Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]John, Panasonic has been a major producer of P&S cameras for others for a really long time. They did one of the first Leica film cameras, several Minolta's, and some of the Nikon's. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of John Mason Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 4:17 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] Re: Digilux 2 This seems to be an apt time to delurk. I'm optimistic that the new Panaleica will be a shooter's camera and a good one. My experience with Panasonic's DMC-FZ1 has been quite positive. The DCM-FZ1 is a two megapixel P&S with a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit 4.6mm-55.2mm (35-420mm, 35 equiv.) 2.8 constant aperture image-stabilized zoom. AFAIK, Panasonic has never built film cameras, but they've managed to make the DCM-FZ1, plastic though it may be, feel like a tool, not a toy. I bought the camera on the basis of several rave reviews, including Frank van Riper's: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030807.htm> Seemed to me that the long, fast, image-stabilized reach would serve me well shooting concerts. Turns out that I haven't shot any concerts with it, but I did take it along a couple weeks ago, when I documented the jazz and blues marathon at my local non-commercial radio station, an annual fundraiser. Terrible light in the studio. (I was mostly shooting Neopan 1600.) With the Panasonic, I was getting shutter speeds between 1/8 and 1/30 at 2.8 and ISO 400 (the limit). Results surprised the hell out of me, ranging from not bad at all to pretty astonishing. Leica must had actually had something to do with the lens--the name must be more than marketing hype. It's exceedingly sharp, even wide open. Image stabilizer worked perfectly at 1/8, zoomed all the way out. In several of these examples, you can see that the problem was subject movement, not camera shake: <http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=352582> I've printed 8X10s on an Epson 1280. They look just fine. Two megapixels doesn't sound like much, but there are megapixels and, then, there are megapixels. Combine what must be a good sensor with a truly amazing lens, and you've got a file that will print to 8x10 with no problems at all. Some things I don't like. Small electronic viewfinder. A tendency to blow out highlights. (It does, however, have spot metering and exposure compensation, which I've set permanently to -1/3.) Autofocus could be faster, but, once focused, shutter-lag is negligible. Here are the Leicasonic links that people have been pointing to: <http://www.letsgodigital.be/en/news/articles/story_440.html> <http://digilux2.ralfbuerger.de/> - --John ===== J. Mason Charlottesville, Virginia __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html