What I like about the Panasonic FZ20

[Chunk]

The lens is great. I thought these two photos illustrate some of its strengths. The first was zoomed all the way out at 6mm and the second was zoomed all the way in at 72mm. These were both on a tripod in the same spot before I started moving in closer to the birds so the IS was not needed here but it does help me a great deal on handheld shots.

[Liz]

Those Panasonics with the long zoom, IS and LEICA lenses are awesome cameras!

These are great shots Chunk. I love the reflection of the sun on both of them. The colors are nice too - just right.

Did you just get this camera? I don't remember that you had this one before. Might be my age.....you know, senior moment.

Liz

The lens is great. I thought these two photos illustrate some of its strengths. The first was zoomed all the way out at 6mm and the second was zoomed all the way in at 72mm. These were both on a tripod in the same spot before I started moving in closer to the birds so the IS was not needed here but it does help me a great deal on handheld shots.

[Chunk]

Those Panasonics with the long zoom, IS and LEICA lenses are awesome cameras!

These are great shots Chunk. I love the reflection of the sun on both of them. The colors are nice too - just right.

Did you just get this camera? I don't remember that you had this one before. Might be my age.....you know, senior moment.

Liz

Thanks Liz. Here's some more of that great light. Another thing I like about that lens is that I can put a light source in the frame and not have an excessive amount of lens flare.
I've had the Panasonic a few months now. While it does have some strengths that help me a lot, it also has some limitations that I find frustrating. It seems quite noisy in low light and I usually keep it on the lowest ISO setting (80) and the longest exposure time is 8 seconds so I come up against that limitation some. I wish they had put a bulb setting in. I'm just switching to photshop too, so I'm learning some noise techniques and may order a couple of Fred Miranda's plug ins to help too. I sure wish for the 1600 and even usable 3200 iso settings that I hear about from you SLR folk. I suppose that would need a larger sensor, which means that lens wouldn't work then. Trade offs are the name of the game I guess.

[SmartWombat]

The really big thing about it for us is that it works fast ebough for my wife to get pictures of moving F1 cars instead of empty track
She got a wonderful series of Juan Pablo Montoya, after he told her to take the lens cap off !!
At least she got personal attention
And with her wheelchair he's not likely to forget her

She doesn't want to sign in herself here, but she'd like to share what she's got with her Panasonic.

[Chunk]

She got some nice shots with some pretty tough conditions too. One of the main reasons I had to get this camera was my frustration with the shutter response on my Canon S30 and most other non SLRs that I tried.
I hope we can see more of her work, Paul.

[Liz]

This is another great shot. I LOVE the reflections. You know how to use that light! The colors are right on. Beautiful. I took another look at those birds - you really captured the light perfectly. That's a gift! It's what photography is all about.

Keep capturing that light.

Liz

Thanks Liz. Here's some more of that great light. Another thing I like about that lens is that I can put a light source in the frame and not have an excessive amount of lens flare.
I've had the Panasonic a few months now. While it does have some strengths that help me a lot, it also has some limitations that I find frustrating. It seems quite noisy in low light and I usually keep it on the lowest ISO setting (80) and the longest exposure time is 8 seconds so I come up against that limitation some. I wish they had put a bulb setting in. I'm just switching to photshop too, so I'm learning some noise techniques and may order a couple of Fred Miranda's plug ins to help too. I sure wish for the 1600 and even usable 3200 iso settings that I hear about from you SLR folk. I suppose that would need a larger sensor, which means that lens wouldn't work then. Trade offs are the name of the game I guess.

[Chunk]

This is another great shot. I LOVE the reflections. You know how to use that light! The colors are right on. Beautiful. I took another look at those birds - you really captured the light perfectly. That's a gift! It's what photography is all about.

Bracketting helps a lot sometimes.