ZS15 vs ZS19/20 full zoom shots

Any willing participants in sharing some full zoom, full size shots from the ZS15 and ZS19/20? Seems like there are a few of us on the fence between the two cams and at wide angle/low ISO the cams are similar...how about at the long end?

The top picture of the teepee was taken at 480mm from the same vantage point as the second picture which was close to the widest angle setting (the teepee is in the middle).

The ZS20 can use an extended setting (to 960mm) but there is a loss in IQ.
--
Ron Tolmie

Thanks Ron for the photos. Wide angle looks good. Although at 50% peeping the zoom shot has the dreaded smeared water color effect. Does ISO 100 make a big difference? I like the sepia! Any ZS15's out there to compete?

Andrew MM said:

Although at 50% peeping the zoom shot has the dreaded smeared water color effect.

Click to expand...

I used my ZS15 quite a bit during my trip to Spain last week. But towards the end of the trip I was using my Samsung Galaxy Note cellphone for all wide-angle shots -- precisely because of the dreadful smearing of ZS15 shots, and my inability to reduce the noise reduction. My phone does a heck of a lot better job. I can even crop a full-size phone image and extract just the piece I want (a poor-man's zoom). I didn't take any comparison shots - maybe I will get around to that later -- or maybe I will just junk the ZS15. I didn't take enough long zoom shots to make it worth carrying the extra camera.

ZS15 Panorama photos were particularly disappointing because the smearing was even worse in panorama. I just can't be bothered uploading the mugshots. You have all seen the effect before...

For 'serious', 'planned', shots I will use my LX5 in RAW. For all else, my cell phone. It is sad how this 2012 series of Panny cameras has totally ruined my image of the company. Especially Panny's crippling of the max FullHD video length to 29 mins 59 seconds. I used my LX5 for the static videos in Spain, even though it only shoots 1280x720, as the new cameras will do no better.

Here is a quick snap from my cellphone, under really difficult lighting conditions (late evening) of a tour bus parked behind a row of Madrid Police vehicles lined up to intimidate the 'occupy' protesters on the plaza behind us:

I spent the time to show a 'keeper' from the Samsung cellphone so that Panasonic can see what their 2012 P&S cameras should be capable of doing. If they didn't smear like cheap watercolors...

A shot taken at 8:30pm on Monday night of a busy Madrid street, showing the bustle of activity, followed by the crop which is 'the keeper' (I sharpened it a little). Again, this was taken from the plaza containing the 'occupy' protesters, and so the Police presence is ever-present...

trevmar said:

[...] Panny's crippling of the max FullHD video length to 29 mins 59 seconds.[...]

Click to expand...

That's an excellent IQ from your cellphone, trevmar.

But I think you are a bit too harsh on Panasonic for the video clip limit. Other manufacturers seem to have similar cutoffs, simply because that's the EU customs duty limit between cameras and the higher duty videocams.
--
Cyril

Here's a few from ZS20 at full zoom...and even digital zoom

Full wide angle 24mm Focused on UPS sign)



Full tele Zoom 20x 480mm



2x digital zoom 960mm



Few others
480mm



Digital zoom 1000mm





All handheld

Hope these help

ANAYV

See Photonconnection's post at the bottom of this thread page - and check his Flickr page for the results. There could hardly be a better comparison!

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1033&thread=41223892&page=1

Here's a ZS19 shot I posted, 2x extended zoom:





And here is the scene at full wide angle:





The sign "Cougar Ct" is about 3/4 of a mile away, and the traffic lights are a mile away. Here's a satellite view of the shooting setup:





These were handheld on a gloomy, rainy day.

-Erik
--
DP Review Supporter.



'He who hesitates is not only lost - he's miles from the next Exit.'
http://www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]

Andrew MM said:

Any willing participants in sharing some full zoom, full size shots from the ZS15 and ZS19/20? Seems like there are a few of us on the fence between the two cams and at wide angle/low ISO the cams are similar...how about at the long end?

Click to expand...

ZS15 full zoom shot, OOC and 50% scale with levels & sharpening PP. Just starting to explore it's capabilities Camera is fine with me, considering size and cost. I wanted the ZS15 for the FZ150 sensor, which (for me) is more important than the extra ZS20 features. I have other cameras with larger sensors & RAW, for other situations. A 16x is handy, for those times where a cell phone would only get a postage stamp size view of the same subject

I guess with DPReview, you need to view in my Gallery to see the full size version?
-M1

I took these shots yesterday of a parasurfer with my ZS20 at 20x zoom (480mm equiv.).

Below are two successive shots taken a fraction of a second apart using the full resolution (14MP) burst mode:









This was a shot taken a few seconds later:





This is a quite heavy crop of the image above:





Cheers,
Ian
--
Ianperegian

http://www.ianperegian.com/

Great shots Ian, and a good demonstration of the capabilities of the ZS20 as a long zoom pocket camera.

Ron
--
Ron Tolmie

Thanks, Ron. I think it's a very versatile little cam.

Cheers,
Ian

--
Ianperegian

http://www.ianperegian.com/

Hi all,

I just posted on Flickr ( under rdbunn ) four pictures with my zs15 and zs20. Two wide (not quite matching up though) and two zoomed to full optical zoom ( 16x vs. 20x ). Flickr will let you see the original sized photos.

It was hotttt outside and my batteries were low, so just dashed off these for now.

Tomorrow morning I'll try to do more, using a more thoughtful methodical approach.

Hope these help.

RD

P.S. Anyone know how I can embed a link to my flickr photostream here? Is that allowed? I'm new at this.

photonconnection wrote, in part:

photonconnection said:

Hi all,

Click to expand...

photonconnection said:

RD

P.S. Anyone know how I can embed a link to my flickr photostream here? Is that allowed? I'm new at this.

Click to expand...

Just copy the URL line from the top of the page, like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76477765@N04/

-Erik

--
DP Review Supporter.



'He who hesitates is not only lost - he's miles from the next Exit.'
http://www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]

I've done comparison sets for both the ZS15 and ZS20.
They are now posted on Flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76477765@N04/

Hope they help you.

RD

If I understand correctly, Flickr have just changed how their links operate so that a grabbed link is just that -to get to a Flickr image, whereas a couple of weeks ago you could grab a link that would embed the image in teh DPR post. Shame, as I was hoping to use the latter method to post here via Flickr using an iPad when travelling. Stuart