I've done it... And ordered an FZ1000

[luxborealis]

For years, I pined for the quality of my previous 4x5 work in digital and celebrated the day when I finally purchased at D800E. I love the quality, the detail, the DR! But, alas, it's a lot of equipment to carry around when on the move travelling, so...

I am foregoing quality for the convenience of having a "walk about" camera. In one sense, I feel treasonous, but am reminded that the best camera is the one in hand. I figure, if I'm hand-holding my D800E with a walk-about zoom, then I'm not getting the full IQ anyway.

Here's hoping the 1" sensor will meet my minimum standards of IQ for prints and books. From the testing I've done, I believe so. I also need to remind myself that I have three wonderful 16x20s shot with a 5mp Minolta Dimage 7i hanging in my home, plus one shot with a 5mp E-1 and another with a 12mp E-30.

My more serious personal work will still be done on a tripod with the DSLR, so it will be like going back to my 4x5 days with the 35mm gear for the less serious work.

Maybe this is just part of the future as technology and software progress.

[armand]

It's a good camera, very versatile. You will find yourself limited at times (either by the F2.8, either by the so so higher iso); that being said it's a good option for most casual outdoors and I have some 15x20 canvas printed from it.

[kirktuck]

I bought two of the fz 1000 cameras this year. I have used them as both "A" and "B" video cameras on projects and they were both very good for the kinds of projects I used them for. Mostly shooting very fluid, handheld food footage (preparation) in restaurants. The IS is nearly as good as that in my Olympus EM5-2 cameras and the lens is good. I trust them up to about ISO 640 for just about any kind of work but they are at their best in good light. My most recent project with them took advantage of the 400mm equivalent reach to photograph slices of downtown buildings against bright blue skies with a polarizer on the front of the lens. It was the perfect camera for the project. Shooting ISO 125 and working with good technique gave me images I could easily blow up to 12 by 18 and be comfortable with. At the current price of $750 I considered them great value even if I ended up only using them for the UHD video. Hope you have fun with yours!

[razrblck]

Sometimes I miss shooting with my old Nikon Coolpix 5400. It was a bit of a pain to use because of the tiny screen and messy menus, but with the RAW file output and in good light it was an amazing compact camera!

[armand]

Panasonic also launched the ZS100 which could be a very nice travel camera and it's much more compact than the FZ1000; so far I'm using the latter mostly as a car camera (meaning the camera that's always in the car when I drive) and for that purpose it works quite well.

[luxborealis]

Panasonic also launched the ZS100 which could be a very nice travel camera and it's much more compact than the FZ1000; so far I'm using the latter mostly as a car camera (meaning the camera that's always in the car when I drive) and for that purpose it works quite well.

Yes, the ZS100 does look good, but I'm a bit surprised that after a year and a half, it doesn't look much more feature-rich than the FZ1000.

[Jcradford]

Have had my FZ1000 several years esp for sports, some travels and car camera.  Love the reach, mobility and the 4K.  Also shoot with Sony a6000 and A7RII.  Best Buy in photography.  Tradeoffs is some noise and poor in low lite.  Good Leica lens.