Sorry if it’s not an MFT news, but I think it’s a very curious thing Panasonic announced today:
In the world of digital cameras you can fin the Megapixel race, the ISO race, the Miniaturization race and we also have the Superzoom race. Today Panasonic announced the 60x (!) zoom FZ70 camera (here at Amazon). Guys…that’s a 20-1200mm lens! Someone here on 43rumors that is going to buy this?
55 Responses
How big would a m43 20-1200mm lens be??? (same F stops)
Because that is more range than if you got all the m43 lenses… ok not quite as wide but 2x more zoom!
My FT/mFT/range is from 7mm to 700mm. It’s 100x. And I don’t get the Sigmonster. With that and the EC20, it’s 228x. Okay, then I need a sherpa too, but..nothing is impossible with a E-M5….
How do you get 7mm equiv on an E-M5 ?
Or if you have a 7mm (14mm equiv), what’s your 700mm lens ?
no m43 is 14-600mm using current native lenses so only 42.8x zoom!
I only use my Panasonic 20mm f/1.7. So that’s 1X for me. Who’s the daddy?
I’m obviously on the “prime camp” and zoom sucks!!
(Just to clarify, I love all things photographic, and zooms don’t suck, it’s just that primes are better :p)
This big: http://www.43rumors.com/oh-wait-this-is-the-biggest-lens-ever-used-on-a-mft-camera/ ?
Oh cool! I´d like to get a 20-1200mm 2,0 for mft! 😉
It would be interesting to see.
For Four-Thirds, Sigma had a 50-500mm zoom, casually called Bigma, and then they also had a 300-800mm zoom lens.
It would be interesting to see an Olympus E-PM2 attached to either of those using an adapter.
Cool, I may actually buy it.
The bigger the better! 🙂
I might buy this one…if the aperture is not too small with full zoom and the picture quality is reasonable.
I was looking at the Lumix LX7 as my first foray into digits from velvia/zeiss etc. The LX7 has a Leica f1.4-2.3, 24-90mm equiv. Then this comes along. I’ll need to wait for a comparison on photo quality.
The thing is, once I see images from a larger sensor camera, all superzooms and cheap compacts just produce output that look like rubbish.
It’s the FZ70, replacement of the FZ60, not the FZ270.
Your Adorama link goes to the FZ70 but your Amazon link is dead.
-eyalg
sorry. Fixed! Thanks!
Depends on the image quality and low light performance , if its not more than 400€ I would consider it
Perfect for voyeurs, in my opinion, and probably useful as a travel company camera, if the owner is happy with its performance.. No, I’m not interested in it, but I’m curious to see the IQ delivered.
mmmm beach cam?
Now, now! 😉
for surfing photos!
I am curious about the tele end’s result used in honest condition, as in on a small and light travel tripod, used with delay.
Somewhere in the middle is decent image quality?
I would be happy if a m43 lens would hav2 20-120mm (in a rel. small shape)
Yeah, that would be nice. Even 22-75, and faster than 12-50.
I mean 11-75.
At least it has more wide angle, which has been missing from the superzooms…
LOL, with the pictured DMW-LT55 teleconverter added on you get an insane 2040mm equivalent on the long end…
20 mm on the wide end, at f/2.8, is actually very useful and extends superzooms into a whole new market. 1200 mm at f/5.9 is an interesting curiosity and would require a sturdy tripod not to fall forward, and a remote release.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 (or FZ72 in some countries):
– no input for external microphone, no GPS, no WiFi
– F2.8-5.9, photo 20–1200mm, video 22-1320 mm
– with the new lens adapter + lens teleconverter (DMW-LT55 + DMW-LA8) the range becomes: photo 1190-2040mm, video 1309-2244mm !
Competitors (all: no input for external microphone, no GPS, no WiFi):
– Sony DSC-HX300: F2.8-6.3, photo 24-1200mm, video 26-1300mm
– Fuji SL1000: F2.9-6.5, photo 24-1200mm
– Canon SX50 HS: F3.4-6.5, photo 24-1200mm
These cameras have a 60x or 50x zoom and I ask you if it is possible to make a camera with the same zoom but starting from 200mm, this will be 200mm*60=12000mm !
For under 200mm already exists high-end compact cameras with bigger sensors: Sony DSC-RX100 II (28–100 mm), Canon G1X (28–112 mm), Nikon P330 (24–120 mm), Nikon P7700 (28–200 mm), Panasonic DMC-LF1 (28-200 mm).
It is better to have a high-end compact camera for under 200mm with a bigger sensor (1″, 1.5″, 1/1.7″ sensors) and a second compact camera for over 200mm (with 1/2.3″ sensor).
get a Pentax Q with adapter!
Good idea! I have a 300mm F4 for Minolta, with my 2x teleconverter that is 600mm * cropfactor of 5.64, a hefty 3384mm equivalent! 🙂
Sony RX100 has only 2nd-3rd tier color according to Ken Rockwell. He should know, he disigned the color chip.
If they made a camera with LX7 sensor and 24-240mm equivalent F2 zoom, it would be as big, but would sell much better. But they’ll make that only if someone else makes it first :(.
People buying these cameras don’t know what F2 means, but they know what 60x zoom means. That 24-240mm F2 would sell much better among 4/3 rumors readers, but overall a 60x zoom is much easier to sell to the general public.
Really doubt it, doesn’t look like many people need such a thing. Selling point of lx is small size, yet good performance. If it’s this big, why not use a proper camera to begin with. You get better result with any m43 at f5.6 and higher iso than that tiny lx7 sensor could do at f2.
Well, that’s only a little true. The LX7 has 1/5 the area of a m43, or 2.24 stops. So the LX7 in m43 terms is about 12-45mm f/3.1-5.0.
As a result, you can expect the LX7 should be about the same or maybe better than m43 at f/5.6, in terms of light performance. The comparison beyond that isn’t trivial, but there will be cases where the LX7 beats the m43, and it’s likely going to be fairly close otherwise.
(Kinda puts m43’s slow/kit zooms into perspective…)
only f/5.9 at 1200mm?
… mostly useless because of the small sensor. Look at the dpreview comparison images for similar cameras – iq is light years away even from other point&shoot cameras like the Nikon Coolpix p7700. I will stay with my mft, I had the old model for a test and sent it back.
Apart from a few Fuji cameras, all superzooms have a 1/2.3″ sensor. The crop factor makes it much easier to have a long zoom.
It would be nice to see something like the FZ200 with the sensor from the LF1 though. 20x constant f/2.8 zoom. A 25-500mm equivalent with good IQ…
But the bigger the sensor you put in there, the more it costs and the bigger the lens and camera gets. Look at the Fuji XS-1. 26x zoom with a 2/3 sensor, but it is nearly the size of a DSLR.
Pany is just matching the 24-1200 superzooms the competition like Sony, Canon, and Fuji are offering as Camerak has noted and then some as this FZ70 at 20-1200/f2.8-5.9 goes wider and faster and costs only $399! The pity is it uses a lower resolution 200k EVF not the fast 400k higher resolution EVF of the FZ200 and uses a 400k LCD screen to keep cost down. Reportedly this camera has a very capable microphone input and the lens is super with many high tech optic lens elements. Hope admin posts a picture or two of this camera in its normal retracted size. Just take a look over on DPR for a preview of this camera.
Really, 200k EVF? Sad. I’d have considered this if it were a better EVF. I’ve had the Canon SX50 before, and the only reason I sold it was the abysmal viewfinder.
Seems like a versatile camera, from birdwatching to architecture to photos of the moon. I’ve never been able to afford a lens that wide for MFT. I’m stuck with the 14mm (28 equiv).
Pany, I wrote to Santa my wish for my m43 camera. I keep my fingers crossed 😉
This is a very welcome addition to the marvelous FZ series! I cover 14-600mm with three FT/mFT cameras that I carry simultaneously, so why not almost twice more using one – if conditions do not permit three cameras? I have a FZ5 which is a great camera, still functional, has great colours due to the Leica lens – and I use it from time to time with pleasure.
No Leica lens. Telltale sign I think. But clever: this is for those who are blinded by a large zoom range. Let’s hope for the superzoom-users that the FZ-250 has a 10-12 MPixel sensor and a 24-480 mm range Leica with something like a 1/1.8 sensor (if that is possible). So people have decent IQ.
Sample photos:
http://www.optyczne.pl/6013-nowo%C5%9B%C4%87-Panasonic_Lumix_DMC-FZ70_-_przyk%C5%82adowe_zdj%C4%99cia.html
215mm looks terrible
What you’re seeing there is atmospheric disturbance. Air has variable density depending on temperature and humidity and is constantly swirling about from wind and thermal currents. This leads to those wobbly spots. Longer lenses pick them up more often because you are usually shooting through more air with more magnification, but you can still get them shooing a wide lens, say, over a black parking lot on a sunny day. You can read a bit more here:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51533319
They seemed to have picked an exceptionally bad day too: you can see it a little around 38mm (200mm equiv), and it only gets worse as you zoom in (naturally). If you look at the grass shot at 21mm you’ll see there are no distortions because the target is much closer.
It’s a shame they don’t have any morning/evening/indoor/close shots at high zoom. Still, if you ignore the atmospherics it looks really quite good. Look at how well it resolves the leaves on the bushes in front of the house or the window shade. It’s not fantastic, sure, but getting a fantastic shot at that magnification is very difficult… I doubt that, say, a 400mm f/5.6 + 2x TC + 1.4x TC for a ~$2000 1120mm f/16 would even be that good and it certainly wouldn’t focus.
I can see Pany producing another upgraded camera maybe the FZ250 similar to this FZ70 but with 20-600mm/2.8-4 range with 1/1.7″ sensor and higher resolution EVF?
There seems to be a lot of interest in this FZ70 camera over in DPR especially because of its wide 20mm range. People seem to forget that in US at least these FZ cameras are even more popular than m4/3 model cameras judging from the sales so Pany paying a lot of attention to that segment. I don’t think you will every see a iphone or m4/3 camera with that range.
You need a somewhat better IQ? You get, e.g., an Olympus FT/mFT with 70-300 and x2 adapter. But in a much more awkward and heavy package. Why not get this FZ Panasonic if it works acceptably fine? I presume one probably never gets a decent 1200mm picture from a DSLR anyway. Unless for some exorbitant price and/or some NASA technology. Excuse my lack of experience and ignorance but I have never seen a 1200mm picture – will appreciate comments on the possibilities.
Note: This FZ camera does not have the Leica-branded lens like other FZ cameras.
That’s bad.
JK Kodak still has the longest superzoom at 1240mm equivalent.
WONDERFUL!!! MINE IS BIGGER THAN YOURS!!! So there!
The insanity has shifted from the megapixel race to the millimeter race!
Surely that’s gotta be mainly targeted at birdwatchers who can’t afford an ILC and are tired of holding their P&S up to a scope.
I actually know one of the kind of guy who might buy it, but man, that thing is a monstrosity.
Wow the 20mm equivalent is a huge step forward in travel usability!
Great move.
I would be interested in seeing the f-stop progression throughout the zoom range.
How quickly does it end up dark and hits the far end of the f-stop range.
Looking forward so seeing how RAW files can be manipulated to.