I am wanting to get a new digital camera. My Canon SX130IS is about 8 years old. It has been a good camera but a PIA to do things like manual focus and pictures in low light leave something to be desired usually. The Panasonic Lumix ZS50 seems to improve upon those issues as it has a ring around the lens that can be used for manual focus which would be ideal for me and at $279 the price is attractive. I also want a fairly compact camera because if it is too big it probably won't be used much and the size of the Lumix ZS50 Camera looks just about right for my needs. I wish it took AA batteries but that is not a show stopper. The view finder would also be a big plus for me. It has been out for a couple years now and has some pretty good reviews. I don't do manual settings very often but when I want to I like it to be fairly easy.

Thanks for sharing any experiences.

https://www.amazon.com/Panason...rds=panasonic+camera

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2477859,00.asp

I've had the 1-year newer and higher priced Lumix ZS100 for about 6 weeks now.

The manual features and settings are good, and it takes good pictures, but the viewfinder is tiny and the ZS50 has the same viewfinder. Pretty much have to use the screen.

It takes good pictures but I wouldn't buy it for the viewfinder.

The ZS100 is a little too large for a pocket camera. The ZS50 is 10 mm thinner but same LxW.

I have two Lumix cameras. They are my favorites.

DMC-ZS6 is one of them

Sorry Grump,..Slight thread drift...I have an old Panasonic Lumix dig camera.

I wanted to take a picture of frozen dew on grass that looked like jewels in the sunlight scattered about.
But the processor "fixed" all that and gave me pics of just the grass!

Is there work-around for that? Different settings didn't change things.
It's an old DMC-TZ3 w/10X optical zoom. Great for point and shoot but not much else.

quote:

But the processor "fixed" all that and gave me pics of just the grass!

If the output format is JPEG then the photo has been processed by the cameras software to produce what the software thinks is the desired image.

To avoid the in-camera processing you need a camera that can record in RAW format and then do the post-processing yourself.

There are pros and cons to JPEG & RAW, not the least of which is that RAW files are 4x as large.

Here are a bunch of images taken with a ZS50:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=ZS50

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
I've had the 1-year newer and higher priced Lumix ZS100 for about 6 weeks now.

The manual features and settings are good, and it takes good pictures, but the viewfinder is tiny and the ZS50 has the same viewfinder. Pretty much have to use the screen.

It takes good pictures but I wouldn't buy it for the viewfinder.

The ZS100 is a little too large for a pocket camera. The ZS50 is 10 mm thinner but same LxW.

Good info! The viewfinder is something I want to try but if it does not work out, no big deal. Yeah I know these are not pocket cameras but small enough to put in glove compartment/console and carry around compared to the much larger ones for my needs. Congrats on the new ZS100! Looks like a really sweet camera.

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
I have two Lumix cameras. They are my favorites.

DMC-ZS6 is one of them

Glad to hear the Lumix series is working out for you.

When I was looking for a pocket camera to compliment my Nikon D5300 I looked at a number of options including the Lumix XS50 and opted for the Sony HX90V. It's more expensive at around $450 but I've been very happy with it. The biggest plus was the pop-up viewfinder. It works well in sunlight which is what I was looking for. On the negative side, the camera doesn't have the shoot in raw option. Another plus is that it easily fits in a pocket. That is huge. If the price doesn't scare you off, I'd recommend that you take a look at it.


Jim

I have a GX7 Panasonic and a few Leica Panasonic primes. A bit more money but take a look at the Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 as well!

https://www.dpreview.com/revie...umix-dmc-zs200-tz200

Thank you Mikey for the info on processors above.