Tag Archives: Camera

Chosen my camera at last – Panasonic Lumix FZ150

London 2012, , , ,

As mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been searching for some time for a new camera to take to all the Olumpic events I am going to.  Basically I didn’t want to take anything as expensive or heavy as my Nikon D40 DSLR with its telephoto lens (not that I’d be allowed to take it into some venues anyway – yes Wembley Stadium I’m looking at you!) but I wanted something better than a compact as I wanted to take zoomed in and sports mode videos and pictures.  Plus I needed something with a decent zoom as I have no idea how far I’ll be from the action!

I spent ages looking at online reviews and comparison websites, as well as going into shops like Jessops and Currys.Digital and basically just driving myself and my other half mad as I couldn’t make up my mind.  I eventually decided that I probably wanted a bridge camera, but then it was which one.  Initially I’d thought about the Nikon P510 but some reviews online (and YouTube videos) showed that it had trouble focusing when zooming in over half way of its enormous 42x zoom so despite my love of Nikon that was a no-go.

A lot of the reviews mentioned that the Lumix FZ150 was the best bridge camera, and I was tempted towards that but a) it was over a year old and b) it had the ‘least’ zoom of the cameras I was looking at, so I went on to consider the Sony HX200 and the Canon SX40.  On testing the Canon in Jessops though, it became obvious that it was a bit heavy and that it too was having trouble choosing a focusing distance so the instore rep wasn’t able to convince me to choose that one.

This is when YouTube really came into its own in helping me make a decision!  Thanks to anyone being able to create and upload a video for free there were loads of people who’d done reviews and examples of both cameras so it didn’t take too long to work out that the Panasonics zoom was good enough for what I wanted so I was definitely leaning towards that one.

My other half wanted me to be sure so we went down to our local Jessops and had a look at both cameras, and tried them out.  We also drove one of the sales people mad for over an hour whilst we asked questions and then asked about deals – it was worth it for him in the end though as I bought the Lumix FZ150, a case and two 16Gb memory cards so hopefully he got good commission!

We went out the next day and I did some tests to make sure I was happy with my choice, and other than a few issues with the default video recording mode (was HD so wouldn’t upload to Flickr or YouTube) I’m really happy with it.  Roll on the Olympics so I can bore people with all my pictures and videos!! 😀

Capturing the action

Other, , ,

As the start date of the Olympics gets ever nearer, my thoughts turn to how I’m going to capture the action at the various events I’m going to.  I currently have a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 which I am happy with but its getting a bit long in the tooth now and also suffered an unfortunate accident at the hands of my other half which makes the battery & memory card hard to extract.

I have a Nikon D40x DSLR camera with a telephoto lens which I think would be ideal to capture the sporting action, but I’m worried that it will be bulky to carry around particularly in the crowds, and also that I won’t actually be allowed to take it in (its unclear at the moment what limits there will be on personal camera equipment allowed within the games venues).

Because I’ve liked my TZ3 so much,  the Lumix TZ30 to looks like a good bet to replace it but I’m wondering whether I should go for a Superzoom/bridge camera instead as it will give me a better zoom as there will be times (many I’m sure!) when I’ll be far from the action.  And then of course theres all the choice out there – how on earth am I supposed to choose?!  I want something thats relatively easy to transport, can take good, fast pictures both inside and out with as high a zoom as possible.  If it can record HD video, have a flip out screen for those times when I can’t line up directly and have GPS (some things that my D40x can’t do at all!) then all the better!

Not sure there are any cameras that might that restrictive criteria… 😉