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fz1 vs fz5 vs fz30 (pics, compare)

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if I posted 1600-res shots, I think the fz5 to fz30 diff would be more visible.

the fact that ANY diff can be seen at only 1024 kind of surprises me, to be honest.

and also, this set of 9 shots makes me feel better about the 'cyan sky' problem. ALL 3 cameras worked very similarly in terms of rendering the sky. its progressively dark blue down to a near cyan color at the horizon, but they all have the nice dark blue at the top. if all 3 act the same way - and there have been no major complaints about the fz1 and fz5 wrt cyan skies, I think I can relax about any fears I had about the fz30 being more disposed to cyan sky problems.

--
bryan, http://www.grateful.net , http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works
just one man beneath the sky, just two ears, just two eyes -PF
 
zooming up and down and comparing these posted images, I think the FZ5 and FZ30 images are VERY close to one another in sharpness, contrast, CA, and overall image quality (both quite good). The FZ1 image seems a little less sharp, more CA, less contrast (shadows less dark), but it's nice too.

Don't know what's causing what little difference is evident here though: inherent lens performance? focus? in-camera processing abilities? settings?

Someone else mentioned stopping down further. I don't recall what you said about focus, but I'd also suggest focusing on the most distant subject (or one you're sure the camera WILL focus on) to make sure there aren't any differences in focus (which might be causing some of the softness I see in the distant trees in the FZ1 photo.

Downsampled as you have done, I think you'd have to call FZ5 and FZ30 a dead heat.
 
the fz1 is just on steroids, all the time! ;) its one 'click' higher than the other fz's.

in fact, I think I compared the fz1 and fz5 and fx8 and the fz1 again was the odd guy out. the fx and fz had similar notions of 'vivid' whereas the fz1v2 was on overdrive too much.

on some monitors, I suppose the overdrive looks good. but on a clear digital display (lcd), the fz1 is just too strong. almost like a flintstones cartoon ;)

when I shoot the fz1, I take this into account and shift down 1 click based on how I'd do it if it was an fz5. and now I'd add fx and fz30 to that set.

of course if the scene is very drab and boring to start with, there's nothing like the steroid power of the fz1 to snap it into life and make it go 'pop' ;)

--
bryan, http://www.grateful.net , http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works
just one man beneath the sky, just two ears, just two eyes -PF
 
the loss of sharpness or lack of detail is an inherent by-product of not enough pixels to go around, especially in such a busy detail intensive example as this landscape... The 30 set to 2mp mode would suffer the same fate although maybe to a lesser degree due to smaller pixel size but that might not make any difference either since two mp is 2 mp regardless of the individual pixel size... Cropping the 5 & 30 from these examples to the equal size as the 1v2 then viewinf all at the full size should serve the same purpose without having to reshoot.... The proccessing shouldn't change, just the area proccessed is limited in camera...
--



[email protected] http://www.pbase.com/rrawzz ****
 
For taking the trouble to go through doing the tests for us. Have you done a comparision of FZ30 in 5MP vs Fz5(5MP).That would be interesting for those who wants to upgrade to Fz30 but like to keep size at 5MP.

On another note. This whole experiment proves one thing I knew all along. My FZ1 cannot make it when it comes to landscape shots. Not enough details . Zoom shots and close-ups are fine, just landscapes and group portraits let me down,especially when I try to print at 8 x10.
 
go to the flicker area:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/sets/1059920/

and look at the largest of the fz5 vivid pics and then the largest of the fz30 vivid ones.

you will see MORE NOISE in the fz5 than in the fz30. I kid you not. look at the nice blue sky - the fz5 one looks much more blotchy to me.

here's the fz5 large link:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=48785008&size=o&context=set-1059920

and the fz30 large link:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=48780590&size=o&context=set-1059920

I see nothing at all in the fz5 that is better than the 30 - its not better in CA or noise-level or sharpness or color or anything. the fz5 is a damned good camera, but the fz30 has no faults that would detract from it compared to the 5. IF you like the 5 you'll love the 30. IF you were ok with the noise level from the 5, you should be ok with the 30's also.

and if the fz5 got a HR rating, dammit, the fz30 should also (yeah, I can't get rid of that, can I?) ;)

--
bryan, http://www.grateful.net , http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works
just one man beneath the sky, just two ears, just two eyes -PF
 
myfz1 said:
For taking the trouble to go through doing the tests for us. Have
you done a comparision of FZ30 in 5MP vs Fz5(5MP).That would be
interesting for those who wants to upgrade to Fz30 but like to keep
size at 5MP.
Click to expand...
I didn't think of that. I was lucky to even think to turn OFF ois in tripod mode.

that would change the zoom level, though and the pics wouldn't look the same. as it was, I left the zoom at full wide angle (which tends to show things in their nicest light, for some reason, on these lenses). if I used the widest on the fz30 in 5EZ mode, I'd have to zoom in a little bit with the others and that would change the optics and make it unfair.
myfz1 said:
On another note. This whole experiment proves one thing I knew all
along. My FZ1 cannot make it when it comes to landscape shots. Not
enough details . Zoom shots and close-ups are fine, just landscapes
and group portraits let me down,especially when I try to print at 8
x10.
Click to expand...
running out of pixels is running out of pixels. the fz1 snobs think this cam can do anything. its pretty amazing and I'll probably keep mine but its got NOTHING over the fz30 other than maybe IR ability and that nice 2.8 at the extreme end. I am not sure if the iso50 makes things that much quieter or not. but it sure is grainier due to the larger pixels.

--
bryan, http://www.grateful.net , http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works
just one man beneath the sky, just two ears, just two eyes -PF
 
I see more blue (or cyan?) added to the FZ30 pictures. What I'd call evergreen tree greens for caused by that. The FZ5 seems to have more yellow or possibly green, too. Not sure how to describe the different mixtures of color in these comparisons so that's as close as I can say it.

Notice the whiter concrete wall and posts from the FZ30 and the yellowish-brown it has from the FZ5. I didn't save the files and check the numbers so I don't have evidence of this color difference but it looks obvious enough to me.

One thing is certain in my mind, the FZ30 has a fine clarity or detail. I suppose that's no surprise, but I think that could be partly due to a clean image as much as it might be from good lens. Meaning the 'noise' (ack! yeah, I said it) issue is non-existant to my eyes here.
I liked the comparison to previous models instead of other camera brands.
 
There is FAR less Ca in Fz-5 shot then FZ-30 dude, look at the trees and edges, it's all purple fringe accents on Fz-30 shot.

Tim
 
um, nope, I can't find any definitive CA or PF. However I think I am seeing what could be something to do with the finer details and blue sky merging, almost like my display screen is mixing them. In fact, I wouldn't count on that being all it is-- and this is only a wild guess-- perhaps there could be anomalies where the blue of the sky is negating in-camera removal process of PF preventing it from happening in certain places.

All that aside, I now see that the FZ5 sure does do a fine job without any fancy tricks... unless, maybe it has that same feature and I havn't done my homework?
linuxworks said:
but at any magnification, I'm not see the PF.

anyone else?
Timothy Alexander said:
There is FAR less Ca in Fz-5 shot then FZ-30 dude, look at the
trees and edges, it's all purple fringe accents on Fz-30 shot.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
--

I spent the last month waiting to save up the extra $ to order the fz30 over the fz5. IMO the IQ of the fz5 would have been quite adequate for my needs. I looked at the pluses and minuses of both cameras before I chose. I looked at some pretty great pictures from both cameras as well at some that were not so good from each one.

I think the IQ of the fz30 as shown in your test shots is better than the fz5 but I find the fz5 images to be great too. If I owned a fz5 and was happy with it I do not think I would upgrade simply for the sake of picture quality. If I had extra $ I could have bought both cameras and found which one I personally used the most.

Thanks for your time and effort doing the tests!
.
 
I looked at all nine originals and printed 2 (FZ5 STD and FZ30 STD) at 8x10.

It's clear that the FZ30 is both sharper (the extra pixels count--pay special attention to the people sitting at picnic table in the vertical center and about 1/4 in from left side; a clear comparison there of what the extra pixels buy you), and smoother (this surprised me, but the sky in the FZ30 shot is clearly less mottled and noisy than the sky in the FZ5 shot).

Color seems similar between these two, with slight variations but nothing rising to the level of consequential variation. One of these is $350 and the other is $550? I am not certain how I feel about that.

This is a VERY useful comparison and I repeat my thanks to Linuxworks. You have done a great favor to all users here.
 
fbx wrote:
One of
fbx said:
these is $350 and the other is $550? I am not certain how I feel
about that.
Click to expand...
Well, based soley on pic quality 'alone'... there might not seem to be enough to warrant such a price disparity.... However, get into a situation where neither seem to lock focus in auto-focus mode & I gaurantee the price disparity becomes a real non-issue in just a few seconds, after you click the MF button on the 30, twist the focus ring while lookin through the higher rez, gain up EVF in about the time you take a deep breath & press the shutter.... In my eyes, those two single features alone are worth every penny, actually, I paid $650 & still don't feel I got a raw deal (although I did get a .RAW deal)... Especially since I can knock the 30 down to the 5s MP level in-cam & get quite a bit more optical reach without extra glass. And if need be go further down the mp scale to 3mp & increase optical reach even more....

--



[email protected] http://www.pbase.com/rrawzz ****
 
Bryan,

Thanks for the comparison. As a new member of this forum, I'm finding this type of excercise very helpful.

I liked the way you removed the two bodies in pic 17, as if they were never there.
 
LaRee said:
I'm not sure I understand the point of shooting all in 2mp mode. Is
the attempt to show that all three cameras take identical pictures
at 2mp?
Click to expand...
That would be a significant finding. It's a given that higher resolution is going to result in more detail which will generally give better quality. If you keep the resolutions the same you remove that bias. By keeping as many things equal as possible, you can better compare the lens systems and processing which are about the only things you can't control. You now have your base level comparison from which you advance by showing the the effect of different controllable factors such as picture adjustment, compression, resolution, etc. It gets rather involved and is way beyond the scope of Bryan's intial post, but I still would like to see the base level comparison. Apparently this is all irrevelant since the fz30 won't go to 2mp, anyway.
--
Fred
FZ5 & FZ1v2
http://www.ishots.net
 
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