Best superzoom/bridge for photography + filming: 450-500USD

kluulz · Post by **kluulz** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 am

Lou Jost wrote:I like the FZ300 best, but if I wanted to do a lot of bird photography I'd choose the Sony. The Sony also has a simpler menu system. If you get the FZ300, and if you are not very familiar with it, its complexity may be frustrating. It is easy to press a wrong button and get lost.

With either camera, I would get a Raynox 150 close-up lens as an almost-required option for good close-up photography. You'll be glad you did.

Cheers Lou! Got myself the Sony for now. Right now I don't think I need to pay the double amount for the Panasonics. Perhaps in some years there'll be better bridge camera's with bigger sensors and longer zooms.

Regarding the Raynox DCR; are you able to do some filming with it? Macro filming, or is it only suitable for taking pictures?

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 5:17 am

I think you'll be happy with it. I haven't done macro filming but it should work fine.

BugEZ · Post by **BugEZ** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 7:05 pm

Looks like I have come to this thread a bit late as you have made your purchase. But as others may read this at some point in the near future (cameras change...) I'll toss in my thoughts.

Two years ago I purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40. I think it may go by another designation abroad. I am extremely happy with this compact camera. I bought it because it allows fairly high speed video (240 frames/s) at VGA resolution and 120 f/s at high def resolution. It has superb macro and takes images that rival my best results with my much heavier DSLR. I have not used a clip on lens to give it a bit more macro zoom capability but will have to try my Raynox lenses on it as has been suggested in this post.

Here is a link to a nice doli photo from my recent vacation. This was taken hand held with natural light.

P1280077 by Keith Short, on Flickr

And a link to a movie (using this camera) I made of a hike to see albatross flying in Hawaii. The slow motion video of the birds in flight is quite nice.
https://youtu.be/W3OM4uoAZmU

And lastly some video of bugs in flight... The frame rate is not high enough to show the fly wing motion. It does a great job on large helicopter rotors...

https://youtu.be/Lzexk3no0Js

This camera is still available new (~ $250 US) though I think it will go "extinct" from the new camera market soon.