Category Archives: Technology/New Stuff

February 14, 2025 · 5:35 am

Testing a New Camera — Panasonic FZ80D; Brighter Sunset and an Impressive Moon Shot


Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 320, 1/60th, f/2.8, 20mm (35mm equivalent focal length)

Fortunately another sunset presented itself a few days after the images I presented to you on Wednesday. And being brighter, I was able to decrease the ISO for less noise and increase the shutterspeed. For instance, the above image was taken at ISO 320 rather than Wednesday’s ISO 3200. Shutterspeed was 1/60th, as opposed to Wednesday’s 1/20th.

Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 100, 1/80th, f/3.8, 48mm

The above out-of-the-camera JPEG was cropped and subjected to some increased saturation. Other than that, nothing was done to reduce noise or enhance sharpness. You can see that noise is considerable less than was evident in Wednesday’s ISO 3200 images.

Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 160, 1/80th, f/3.5, 28mm

Above is another image of the same sunset taken at a slightly wider 28mm focal length. Again, not bad, and much better than the results at 3200.

Now for something for which I held little hope.. Four days after today’s sunset images were snapped, I decided to try something really extreme. I aimed at the Moon, handheld, and let the camera set the exposure. The initial image looked promising, much more than I originally expected:

Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 2000, 1/125th, f/5.9, 1320mm (35mm equivalent)

You may be asking, how did I manage to get 1,320mm out of a 1,200mm lens? Well, the FZ80D has a feature I found useful on my much older ZS3 and ZS6 cameras, but which was missing on my FZ1000. This is the i.Zoom feature, which crops the image to appear that you’re using a longer zoom, then internally processes the image to resize it to the full size (i.e., megapixel count) of the sensor. I’ve always been amazed at how Panasonic does this so that it emulates a longer zoom even though it’s really a cropped image. However Panasonic managed this bit of magic, it definitely works. This is the above image, cropped and then tweaked to darken the shadows:

Post-processed i.Zoom image of the Moon

I’m contemplating sending in my old, trusty FZ1000 for some refurbishment, but in the meantime the FZ80D will have to do. There are a few features I gain in the transition, such as i.Zoom, and others that I will miss, such as in-camera processed panoramas. I’ll also miss the FZ1000’s larger sensor with reduced noise at higher ISOs and slightly better resolution. But the FZ80D’s 20-1200mm zoom so far leads me to believe that I may be gaining more than I lost.

I’ll know better after our next journey.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

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February 12, 2025 · 5:35 am

Testing a New Camera — Panasonic FZ80D Sunsets


Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 3200

Today I’m going to push the Panasonic FZ80D to high ISO and handheld to present a couple of sunset images. The photo above is a JPEG straight out of the camera. The image was taken at ISO 3200, and the exposure is 1/20th of a second at f/4.4 at a focal length of 79mm (in 35mm equivalent. You can see that the image has some noise, but the image stabilization wasn’t ba for this situation. Taking the above JPEG image, cropping it, and running it through some minimal post-processing resulted in this:

Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 3200, 1/20th, f/4.0, handheld

Here’s a second shot of the same sunset taken at a slightly wider focal length:

Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 3200

Again, not bad, not great. Here’s what came out of cropping and post-processing:

Panasonic FZ80D, ISO 3200, 1/20th, f/4.0, handheld

I’ll have to try a similar sunset situation in RAW and see what I can do to minimize the noise without compromising the sharpness.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

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February 10, 2025 · 5:35 am

Testing a New Camera — Panasonic FZ80D Zoom Test


Panasonic FZ80D at 20mm (35mm equivalent) focal length

My Panasonic FZ1000 is a superb camera, and I love the resolution of the 1-inch sensor, but it was way past its prime and in need of repair. So I decided to downgrade the sensor and upgrade the zoom range by getting a Panasonic FZ80D. Over the course of this week I’ll be presenting some JPEG images taken with the FZ80D.

Panasonic FZ80D at 100mm (35mm equivalent) focal length

Today I’m concentrating solely on the range of the 20-1,200mm (35mm equivalent) zoom feature.

Panasonic FZ80D at 258mm (35mm equivalent) focal length

This week will not be an indepth review. I haven’t even tried the RAW capabilities yet. Rather, this will just be a quick-and-dirty look at what comes out of the camera in JPEG format with minimal post processing.

Panasonic FZ80D at 500mm (35mm equivalent) focal length

Just how difficult is it to take pictures at extreme focal lengths? Well, if the camera is handheld, you’re a bit unsteady or it’s windy (as it was when I took today’s photos) and you’re not careful on what the camera chooses to focus upon, you get a bit of blur. This is evident in the photo above. Fortunately, my hand steadied for the final two images in today’s article.

Panasonic FZ80D at 1,033mm (35mm equivalent) focal length

Needless to say, the zoom range is astounding on this camera. That should come in handy on some upcoming trips to Africa and India, especially for wildlife.

Panasonic FZ80D at 1,200mm (35mm equivalent) focal length

On Wednesday I’ll present some low-light sunset photos, which will give you an idea of how much noise comes from the FZ80D’s 18 megapixel 1/2.3″ (6.16 x 4.62 mm) CMOS sensor. And on Friday I’ll show you have versatile that 1,200mm lens is for taking an extreme photo of the Moon.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

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