One Camera to Rule Them All?

[Mike Farley]

It's been around for some time now, but the Panasonic FZ1000 gets a good review based on real life usage from Kirk Tuck on his Visual Science blog.

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.co.uk/ ... html#links

The most direct competitor is the new Sony RX10 II which supposedly has a better sensor, but based on the reviews I have seen that does not make much difference to image quality. While the Sony's build quality might be better, the Panasonic is much less expensive and can currently be bought for around £520 on a cashback offer. Then lens goes from the equivalent of 24 - 400, is reasonably fast progressing from f/2.8 to f/4 as you go through the zoom range. Is this really all the camera most of us would need for the majority of our work?

[Mike Farley]

Kirk Tuck describes how he used the FZ1000 on a professional assignment and gives his view on its suitability as a replacement for a full frame DSLR.

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.co.uk/ ... ympus.html

The Leica V-Lux (Typ 114) is essentially a rebadged version of the FZ1000, the main differences being a longer warranty, a copy of Lightroom and a red dot to justify the higher price. Leica is happy to put its name on the camera, which should make you think. I have been extolling the virtues of smaller, lighter cameras for a while now as in many respects they are just as capable as DSLRs. Continuous AF performance is the main weakness, but that will improve, leaving just limited depth of field effects and maybe shooting at really high ISOs as the main benefits of a larger sensor.

[davidc]

I'm in negotiations with Panasonic to get my hands on some of their kit, hopefully this will be on the table.

[Mike Farley]

I'm in negotiations with Panasonic to get my hands on some of their kit, hopefully this will be on the table.

Fingers crossed that you succeed. My view is that Panasonic does not have an especially high profile and its kit is underrated. If you do get your mitts on a FZ1000, it will be interesting to see how much diffraction affects image quality on what is a relatively small sensor.