. Its the laundry list of must haves that the FZ150 has that can seal the deal, things that DSLRs can not do. Mostly its, very good images at even 1600, raw, mic jack, remote jack for time-lapse, articulated screen, dead on color reproduction, and all for $500. Silly yes but that is what is driving me toward a superzoom. That is my rational anyhow.

Ya, too bad. I get their wanting to not cannibalize their SLRs. But this half offering is too obvious. No RAW, and CHDK while fun isn't something you can count on. I took back a SX230 HS because it was too limited with glitches enabling the hack. Early work from voluntary programmers on their own time. But I got burned waiting on an earlier model that was obsolete by the time the exact firmware for it was CHDK hacked.

Smallish screen, no microphone jack, no remote jack, no RAW and 24p, bad joke? Smells like a simple cash grab. I will be eager to see the DPReview group test that is likely well under way. But After the poor Sony image quality it looks like a slam dunk for Panasonic this time.

While I will be putting off my purchase till the holidays I think, either $500 bridge or $1,500 DSLR I will now not be so inclined toward Canon if I go all in.

I enjoyed looking at these images. Far more than utilitarian the composition is very interesting in several as well as beautiful, the woman with the orange handbag particularly made me stop, the underpass etc.

Most of that is the quality of the photographer but as he pointed out the camera got out of the way and let him get his groove on. Life is short and we have all forced our way forward with bothersome equipment at some point, perhaps currently. But being in my late 40 now, I want my tools to be an "extension" and not an "attachment," of my body and mind.

Thank you Richard Butler.

If your monitor is good the jpeg improvement is very obvious. Yet I do believe their is some, not so obvious slight improvement in the raw as well. the "I"s and Final "N" in Indian Ocean at 3200 raw are considerably better in the new firmware. But at the same time, A. B. C. & D, really is relevant:

A. Version 1.O images are all on the right.
B. I just was just last month fited with a very good eyeglass prescription.
C. My monitor is adiquate with good video card and latest drivers, as well as set to optimum resilution an refresh. Sony TV, 32" Bravia XBR9, in my case.

But if a person either can not see the differences or isn't willing to invest in a good physical ability to differentiate. That is fine for them. In truth I have transient visual impairment do to baby brain stroke induced double vision. But even then I feel obligated to present the best work with the best tools I can afford.

That means also comparing brands.

The higher the ISO the more the improvement can be seen, particularly the raw globe at 3200. I appreciate DPReview being all front page about the update.

But I got to wonder who is to blame for wasting our time pouring over the earlier images. Panasonic for releasing the cameras for review when they knew the firmware was going to make such a difference. Or the publishers racing forward with data when asked not to by the manufacturer.

This site is awesome and thank you. But I think I might know why so few reviews have surfaced.

The wildebeest image is awesome. I have added it to my high level favorite wallpapers. It is also currently the wallpaper on the 32" Bravia XBR9 I use as a computer monitor, thank you. And the recommendation to rent what will become obsolete before returning its investment if unused 11 of 12 months a year is dead on. Dude is making a living and a life that is enviable. Rock on.

How many thousands of power-tools see only a few hours of use, be they hand drills or $1000 cameras or microscopes, heck even cars. Collecting extremely expensive dust bunnys is a regular past time for a lot of us. Yes the article was too thin, more along the lines of a element in a compilation article featuring several professionals. But the main points were not lost on this reader. And I appreciate the author and publisher putting them forward.

Not surprisingly cameras leap frogged each other. Although I returned my SX230 HS, if the CHDK hack had been completed for the firmware of that particular unit I would of kept it. I didn't see the pictures suffer for higher auto iso in bright light. And in lower light, for me working inside documenting the evolution of mechanical invention it was refeshing to have usable images in lower light.

Seems to me the FZ150's considerable zoom or its video performance would make it the best compromise and benefit balance for a lot of us.

I will buy it, try it, and enjoy it, but in the end it will have to be worth every penny of the $700 with the more expensive intervalometer and their hot-shoe microphone, and color every bit as good as Canon. And that just might be too much to ask. Hope I am wrong and if I am someone will end up with a very well treated open boxed FZ150 respected but refuted. Either way no fools errand on my part, there is a lot of thoughtful kit in this gizmo.

Already enjoyed one of the articles. More important it is helping me with my upcoming purchase. Thanks.

I do wish you covered camcorders as well. A devoted studio reproduction across each new HDSLR, Camcorder Point & Shoot would be helpful. Train set, baby mobile etc. And turn on differing light sources in regular sequence per review, incandescent, florescent normal and daylight versions, candle.

Sure cameras or taking over most of that market. But there will always be differences and that is what reviews are for. I'm just saying...

This is a helpful article, particularly for those of us about to buy into one or two formats. Personally I am weighing, these against each other:

Panasonic FZ150 plus intervalometer.
Canon T3I kit plus a prime.
Canon SX230 HS, (CHDK hack for intervalometer function) plus a camcorder.

Cost, benefits, compromise, specifications and a lot of aspirin.

I just returned the SX230 HS. Great camera images, but the 1080 24p and 720 30p just wasn't both fast and clear enough for me, just a little jerky to my eyes. Plus the CHDK hack for that particular firmware is incomplete as of yet. I may still end up buying it again and a camcorder. The FZ150 with its lowered megapixil count etc should be a lot better than the FZ100 or at least very interesting. Hope it keeps the strong colors. The Sonys have been soft in the details lately, fast as all get out but soft when zoomed in for cropping, or so the reviewers say. I do a good bit of cropping.

I do a LOT of studio imaging, heaps of macro, one foot away quite a bit. Short video tutorials inside at night usually. So that is very important to me. And currently high speed of Monarch butterflies. The FZ150 does not have 120fps, but the 220fps should be good enough for tracking greater muscle movements. I am sculpting them by the way.