Best but not perfect

Marius Mioc said:

Marius Mioc wrote:

While arguably the best superzoom advavanced compact camera, the FZ200 has some surprisingly annoying and rather hard to explain limitations:

1. not possible to manually limit the ISO to 100 but only to 200, which results in very noisy low light and night shots;

2. low resolution and low quality panoramic shots, quite often with very strong banding;

3. inability to use the zoom for the panorama shots (as there is no more "panaorama assist" shooting mode);

4. not intuitive and rather difficult manual focusing

5. not ergonomic manual focusing button

6. not ergonomic lens cap (tends to slip from your hand when held by the clamping "wings");

7. no eye sensor for the viewfinder.

Click to expand...

That's not a review, that's a tantrum.

Most of the shortcomings you perceive will evaporate once you've gotten to know the camera, if you keep it that long.

Marius Mioc said:

Marius Mioc wrote:

While arguably the best superzoom advavanced compact camera, the FZ200 has some surprisingly annoying and rather hard to explain limitations:

1. not possible to manually limit the ISO to 100 but only to 200, which results in very noisy low light and night shots;

2. low resolution and low quality panoramic shots, quite often with very strong banding;

3. inability to use the zoom for the panorama shots (as there is no more "panaorama assist" shooting mode);

4. not intuitive and rather difficult manual focusing

5. not ergonomic manual focusing button

6. not ergonomic lens cap (tends to slip from your hand when held by the clamping "wings");

7. no eye sensor for the viewfinder.

Click to expand...

This is hardly a "review". And it sounds like you wrote it after about 5 minutes of taking it out of the box...

1. There are several ways to limit the ISO to 100.

2., 3. If you want high quality panorama shots, then you have to take individual shots and stitch them using software on your computer. You had no choice but to do that with the previous FZ150 - the "assist" mode you mentioned was literally just that: "assistance" for stitching images later.

With the FZ200 you still have the option of stitching at home (in which case, you can use the zoom if you want to)... but it ALSO gives you the quick and easy in-camera stitching, if you're not bothered about high quality.

Furthermore, if you don't need the full 270 degrees horizontal pan, you can get a higher resolution instant panorama... by selecting vertical panning, holding the camera in portrait orientation, and then pan horizontally.

4. Won't argue with that, it's never going to be great using motorised controls

5. You did try using the slider on the side of the lens barrel, for manual focus, didn't you?

6. Personally, I don't understand why people have trouble with the lens cap. I guess everyone has fingers 2x bigger than mine?!

7. Yes, it's about time they added an eye sensor.

This is extremely biased and sounds like it is coming from an inexperienced photographer. Maybe that's not true but it just sounds like it. The FZ200 is a very capable camera from landscapes to action and everything in between in the right hands. The manual zoom is a week point though, but hardly a surprise in a bridge camera. I could go on but I won't. I'll just say that this is more of a one sided opinion than a well thought out review.

I think I will go out now and shoot some more landscapes with my camera.

-Tim

I use Auto ISO all the time, and RAW, with a auto ISO limit of 1600, and I don't worry, only have fun. Here is an example of an ISO 1600 shot from Imagin Resource, I only use Photoshop CS6 for this.

I'm loviing my new 200 the more I use it, but how do you turn off that dang lens retract? You only get 15 seconds to review your shot and then back it comes. You better hope the lens hood is not reversed because it loves to bite you!

JR