Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 review

Performance
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 performed well in our tests, especially for a 10.1-megapixel superzoom. It took 1.1 seconds from start-up to capturing its first image, and thereafter took 1.2 seconds between shots without flash and 1.3 seconds with the flash turned on. Raw shooting slowed the shot-to-shot time to 4.5 seconds. Though it doesn't seem so, that's really impressive for a non-SLR digicam. Shutter lag measured 0.5 seconds in our high-contrast test, which mimics bright shooting conditions, and rose to 1 second in our low-contrast test, which replicates low-light surroundings. In burst mode, we were able to capture 5 VGA-size JPEGs in 1.69 seconds for an average of 2.96 frames per second, and 3 10.1-megapixel JPEGs in 1.6 seconds for an average of 1.87fps.

Shooting speed
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2

1.5 

2.6 

0.4 

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

1.7 

1.5 

0.4 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4

1.1 

2.8 

0.5 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50

1.2 

1.1 

0.5 

Kodak EasyShare P850

1.7 

4 

0.6 

 
Image quality
Overall, images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 were impressive, especially for a Panasonic, whose cameras tend to be noisier than this one. We still saw some noise, even at its lowest ISO, but some of this may have been worsened by compression artefacts, which showed up to turn some diagonal and curved lines jaggy. Exposures were generally accurate, and colours were well saturated. Also, we saw very little distortion from the lens at its midpoint and also at its furthest telephoto settings. At its widest, the lens showed some noticeable barrel distortion, though you'll probably notice it only if you're shooting something with straight lines, such as a tall building or a telephone mast. For a non-SLR lens, it's very sharp. We saw lots of crisp, fine detail in our shots at lower ISOs.

As we mentioned earlier, we saw some minor speckles of noise even at ISO 100, though it was mostly in shadows and darker colours. At ISO 200, it grew a little, but in both cases, it probably won't be noticeable in prints. At ISO 400, noise was more apparent and showed in all colours. We also noticed a slight fall-off in the sharpness of finer details. At ISO 800, noise was obvious, but images were still usable for prints, especially at smaller sizes. At ISO 1,600, we saw abundant noise and most fine detail was obliterated. We suggest that you shy away from using this setting and stick to lower ISOs. Despite this, we were pleased to see that Panasonic has started to make some headway in keeping noise under control in its cameras.

The automatic white balance turned in horribly warm images with our lab's tungsten lights. The tungsten preset was much better but still not totally neutral. Manual white balance yielded the best results. On the plus side, the camera does an excellent job of balancing fill flash with existing lights.

Though it's much bigger and more expensive, Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ50 offers serious competition to our current superzoom favourite, the Canon Power Shot S3 IS. This Lumix won't take away the S3 IS's crown, but it's worth a look if you can get over its large size and somewhat bloated price tag.