I need your guidance

[GrahamNfk]

Ok, so as you recall I bought a Lumix G1 to use with my old Pentax-110 lenses, CCTV lenses, and the homebrew macro. You'll recall I then flogged it again after not achieving pleasing image quality.

 

Since then I went back to my mate locally and shot similar pix with the same lenses on his Oly E-PL1, and they were superb. So I reckon ditching the G1 was a good move.

 

Because I can't afford an E-PL1, and much less the add-on EVF, I decided to go back through my photo collection and see what stop-gap camera I liked. Things like the Fuji S6500 and S9600, both small-sensor bridges, were loads good enough. I failed to then track one down (they've risen in price on Fleabay) so went searching.

 

I unearthed a Canon Powershot SX20 in a pawn shop, so came home and read the reviews (a note at this point - Photographyblog reviews are a series of "copy and paste" paragraphs and have proved to have little reflection on the camera being reviewed!)

 

Based on that and a dpreview write-up, I went back and paid my fifty quid for the SX20 and left happy enough (it's a spotlessly clean example). Got home, tried it, and it's bloomin' awful 

 

Image quality is, frankly, smudgy Filling the frame with a small object - as with most cameras - is very acceptable. The images are soft too, with no adjustable in-camera sharpening. I'm set to 12MP and the least compression (Fine setting). Contrast is generally low.

 

On the upside, the video quality is excellent (useful as I make lots of Youtube vids)

 

I really fell like giving the whole thing up 

 

Question is, do I just give up and wait until I can afford a decent Oly M4/3, and flog the Canon and continue my search? If I do the latter, I'd really welcome personal experiences of bridge cameras that are currently available secondhand int eh "up to 80 quid" bracket.

 

I can't go back to dSLRS as I just can use the viewfinders these days (which are invariably dark on lower-end stuff)

 

Graham (wot's gettin' 'orriby frustrated) 

 

[FUJI]

Hi, Graham ( wots gettin orribly frustrated)

The micro four thirds camera, I purchased for just £150 complete with kit lens was a PANASONIC GF1 ......I use it with a whole variety of lenses....my latest posts gave all been taken with it, many if them with the twenty quid CCTV lens.

Place of purchase?.......A local branch of the CEX second hand store......all goods purchased have a 12 month guarantee too.

I love the camera, it has super fast focussing, the jog wheel presses in to magnify the subject when focussing manually.

FUJI

[GrahamNfk]

Yes, I confess your results were all part of my decision-making process when I went for the G1 - I reckoned that if your results were typical of Panasonic, I'd be making a safe bet. It's all most peculiar. I've not written Panasonic off, but when I scout the pawn shops in future I think I'll take a lens and memory card and ask to do a few test shots.

 

BTW, as an aside, I adore my CCTV lens that you put me on to. I used it to take some Ebay photos and the detail (after fettling) was crackingly good.

[ChrisLumix]

Judging by your experience both with the SX20 and the G1, I'm tempted to repeat my earlier observation that it's incompatibility between the lenses you want to use with them, and the camera in question. Unless you're saying that the SX20 was 'orrible with its OWN lens?  

[Leon]

2nd hand FZ45/HS20 bridge maybe?

 

or is a bridge out of the question? ....quite a few on here have Lumix bridge cameras, I really regret selling mine

[Black Pearl]

Post a few examples of what you're achieving with it.

[GrahamNfk]

Post a few examples of what you're achieving with it.

Will do. I have an empty schedule for tomorrow so will do some examples.

[GrahamNfk]

Judging by your experience both with the SX20 and the G1, I'm tempted to repeat my earlier observation that it's incompatibility between the lenses you want to use with them, and the camera in question. Unless you're saying that the SX20 was 'orrible with its OWN lens?  

SX20 is a bridge, so has a built-in non-interchangeable. I'd intended it to be a stop-gap until much later in the year and replace it then with sommat that works well with my lenses.

[ChrisLumix]

SX20 is a bridge, so has a built-in non-interchangeable. I'd intended it to be a stop-gap until much later in the year and replace it then with sommat that works well with my lenses.

 

Bridge cameras - and especially their tiny teeny sensors - do take some getting used to, but as mine was (still is) my first digicam, it did a good job for me. My previous was a once-state-of-the-art Minolta 35mm SLR so there was a huge learning curve. I'd now only consider upgrading to an enthusiast compact - as the LX5 was, and one of the best ever as I understand.

[GrahamNfk]

Some test shots. These are the same targets I use when 'getting to know' a lens. All were taken with IS switched on, and me/camera pressed against the side of the shed for added stability. full image then a crop.

 

The grass has turned into a green smear, as has most detail, and the chimney has almost no detail at all. As you can see from the tree, CA is something the lens excels at.

 

Perhaps I'm expecting too much from what is, afterall, a compact on steroids.

 

Whole frame:

 

Crop:

 

Whole frame:

 

Crop:

Edited January 31, 2014 by GrahamNfk

[Black Pearl]

The smearing of detail in the grass is common on all small sensors, they do the same to distant detail in landscape shots.

The bricks though just need some output sharpening and a fair bit of 'detail' will emerge.

[ChrisLumix]

Yes, I'd echo what BP says - it's unfair to say the chimney (a distant silhouetted object in the original) has 'almost no detail'. I can see quite a lot of detail, it just needs some unsharp mask to bring it out more fully. I'm afraid the Canon superzooms are notorious for CA compared to Panasonic where it's pretty much controlled, but at the expense of noise at full zoom.

 

Here are some Lumix FZ38 pictures which I hope make the point :

 

First is the full picture (reduced obviously to upload here); the second is an extreme crop at its full size, and the third is the same crop with sharpening applied in iPhoto (possibly over-sharpened, but I just wanted to make the point).

 

[GrahamNfk]

I'll do more playing in the editor, but from what I'm seeing so far, the Canon is lagging way behind the Panasonic.

 

Thanks for the comparison images, most useful.