wordmunger

I'm planning a trip to Alaska in a few weeks and hoping to see some cool wildlife. Unfortunately, I don't really have a good camera for wildlife photos so I decided to get a (relatively) cheap one that would do a better job than my iPhone or two older digital cameras. It arrived today so I thought I'd test it out and compare to those other devices. I got a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300, which is a mid-range all-in-one camera. It doesn't have the flexibility of a true SLR or mirrorless camera because the lens is permanently attached to the body, but it's got quite a bit of power. Here it is next to my two older cameras:

The Canon to the left was my father-in-law's camera, state-of-the-art when it came out over 20 years ago. It's a compact SLR but still pretty bulky for my tastes. I like to pack light! On the right is a Nikon all-in-one that I bought almost 9 years ago in India for wildlife pictures. It's nice and compact, with a powerful zoom lens, but I'm not thrilled with the photo quality. Here you can see all three cameras in a row. My new Lumix is right in the middle of the other two in size, but I hope it takes better photos than both of them.

On to the photos. I'm interested in getting good detail for photos taken outside, at a distance from the subject. There's not a lot of wildlife outside my house right now, so the park bench across the street will have to do as a subject. Photo 1 was taken with the old Canon:

1 (Canon)

It's a nice enough picture, but it's hard to see any details of the park bench in the center of the frame. This is the maximum zoom on the lens I have for this camera (85 mm focal length). I could, of course, buy a bigger lens for this camera, but the lens alone would cost more than the Lumix, and would make an already bulky camera even bulkier. Photo 1.2 was taken with the newer (but still old) Nikon:

1.2 (Nikon)

Same deal. Not really enough detail at this zoom level. 1.3 was taken with the new camera.

1.3 (New Lumix)

I may be biased, but I'm already liking this camera better. Still not quite the level of detail we want. Let's zoom in.

2.1 (Canon)

Since this camera doesn't actually zoom any closer, I just had to crop the original image. It's quite blurry and doesn't give much detail. (Yes, I might have just needed to focus better on the bench, but it's difficult when it's so tiny in the original photo).

2.2 (Nikon)

That's quite a bit better. I can see some of the details of the bench now. But the background is a little blown out and there're really nothing I can do about that with this camera.

2.3 (New Lumix)

The Lumix again produces my favorite photo. But it has one more trick up its sleeve. I can crop the photos and focus even closer on the bench. I'm only going to show you the Nikon and Lumix photos here because the old Canon simply can't get any detail at this level of zoom.

3.2 (Nikon)

The Nikon has so-called "digital zoom," which is really just cropping the photo as you take it. It does a decent job of getting some more details, but as you can see, there's still nothing I can do about the blown-out background in the photo.

3.3 (New Lumix)

Here's the same level of crop on the Lumix camera. I haven't figured out how to use "digital zoom" on this camera (however it does have the feature), but I did figure out how to shoot in RAW mode, and just using this feature I'm able to adjust for the blown-out background and get way more detail out of the original photo. So I'm pretty happy with this camera! I think it will be a nice balance of physical size, cost (about $500), and quality. I could spend another thousand (or more) and get a somewhat better camera, but I know myself, and I'm not really a photographer. I don't want to be burdened by a big, clunky camera and assortment of lenses. I just want to take a few photos of the eagles, bears, and moose I hope to see on my trip. I think this will be the camera to do it. More importantly, it will be a camera that I actually USE.

One last point -- why I don't just use my iPhone for this kind of photo. Here's the best I can do using my phone (a relatively new iPhone 13!) for the same photo.

This is already using the phone's digital zoom feature to crop the photo as far as the phone will allow. Here's what happens when I crop in to show you the bench: