MaineTim
Senior Member
I bought the FZ50 as a stepping stone, a way to get some dSLR features at a lighter weight and price. The damped zoom and manual focus rings are fantastic, the articulated LCD very handy, the controls well laid-out and logical. OIS really does work, giving my shaky hand a real boost in night shooting.
In the end, I continued on to an SLR mostly to gain speed and better high-ISO IQ. Also, I tend to shoot wide, and although the wide-angle adapters I have for the FZ50 work well, I wanted more on the wide end. But for general-purpose work in most light, the FZ50 with it's Leica lens gives up surprisingly little to cameras twice its price, and it remains in my photographic arsenal.
In the end, I continued on to an SLR mostly to gain speed and better high-ISO IQ. Also, I tend to shoot wide, and although the wide-angle adapters I have for the FZ50 work well, I wanted more on the wide end. But for general-purpose work in most light, the FZ50 with it's Leica lens gives up surprisingly little to cameras twice its price, and it remains in my photographic arsenal.