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| FZ80 Low light wide angle hand held |
For a model close to the bottom end of Panasonic’s lineup the FZ80 offers a remarkable level of specifications, features and capability. You can read the details in the manufacturer’s published material but I think some items are worth noting.
Lens focal length range
I find the 20-1200mm range the most versatile and useful that I have ever had the pleasure to use.
At the wide end 20mm is really wide making it very useful indoors or in other confined spaces.
Even better the lens works well at the largest aperture of f2.8.
The difference in angle of view between 24 (or 25)mm and 20mm is considerable.
The ability to go this wide in an instant opens up imaging possibilities not available if the shortest focal length is 24 or 25mm.
At the long end I find anything over about 800mm increasingly difficult to use. It is difficult to locate the subject in the viewfinder and very difficult to keep it there if the subject moves as birds and small creatures always do.
So for me 1200mm is just about as long as I ever want to go.
I find that increasing the focal length to 1440mm as on the B700 delivers no practical advantage.
The P900 goes all the way out to 2000mm. When I owned a P900 I rarely managed to make a keeper shot at this focal length.
Video
I am a complete novice at video but more ambitious videographers will be pleased to find HD video, 4K video and several 4K photos options. The camera has the sort of specification for motion picture which one might have expected on a prosumer video camera just a few years ago.
Imaging aids
You get the works. AF/MF and both together, user selectable monitor and EVF appearance and data display, peaking, zebras, the AF area size and position are easily and quickly adjustable, back button focus, multiple buttons with user assignable function, easy and fast exposure compensation, and much more, the list goes on and includes things like time lapse, bracketing, HDR, stop motion animation……..
These are not just gimmicks or marketing hype but really useful capabilities which allow the practiced user to take control over the process of making pictures.
Novices and snapshooters are very well catered for with many automatic exposure functions to make getting good pictures easy.
Focus
Single AF on still subjects is fast and accurate. But this camera can also follow focus on moving subjects at about 6 fps with AF, AE and live view on each frame and a high percentage of keepers even with RAW capture.
The FZ300 can also do this but none of the fixed lens superzooms from makers other than Panasonic have yet to match this level of continuous AF performance.
This is because Panasonic is the only one with DFD and it works.
Enjoyment of use
You won’t find this heading in any list of specs but it is one of the FZ80’s more appealing qualities. It is a nice compact not-too-large, not-too-small size with a nice handle and a simple but effective set of controls suited to either the novice or expert user.
Flash
There is a built in flash but the camera also supports several accessory flashes and also wireless off camera flash just like a high end model.
Auto panorama
The FZ80 does really good in camera auto panoramas. I often do an auto panorama and a Photoshop stitch version at the same time and am finding that sometimes the in camera version looks better.
Close ups
At focal length (equivalent) 160mm the closest focus distance, shown in the viewfinder is 0.3 meters. This enables hand held close ups without having to shove the camera right up to the subject. It is quick and easy to switch in a moment from long distance telephoto work to super close ups, all hand held.
Wi-Fi
The camera can be controlled by wi-fi connection to a smart phone or it can download photos via wi-fi. The extensive wi-fi capabilities are well described in the Operating Instructions.
Summary
The FZ80 is one of the best specified and most capable entry level cameras ever to come to market. It is enjoyable to use and works very well.