What's the point in doing a review on an old camera? I'll tell you. Nobody is paying me or even giving me some kinda freebies. This is my old camera, first digital camera outside of a cell phone, I ever bought.
It's been used, abused, misused, dropped, rained on, tripped over, loaned out, lost and forgotten and even, once or twice, had a thorough cleaning. The poor son of a gun has over 250,000 shutter snaps on it and just keeps on ticking.
This is not a point and Shoot Camera. It's not a DSLR, either. It's what you'd call a Bridge Camera; something to fill the gap between the two.
I bring this up because many people ask me what cameras I recommend. When I bought the DMC-FZ50, I had no idea what I wanted to accomplish with my photography. This was the perfect camera for me.
It has excellent glass (Lecia lens) 7mm-85mm zoom. Aperture from 2.8 to 11 and all the Mode settings for lazy people, plus, you can shoot fully manual once you decide that's what you want to do.
In the photo above, you'll see, I added a 1.7X Teleconverter. That was only after I decided I wanted to reach out further and grab some wildlife shots.
This good old camera won't fit in your pocket but, it is light enough to wear around your neck. When I wear a jacket, I tuck it inside to keep it from swinging around and sometimes, get into places where cameras are not allowed. Hah !
Most times, I don't wear jackets and usually don't take my cameras places where they are forbidden. The ideal way to carry a camera like the DMC-FZ50 is in a holster. A strap over your shoulder and a belt through slot provided on the back of the holster will keep everything secure even if you go mountain climbing.
If you want to read full reviews on this old baby, type DMC-FZ50 in any search engine and you'll find plenty.
The feature that I found most useful on this camera is the LCD screen. You can rotate that puppy and make shots with it around corners, over the heads of crowds or get close to the ground and shoot scenes above that would be impossible, peeking through the viewfinder with my DSLR.
The DMC-FZ50 gets a five star rating from me. Panasonic will have to wait before I'll buy, whatever the latest, greatest model happens to be, because I believe my good old camera is going to be around for a long, long time.
Just a peek through one of the doors at Nakagusuku Castle for today. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is centrally located on the Pacific Ocean side of Okinawa, Japan.
Not sure if it's the internet or gremlins gnawing away inside my computers today but, it feels like I'm back in the Stone Age the way these things are acting-up.
Hopefully, I'll be able to paste a link for TRAVEL PHOTO THURSDAY before everything comes crashing down around me !
This photo shows you the light meter on one of my cameras when it is in Manual Mode. The scale of Exposure Values (EV) reads from -2 to +2. What you're looking at is an exposure of -2/3.
So, if I took a photo at the shutterspeed and aperture I'm using, it would be underexposed by -2/3 EV.
To move the settings on the light meter closer to "0" I have to let more light enter. You get a choice here. Either open the aperture more or slow the shutterspeed down. I slowed down the shutterspeed here and brought the readings on the scale to -1/3 EV. If I kept cranking down on the shutter, I could move it all the way to "0" and have what is known as perfect exposure, Hah !
The camera has a computer and sensors, all kinds of brainiac gadegtry in it but, it doesn't know what I want to show you in these photos. It reads the light and makes a judgement for proper exposure values (EV) based upon the whole scene showing in the frame.
What I want the person looking at my picture to see is the little orange tickmark on the EV Scale. So, the camera's judgement gets overruled. I underexposed by -2 EV to take these shots.
You can overexpose, underexpose, perfect expose or rip up all your photos, if you want to. It's your camera, you paid for it, I hope.
Even if you don't have a fancy DSLR, you can take control of your EV's. If you don't have a light meter, you can still make your camera take +EV or -EV photos.
Look it up in your camera manual; there is a way. This is just a primer so, you'll have to experiment on your own. But, before long, you'll notice an improvment in your photography.
Don't let your camera decide what Exposure Value (EV) you need. Get out there and expose yourself !
