Digital SLRs vs ultra-zoom cameras
Week of November 28, 2004
Q: I read your recent digital camera column and am interested in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 you mentioned. Previously I was considering the Canon Digital Rebel. With all the capabilities of the Panasonic, why would anyone spend $400 more on the Digital Rebel?
– Dave Hitchner, Bridgeton, NJ
A: The Panasonic DMC-FZ20 is a very capable camera, but it is not comparable to a digital SLR like the Digital Rebel. They are apples and oranges. Like the fruits, both taste good but the taste and experience are totally different.
A digital SLR camera responds immediately, like a professional 35mm camera. Focusing is extremely fast, and when you press the button to take the picture it is taken instantaneously. When you look through the viewfinder eyepiece, you view the actual scene through the camera’s lens. The viewfinder image is large, bright, clear, and real-life since you are looking through a purely optical system.
The FZ20’s focusing and response time, while better than most digital cameras, does not compare to the lightning-fast response of any digital SLR. The Panasonic has an electronic viewfinder, the same as when you look through a camcorder’s viewfinder eyepiece. You can use it to compose, view pictures, and change camera settings. It’s a smaller version of the screen on the back of the camera.
The Digital Rebel’s digital sensor is superior to the Panasonic’s. The Canon’s sensor has more pixels, is much larger in physical dimensions, and uses a special technology called CMOS that uses less electricity, leading to longer battery life.
Because of the physical size of the Canon sensor, it works very well in low-light and when you raise the camera’s ISO sensitivity. (ISO is like film speed in 35mm cameras.) The Panasonic performs extremely well in normal light, but low-light (without flash) and night photography are a comparative weakness.
The FZ20 does have a movie mode, which is unavailable on digital SLRs.
The Panasonic’s main advantage? The camera’s amazing Leica zoom lens with an optical image stabilizer, 12x zoom ratio, and fast 2.8 aperture. The lens is made possible by the smaller digital sensor. If an equivalent lens were designed to work with the Digital Rebel’s sensor, it would cost tens of thousands of dollars and be too large and heavy to hand-hold. The FZ20’s optical image stabilizer allows you to make use of that amazing zoom range.
Serious amateur and professional photographers will settle for nothing less than a digital SLR outfit. They want and need the capabilities of the SLR- and they know it. I myself own a pro digital SLR outfit and would not be without it. As a second camera, though, the FZ20 is ideal for me, and for many other serious photographers as well. It’s a lot of capability in a single-piece, easy-to-carry camera and in daylight conditions it would be hard to tell the difference between pictures made with the Digital Rebel and the FZ20, unless you made poster-size prints. Even then the Panasonic would still satisfy most people.
So, if you are very serious about photography, want to invest in an outfit for the long haul, and don’t mind toting a bag of lenses, a digital SLR is the camera for you.
If you don’t need the lightning-fast responses and professional capabilities of the digital SLR, but would like professional-quality images (in normal lighting conditions) and an amazing lens with tremendous zoom range, you will likely be thrilled with the Panasonic and never need or want anything else.
The final category of person that may be right for the FZ20? Someone who wants a digital SLR outfit, but can’t quite afford it at the moment. The Panasonic will do a great job in the present and make a great backup in the future once you buy that digital SLR system!
