Looking for an H5, FZ7, S3 IS comparison review?

fbx · Nov 13, 2006

Back to the Sony Forum having recently sold my H1. THinking about buying an H5 (or Panny or Canon equiv). I have owned and liked Panny FZ5 and smaller Canon (S400, SD500, SD700IS), so I am looking for reviews that do direct comparisons between the 3 cameras in the title. I can cobble together a do-it-yourself comparison via reviews here, Steve's, DCRP, Dave Etchells, etc., but I would like to read a comprehensive review by a knowledgeable writer if any such exists. Looked at the H5 today in teh store and was very impressed with size of LCD, feel of camera (I liked the H1, too), etc.

Also, I have Canon 350XT with the EF 50mm f1.8 II prime lens -- how close in image quality will the H5 come, would you say, in normal daylight under 400 ISO shooting? 70%? 90?

Thanks for your help--

shibolim · Nov 13, 2006

http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Panasonic-FZ7--Canon-S3-IS-Sony-H5---Head-to-Head-to-Head-Review.htm

AAK · Nov 13, 2006

.... the digitalcamerainfo comparison is fairly kind to the H5, I have found their reviews to be notoriously inaccurate.

Check out their H1 review. It was an embarassment. It had to be corrected by the users on their forum. Terrible.

Here's how I see it:

Pany: great lens, kills off purple fringe in-camera (but leaves white lines), bad noise. Not really usable above ISO 200 (sorta like the H1)

S3IS: Lens not as good as H5, focus slower and less-accurate, esp. in low light. Good video (MPEG4), but you can't get much on a card. Also has a very strange aberration that sometimes causes a red line to forum all around subjects. Some think this is an IR leak, or something. Don't know if this ever got addressed. Not as noisy as the Pany, but noticeably noisier than the H5.

H5: Erognomics are "iffy" (too much stuff moved over to the right edge on the back), image quality excellent, ISO 400 very good, ISO 800 usable, 3" hi-res LCD is incredible, excellent lens, focus. Flash is vastly improved, zoom on video now. And at least 1 mp more resolution than the others (7.2mp). Good for detail, good for cropping. Manual Focus Peaking finally allows you to manual focus accurately.

Hope this helps...
--
=~ AAK - http://www.aakatz.com
=~ Author of the H-Series White Paper
=~ http://www.aakatz.com/h1whitepaper

fbx · Nov 13, 2006

Dr. Katz--

I went on Etchells' site and downloaded full size pix from S3 IS, FZ7, H5 and spent an hour or more comparing. The S3 didn't really meauser up for me, but the Panny FZ7 many times seemed better than the H5 in terms of sharpness, clarity, color rendition, etc. THe H5 had a smeary look to it when you looked at the woman's face, whereas the FZ7 looked mroe DSLR-like, crisp and detailed. I wondered if the H5 has sharpening you can turn down or if Etchells' pix were off, or if his sample of the H5 was not so good.

Eventually I ordered both the FZ7 and the H5 and will eBay the loser, I guess (I'm eBaying everything else these days).

I played with the H5 in the local CC and was very taken with it, and I used to have an H1 which I thought highly of. Of course, I also use to have an FZ5 that I thought highly of.

Anyway, will be shooting around in my tiny world and I hope one of these cameras sticks, as I'm tired of shopping.

THanks, as always.

AAK said:
.... the digitalcamerainfo comparison is fairly kind to the H5, I
have found their reviews to be notoriously inaccurate.

Check out their H1 review. It was an embarassment. It had to be
corrected by the users on their forum. Terrible.

Here's how I see it:

Pany: great lens, kills off purple fringe in-camera (but leaves
white lines), bad noise. Not really usable above ISO 200 (sorta
like the H1)

S3IS: Lens not as good as H5, focus slower and less-accurate, esp.
in low light. Good video (MPEG4), but you can't get much on a card.
Also has a very strange aberration that sometimes causes a red line
to forum all around subjects. Some think this is an IR leak, or
something. Don't know if this ever got addressed. Not as noisy as
the Pany, but noticeably noisier than the H5.

H5: Erognomics are "iffy" (too much stuff moved over to the right
edge on the back), image quality excellent, ISO 400 very good, ISO
800 usable, 3" hi-res LCD is incredible, excellent lens, focus.
Flash is vastly improved, zoom on video now. And at least 1 mp more
resolution than the others (7.2mp). Good for detail, good for
cropping. Manual Focus Peaking finally allows you to manual focus
accurately.

Hope this helps...
--
=~ AAK - http://www.aakatz.com
=~ Author of the H-Series White Paper
=~ http://www.aakatz.com/h1whitepaper

Gasse · Nov 13, 2006

A sligth correction: Canon's movie mode is AVI, not MPEG4

Gabriel (who recently got an H5).

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Looking for an H5, FZ7, S3 IS comparison review?

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