Eeyore's Birthday Party. Austin, Texas.
Loving the sunglasses.
The beauty of a camera with a very good, small sensor is its ability to have a very long zoom range along with amazingly good image stabilization. Being able to "pluck" beautiful photographs from a sea of people is just....cool.
The two cameras I can recommend for this are the Sony RX10 series (iii and iv) and the Panasonic FZ2500. Used well both can deliver very good and visually interesting results.
The FZ1000 has been providing the food for my table (magazine article work) for about the last 3-years. It's the Swiss army knife of cameras. Not the best at everything but easily good enough for most applications..... But a super portable, handy 25-400mm package when you need to be mobile and unencumbered by 2 cameras
ReplyDeleteI too use aPanasonic FZ1000 to great effect. However, the light weight and the image of a camera filled with delicate, spidery little plastic bits makes anxious.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea if the Sony is any sturdier but it feels sturdier.
The solution of course, is to bring two. At current prices that would still be less than most FF cameras.
On a recent trip to Morocco, I left my Fuji/Nikon gear at home and took a RX10iv instead. Aside from my struggles with the menu system and learning to live with the camera's quirks, it did an admirable job. And, it was freeing to not have to choose what body or lens to use in the moment. I would do it again.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your assessment of the RX10iii. An additional advantage of this marvelous Swiss army knife is that you can complement it with whatever very specific fancy equipment you want to carry along, for instance an FF camera with only an ultrawide zoom or a prime, and rest assured that you will be able to cover the unexpected.
ReplyDeleteThe sony rx10 iv is quite expensive, though. You would be better served by an oly epm10 ii or iii equipped with the 14-150 or 12-100 zooms. It has the same versatility and allows you to have other lenses also, which may open at f:1.2 or f:1.8, thus compensating for the low aperture of the zooms.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason many camera/photography enthusiasts avoid these impressive Bridge cameras. Not being a pro myself? If I could just have one camera to carry out my creative aspirations? A Sony or Panasonic long reach bridge would be it. I too have a favorite street scene of a young couple from some distance away. Looks great to me.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your assessment of the RX10iii. An additional advantage of this marvelous Swiss army knife is that you can complement it with whatever very specific fancy equipment you want to carry along, for instance an FF camera with only an ultrawide zoom or a prime, and rest assured that you will be able to cover the unexpected.
ReplyDeleteBratPix. I carry a LX100 as a back-up and to use wider open at 50-75mm for portraits. Most of my article work is on farms and you are on and off ATV's, tractors etc all the time. One minute you're photographing a farmer at work close up' then you see an animal out in the paddock doing something interesting; so easy with the FZ1000.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to be lugging around 2 FF cameras with a 24-70 and a 70-210! I've often shot stories just with the LX100!
One disadvantage with the FZ1000 is the dynamic range on bright days around midday as sometimes you can't do things at a more suitable time. But even so; using DXO Photolab 2 sorta evens out the playing field. It really shines with the 1" sensor cameras. It makes tem punch well above their weight.
My FZ1000 has made me a lot of very nice photos. In addition to everything mentioned above, I like having native flash sync at high shutter speeds. Great for mixing flash with sunlight.
ReplyDeleteI have thought of adding something like an LX100 as a more compact carry around camera and backup.
I keep hoping someone will take the computer magic they use in cell phones and apply it to a 1-inch sensor. That could be a killer.