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| 20mm ISO 800 f2.8 |
The lens on the FZ80 has a very ambitious specification. The 60x zoom ranges from a superwide 20mm (equivalent) at the wide end to an ultralong 1200mm (equivalent) at the long end. No other current model consumer camera offers this extremely useful and versatile focal length range.
The FZ80 lens has the same specifications as its predecessor the FZ70.
Reviewers and user forums were not kind to the FZ70 lens but of the 989 Amazon customer reviews 70% score 5 stars and 16% score 4 stars which is a pretty strong endorsement for this budget consumer model. Many Amazon reviewers mention the good optical quality of the lens.
I bought two half broken old FZ70s several months ago and discovered that the lens of one was very good at the wide end, the other was good at the long end.
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| 20mm f2.8 ISO 400 |
So it was with some trepidation that I started testing the lens of my new FZ80.
It was clear to me that the success or failure of the FZ80 would rest largely on Panasonic’s ability to get the lens right at all focal lengths.
Our family now has two copies of the FZ80 and each has a lens which gives a good account of itself at all focal lengths.
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| 20mm ISO 800 f2.8 |
This post deals with the capability of the lens at the wide end, illustrated by several examples. Each of the photos was captured as a RAW and processed in Adobe Camera Raw before being output as a JPG for publication. Readers please note that the final resolution of photos on Google blogger is much less than the original, presumably to facilitate fast loading.
Full sized versions of some of these photos can be seen on my gallery at Digital Photography Review (axlotl).
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| Tripod, 20mm ISO 80 f4 |
Overall the lens delivers good to very good results in the focal length range 20-400mm. Beyond that contrast and resolution decline slowly as the lens is zoomed out. But even at 1200mm resolution is quite good in the center of the frame and acceptable at the edges. Achieving sharpness at the long end requires a careful approach to camera work which I will describe in a subsequent post.
In the range 20-50mm the lens is capable of very good resolution in a broad central area of the frame with some softness at the edges apparent at 20mm and f2.8.
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| 20mm ISO 80 f2.8 |
Optimum aperture in this range is f4 but f2.8 is not far behind and is entirely usable in any circumstance when the widest aperture is needed.
Distortion and chromatic aberration are digitally corrected post capture in both RAW and JPG files.
Some purple fringing is fairly common towards the corners at high contrast junctions such as foliage on trees against a hot sky. This is readily correctable in image editors.
Flare is readily induced by sun shining on the front element of the lens. I deal with this by holding the camera in my right hand and shielding the lens from the sun with my left hand. This is effective.
Overall resolution is not quite at the same level as I see from the FZ1000 but is surprisingly close considering the FZ80’s zoom range and budget price point. I find I need to look closely at matched files at 100% on screen or in a large print to clearly see the difference.
Overall the lens is very consistent right across the focal length range with no bad focal lengths and no nasty surprises.
I mention this by way of contrast with, for instance, the TZ/ZS100 and LX10 models both of which I found on testing to be inconsistent, delivering sharp pictures at some focal lengths but not others and sharp results at some apertures but not others.
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| 20mm ISO 80 f2.8 |