Panasonic FZ1000 For the Birds

GH4 with 100-300mm

FZ1000

Both these photos are heavily cropped from the original frame. The bird is a bit larger in the FZ1000 version as that camera was using E800mm while the GH4+100-300 was using E600mm and the FZ1000 sensor has more pixels.  The photographers were standing close together and the birds were about the same distance from the camera in each case.

 

FZ1000 + i-Zoom vs GH4 + 100-300mm lens

I recently testedThe FZ1000 at the long end of it's zoom compared with  a Lumix 100-300mm lens mounted to a Panasonic GH4 body.  For this  I used a test chart consisting of repeating pages of fine print.  I had each camera on a tripod and used  timer delay to release the shutter.

I found the two rigs to produce very similar and by the way really excellent results in the focal length range E100 - E300 mm.

But at E400mm which is the maximum optical zoom for the FZ1000, the 100-300mm lens on GH4 drew slightly ahead, with a bit more  microcontrast across the frame and slightly crisper corners.

At E600mm the 100-300mm lens was at the end of it's optical zoom range and the FZ1000 was well into i-Zoom range. Here the 100-300mm lens was clearly superior across the frame with better resolution of fine details.

A family memberis very keen to photograph birds in their natural habitat.

Following my initial testing I thought that the GH4+100-300mm kit would be the obvious choice for this duty.

However birds are not test charts and  the circumstances of wild  bird photography are very different from those which prevail for  test photos.

So we went to a place where birds are common. I had the FZ1000 with i-Zoom enabled. She had the GH4 with 100-300mm lens mounted. We would be using both cameras hand held in the open with no hide. We would concentrate on the little birds as they are the most difficult to photograph.  We swapped cameras from time to time.

The user experience  The GH4 with 100-300mm lens is really quite small and light compared to full frame kits but the FZ1000 is even lighter. This made the FZ1000 easier to hold and operate. The person with the smaller camera got the bird in frame more easily than the person with the larger kit.

The FZ1000 has a more effective image stabiliser than the 100-300mm lens. This means it is easier to hold the live view screen steady on the subject while framing and focussing. 

The GH4 is generally a super fast focussing camera but the 100-300mm lens has been on the market for a few years and is starting to show it's age in the technological sense. The lens is a bit slower to focus than the FZ1000 and that made getting the shot more difficult.

Again, birds are not test charts. The requirement for birds is not so much for vast amounts of fine detail but for good contrast at a somewhat coarser level, together with fast, accurate focus and fast operation.

The FZ1000 was operating at f4, the GH4/100-300 at f5.6. This allowed for potentially higher shutter speeds on the FZ1000, if required.

Results  I just show two examples here to illustrate that the photos show very little difference between the two cameras. This was a bit surprising to me given the superiority of the GH4/100-300mm on the test chart. Neither  photo is one I would want to frame and mount on the wall. But they are decent enough at small print size and show that the FZ1000 can deliver quite  acceptable results at the limit of it's i-Zoom range which is a focal length of E800mm.