Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 and motorsport

chrislusty

chrislusty

chrislusty

Associate
Joined
14 Jul 2004
Posts
1,465
Location
Caerphilly - S.Wales
Hi guys

I have been looking at "bridge" cameras and have narrowed it down to either the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 of the S9600 or S6500

What are these like at action shots? i know that on the camera i have now, HP R707, when you press the shutter button there us a slight delay (less than a second) when taking the pic. so sometimes you can miss the subject, this is also the case on other cameras, maybe its me :D

Any way, the point is, what are these cameras like, im going to watch Moto GP in donington later this year, so some good pics would be nice.

Cheers
 
I use to have the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4 (when it was still a current camera) before I went DSLR. I used it a Goodwood FOS and it was a challenge to get a good moving photo. As you say the "shutter lag" is a problem with 1 second lag not being uncommon. I ended up shooting a burst rather than trying to get the single shot I was looking for. The other big problem I has was the focusing; a fair few of my shots I ended up with the camera mis-focusing.

Looking at the FZ8 on dpreview and it looks like they have tried to address some of these issues with 3 point "high speed" autofocusing bringing half-press "shutter lag" down to 0.5s.

You really have to work around the limitation of the camera. Try to get a good position when you can see the bikes coming to setup yourself up and pan them into where you want to take pictures to give the camera a chance to focus on them and then shoot a burst. Side on shots will be difficult unless they are braking into a corner or taken at a wide angle. Shooting head on shots would produce better results.

As bridge camera go, I like the Panasonic Lumix range. The image stabilisation isn't a patch on the stuff found on Canon lenses but it is very much needed when shooting 300mm + on a bridge camera. Since neither the Fuji cameras have it I would suggest you look at the FZ8.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom