Amazing test of FZ150's super power:
4 of us in 4 different states tried the Chancey-Hecht Moon Shot Zoom Test to do a uniform test on about 18 different cameras at the same time. My test was on the FZ150. Went out about 2pm in the afternoon when the moon high in the sky and shot it zoomed all the way out then again zoomed all the way in. Everyone doing the test printed their results 8.5x11 for uniformity. Absolutely no enhancing allowed to keep all test results uniform. All cameras we tested were p&s, no DSLRs.
FZ150's zoom-in shot actually showed craters on the moon!
Our amateur camera club is testing the zoom on 8 more cameras next week - dying to see if we get craters with any other camera. And would love to hear your results too!

The Canon SX40 is the main competitor to the Panasonic DMC-FZ150 and it doesn't even get a mention. I of the opinion that it's very close run between the two cameras, however, the 35x zoom without an extra telephoto lens (less overall weight) won the day for me.

Also, the ZS20 / TZ30 (20x zoom) is too close to the FZ150 (24x zoom) and it's pocketability will make it a better option for many in shop. The FZ150 only offers only a little extra zoom without the pocketability. RAW is not on my list as I've simply not the time to mess around with the files.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

A week ago I considered buying one of these new for $434 on Amazon but held off , because I want a smaller camera with raw, gps and a decent amount of zoom (200-400mm equiv). What I really wanted was a versatile pocket-able camera with short shutter lag and decent quality so that I always have a camera with me. But now the price has skyrocketed over night, so I'll stick with my I-phone and my Canon 7d a little awhile longer. The only real drawback to this camera is the size and it has no GPS.

Wow - I'm impressed with the rapid responses by DPR to several of these posts - how come DPR refuses to update their incorrect specs in such a timely manner when errata are reported via the "Have you spotted an error? Report it ..." link?

I saw the comparison chart of FZ150 with FZ35 @iso 100.

very surprisingly In the left hand side and FZ35 was much sharper (in batteries and other places) and in the middle FZ35 was mildly sharper and in right hand side of the photo, FZ150 was sharper. I think panny did very good job in right side of the camera, despite increasing zoom.

great review dpreview.com.

I don't see any reason, why you should not do "lens review dynamic graph" kind of thing where you can do graph of lens performance, that would help us finding sweet spots and right apertures.

I may have missed it but I was very surprised you wrote this article ignoring the cheaper Canon SX40

Also you say it compares well with the Sony/Nikon competition but neglect to mention the severe lack of zoom compared to the rest of the field (600 versus 800mm+ equivalent).

You may think it does not matter but ask a birder which camera they rather have......

It would not be a big deal if the difference was not so huge but to say "compares well" and not mention how poorly Panasonic compares in actual zooming is negligent:

Zooms on leading compact telephoto cameras:

FZ150: 23X
Sony HX200v: 30X
Nikon P510: 42X
Canon SX40: 35X

I believe cameras are divided depending on the users who are interested in these cameras, when they are scored . DSLR are divided in three different types , beginners ., consumer entusiast , semi pro and pro and each type are scored accordingly .

76 is actually a very good score as you can see it deserved a silver award . Remember that technology is always getting better and better so you have to leave some room for these new cameras when they come out with better image quality . Apart from this the score takes into consideration all the aspects of the camera . Not only image quality .

If image quality were the only consideration the Sigma SD1 would have gotten an 80 plus putting above all the rest of cameras , even the pro , as the cameras image quality is above the norm but in other areas the camera leaves a lot to be desired.

Good review but could you please drop the scoring/awarding thing?. It is not helping at all. Let the readers decide on which camera is better than the others.

I love my FZ150, even though I only paid $330 for mine on Black Friday, I think it's worth a hundred dollars more. I've made 11x14 prints without issues (even with cropping!) and the video quality and image stabilization are incredible. Plus it's the only camera in it's class with RAW, which I find very useful.

I might buy this one. The video capability is very convincing, although the file sizes have me scared. Were those huge file sizes using the AVCHD codec?

As far as stills, I think you have to treat a camera like this as a 6-7 megapixel camera in a lot of conditions. If you get a shot where everything looks good at full resolution, great! If not, scale down the long dimension to 3,000 pixels after doing your best post-processing, and more than likely you will end up with something that looks decent. Most of us don't print larger than 8x10 anyway, except very rarely.

Thank you for the review.

Checking RAW at ISO 400 and the amount of noise is scary. How bad was the old 14MP sensor if this is much better? I wonder if the Fuji XS-1 will have decent IQ with it's much larger sensor from the X10; it should but let's hope it doesn't have the WOOD.

to dpreview: in your conclusions you claim that FZ100 has 14 mp "CCD" instead of CMOS (or live mos as pana loves to say)
Just saying ;)

The FZ150 is very, very similar to the FZ47, which lacks RAW mode, articulated LCD, and some other advanced capabilities. Same lens and sensor. The FZ47 was on sale during Thanksgiving week for about $180. I've been very happy with it.

I have this camera:
Positive:
All manual control in still and video
Custom buttons (e.g seperate focus trigger from shutter trigger)
RAW (but I dont use it)
Ok ISO performance in this class of cameras
25mm wide angel (but is it really 25mm?, se below)
Very good anti-shake system
Articulated LCD
Auto focus is ok fast for contrast focus, also in not so good light. It helps
with the in camera focus lamp when light is dim.
Lens is good for this class of cameras.

Negative:
25mm really? I compared it with my DSLR and some lenses, and found
FZ150 25mm more equal to 28mm with my DSLR.
EVF is not very good, but this is usuall in this class of cameras.
I have never been able to shoot as fast and as many images as Panasonic writes this camera should be able to. And I am using a fast memory card.
I am REALLY missing in-camera HDR, that should be standard.
Manual focus is NOT easy, there should be "peaking" or something to help. The auto zoom when using manual focus is hard to use.

Would have been nice/useful if it was possible to compare the FZ150 to Canon SX40 (and SX30..) in the studio comparison tool. Hope that at least the SX40 will be added soon.