seej wrote:Also on this video, I'm not sure what part of it is the FZ200 (it is a mix of iphone 5, Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ28 and fz200), there is major pixelation at 4:00 or so with the flashes. I would be terrified if my photos turned out this way!?...Is there are way to fix this, bearing in mind that it is a video as opposed to a still.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVU2F4MRsl4.
The vid here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx1Zxu9EFDg shows the canon with lightning. It might be better with the forked lightning but looks terribly pixelated with the sheet lightning. Again would this be an issue when taking exposed stills of the forks? Or is it just a movie issue?
Hard to compare the 2 videos without more informations about the settings, look up on Flickr instead as you can access the EXIF file if users allowed it. It would show you whether they are shooting in manual mode or not, with auto white balance or not (no camera really does too great on night storms), compensated colors/contrats or not, etc ... But the first video is actually pretty good whether shot with an iPhone, FZ28 or FZ200 ! Bear in mind YouTube does process videos before putting them online, I don't know how that affects their quality.
It's really difficult to choose!! I'm pulling my hair out as it's such a big investment for me. Bearing in mind I want to use this camera when I go to America with a music group for touristy snaps etc, but also when I get back for night shots, of the moon specifically, though may do moon light pictures and maybe stars, I'll have a tripod, my budget is approx $600, I want to take pics of birds, bugs and wildlife, people and clouds and night time forked lightning if possible. I'm not sure I care for the huge zoom, but then again I'm not really sure what it is good for anyway as all the zooms I've ever used in the past are wobbly and end up pixelated.
Lol, welcome to the wonderful world of photography ! Imagine how many hours of thinking and reading and browsing on the net I needed to decide how I would invest nearly $15k in my DSLR gear and subsequently plan my life to earn that much money ... it did involve a few headaches, trust me !
First thing first, by choosing a compact you are immediately limited on quality and possibilities. Nothing is impossible, you can shoot everything you mentioned above, but it may not meet your expectations quality-wise. You have to compromise somewhere, and I would suggest you narrow down what you reaaaaaally want to shoot and buy in consequence. The SX1 couldn't do anything interesting in astrophotography, so I put that on hold and waited to have a better camera. I haven't seen what the SX50 is capable of on the Moon, but bear in mind that the diameter of your lens' front element is what brings resolution/sharpness, and compact cameras have small optics. No matter what magic their internal firmware can do (the SX50 is better than the FZ200 on that !) it will never match what bigger lenses can do on enthusiasts/pro DSLRs ... if you're OK with that then you're sorted, get yourself a SX50 and have fun. You will find out whether you want more or not, and might have been wise not to spend on a DSLR.
Now if you want to skip the point'n'shoots, Tim mentioned the 1000D and it's indeed a good entry-level camera (the 60D is out of reach for $600), and I see there's a brand new (?) one for sale on TradeMe for $625, and there's a second hand one for $300. There are also second hand Nikon D90 + lens for $500, Canon 500D + twin lens kit for the same sort of price, etc ... so you could get yourself a DSLR if you want to, though the lens(es) you'll get will limit what you can do as opposed to the massive range of the SX50 ... compromises, once again.
Back to the point'n'shoots I see Photo & Video International has a second hand SX30 for $295, and on TradeMe there's one too for $410 (with a 16GB memory card).
The Earth has music for those who listen.
