Panasonic FZ1000 or ILC plus vacation zoom ?

FZ1000 Canberra-2

ILC:  Interchangeable Lens Camera.

MILC:  Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera.

DSLR:  Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera.

FZLC:Fixed Zoom Lens Camera.

Many people,  myself included, want a camera for vacation/holiday/travel use. The last thing I want on vacation is to be changing lenses.

As I go  out and about it is clear that many others have the same idea. Most vacationers/tourists and similar use a smart phone. Those with a camera mostly pick an entry level fixed zoom lens camera (FZLC).

I recently returned from a tagalong vehicle crossing of the Simpson Desert in Central Australia. Two of the eight couples in our convoy had high end full frame DSLRs with a backpack full of expensive lenses and a big tripod.

They missed almost every photo opportunity along the way.

The reason is simple logistics. It was simply too much trouble to stop, go around to the storage area of the vehicle, haul out the backpack containing the photo gear, unzip the backpack, select a lens, mount it and make the photo.

My partner and I had his-n-hers FZ1000’s and I also had an LX100 all ready for immediate use in the console between the seats. We were able to respond to photo ops as they arose.

FZ1000 Cafe de wheels (sans wheels)

Until recently  the best ‘all-in-one’ camera kit was probably a DSLR or a MILC with vacation zoom mounted for the duration of the trip.

Then Sony introduced the RX10 with (equivalent) 24-200mm f2.8 lens and Panasonic soon followed with the FZ1000, using the same sensor with a much longer zoom range and improvements to ergonomics and performance.

These cameras suddenly presented a viable alternative to the ILC+vacation zoom.

I notice on user forums increasing numbers of contributors debating this question: 

“Which is better for me, the FZ1000 or an ILC with a long zoom lens (a.k.a. vacation zoom) more or less permanently mounted ?”

The answer to the question will depend on individual preferences of course but a specifications comparison table can be drawn up easily enough.

I also offer some discussion about the relative merits of the two alternatives having had considerable experience with both DSLR and MILC types

Data Summary

Model	Sensor Size Diagonal mm	Sensor Mpx	Sensor DXO score	DXO Lens sharpness score	Lens focal length equiv	Lens aperture	Price retail Sydney AUD	Mass grams
Panasonic FZ1000	15.9	20	64	N/A	25-400	2.8-4.0	1059	831
Panasonic GH4 + 14-140mm	21.5	16	74	6P-Mpx	28-280	3.5-5.6	2191	1020
Nikon D550 + 18-300mm	28	24	84	9P-Mpx	27-450	3.5-6.3	1799	970
Sony A7(2) + 24-240mm	43	24	90	9P-Mpx	24-240	3.5-6.3	3395	1336

FZ1000 Graffiti or art ?

Comment

I have selected one kit each from the M43, APS-C and Full Frame sensor groups for comparison, each with a travel/vacation zoom from the same maker as the body.

You can see that the FZ1000 is the lightest and least expensive option.

But does it have good enough picture quality and performance to replace any or all of the ILC kits ?

This question is not so easily answered as several factors come into play related to both the user and the camera kit.

Sensor scores vs lens sharpness

I do not want to get into debate here about the validity of DXO Mark scores. For the purposes of this discussion I will just take them as given.

Perusal of the DXO Mark sensor scores might have one thinking the Sony full frame camera would make the best pictures.  It certainly represents a brave attempt on Sony’s part to bring full frame photography into the vacation/travel arena with a reasonably compact 10x zoom lens.

But wait, that 24-240mm lens has a really bad sharpness score of 9 Perceptual Megapixels (look it up on dxo.com)  one of the worst full frame lenses tested by DXO and that was on a 36 Mpx camera.  

That score means the lens can only resolve a quarter of the pixels on the sensor, which it seems to me completely defeats the purpose of going full frame in the first place.

In addition the A7(2) has the same loud,  shock inducing shutter as the original A7, further degrading picture quality at some shutter speeds. Check out Sony user forums for further discussion about this.

Update August 2015:  Sony FE mount A7 series cameras subsequent to the original have electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS) which eliminates shutter shock.

FZ1000   No ultrawide lens ? No problem. This was made with the in camera auto stitching panorama function.

Sensor scores vs lens aperture

In the world of DXO Mark sensor scores 15 points is equivalent to 1 EV performance, which is mostly a measure of digital noise.

The Nikon D5500 has a score of 84 which puts it 20 points ahead of the FZ1000, equivalent to 1.3 EV steps or stops.

Now check out the lens aperture range. This is 0.6 stops slower than the FZ1000 at the wide end and 1.3 stops slower at the long end. An average of about 1 stop.

If one was to use each camera at the same f stop the D5500 would be 1.3 stops better than the FZ1000.

But in practice the FZ1000 will usually be operating at an aperture about 1 stop wider than the D5500.  In landscape and similar  situations it can achieve the same depth of focus at an aperture two stops wider than the D5500.

Therefore it can use an ISO setting 1 or 2 steps lower, thereby largely negating the sensor noise advantage of the D5500.

This leaves the D5500 with a small megapixel advantage on the sensor which the lens, at 9 Perceptual Mpx,  cannot match.  The lens does not allow the sensor to express its potential.

I have not had the opportunity to directly compare the FZ1000 lens with the Nikon 18-300mm lens. 

But from reading lens test reports I have the impression that they would deliver similar levels of sharpness in the frame center with the FZ1000 maybe better at the edges. Unfortunately I have not seen much in the way of published formal tests of the FZ1000 lens but I have made thousands of photos with it and am able to confirm that  it is very good.

Camerastuffreview.com  published a FZ1000 review in October 2014 stating  that the FZ1000 lens was better than any of the vacation zooms for ILCs which they had tested. But that review contains uncorrected errors (like saying the zoom range is 14x when it is in fact 16x) which diminish my confidence in the review.

What about the M43 kit ?

I selected the GH4+14-140mm combination because I have considerable experience with this as a vacation/travel combination and have tested it against the FZ1000.

I found that the GH4 at ISO 6400 has about 0.6 EV steps less noise than the FZ1000. This is pretty much exactly in line with the DXO mark score difference of 10 points.

The 14-140mm lens is inferior to that on the FZ1000 in three ways:

* It has a smaller 10x vs 16x zoom range.

* It has a smaller aperture averaging about 1 stop across the focal length range which often  requires a higher ISO setting from the camera thereby negating the initial small sensor advantage.

* The FZ1000 lens delivers better sharpness and resolution across the range of focal lengths and apertures, center, edges and corners.

So I sold the M43 kit with no regrets.

Summary:  It might seem obvious to some people who sell and buy cameras that a full frame model would deliver better results than one with the next sensor size down and so on through the sensor size range.

But in practice the obvious is not obvious at all.

Of course the Sony A7 can make better pictures than a camera with a smaller sensor but only with one of the good lenses which are mostly large, heavy, expensive primes.

The D5500 kit actually runs quite close to the FZ1000 in mass although it is larger and more expensive. The picture quality will be better in some circumstances but not in all, depending on the aperture and ISO settings required for the conditions.  

Plus the D5500 is a DSLR with all that entails including the flipping mirror, small optical viewfinder which makes manual focussing very difficult and complete inability to segue smoothly from eye level view to monitor view.

The GH4 with 14-140mm is a good travel kit which I have used a lot. But the FZ1000 is a bit better in almost all circumstances at half the price.

So, I keep happily using the FZ1000 which keeps on making excellent photos.