Full marks missed

At the time of my purchase in March 2014 the price of the camera were quite volatile fluctuations 340-430 on the agenda. The lower price range forms often called. EU goods whose acquisition in view of the customer-friendly warranty Panasonic however is completely risk (see homepage Panasonic / support / warranty).

The camera everything is already said, though. Not from each, which is why I still write down briefly my mustard here

Important to me was the purchase in addition to the picture quality under harsh light of the additional detector, especially the big zoom lens in combination with the consistently large aperture to eg a beautiful background blur, the so-called in portraits and macro shots. To "Bokeh" achieved. With my otherwise very beautiful and especially more pocket compatible XZ-1 Olympus I succeed despite initial 1.8 aperture unsatisfactory because, inter alia, the zoom range is not sufficient so far and with increasing zoom factor the aperture gets smaller. Although here the result with the FZ200 is a little better, but the lack of this effect favoring large sensor makes itself felt here as well. The sharp contrast viewfinder simplifies composition considerably in sunlight.

Very nice is also the operation via the rotary / push-wheel and the complete list of all possible and easily accessible fototechnischen extras. Because really lacks nothing!

The image quality is not objectionable as long as the sun shines and you realize the ISO number at 100. However it is not outstanding. Best results are obtained mE when to "Native" will change, and to set the factors contrast and sharpness and noise reduction to each +2 in the menu screen style of "standard", saturation remains at 0. As with any camera with a small sensor finds quality then its limits when the light is weakening. But that is not peculiar to the camera but is simply due to the system. Some will be compensated by the good image stabilizer and the large aperture, can conjure the technology but also not! Nevertheless, Panasonic is not much worse than mine - even with a slightly larger sensor equipped - Olympus XZ-1, whose image stabilizer his name does not really deserve, but the achieved noticeably better results in wide angle. As ever, the strength of the FZ200 in telephoto and macro range. To make the comparison must be completely equally noted that the video mode in relation to the XZ-1 in a completely different, higher league play (see also my review of XZ1).

My conclusion: The Panasonic FZ200 is currently the best Bridge, just not DSLR. Maybe you could go the Canon SX 50 in some respects hold a candle, but I personally - not quite appropriate - both visually and by the operator her less appealing.

From 360 certainly a good investment because the price in view of the upcoming holiday season, and given the continuing high price of its predecessor, FZ150, will break probably not dramatically in the near future.
For those who want to get smart about the varied individual possibilities of FZ200, the videos of Graham Houghton on its website or on YouTube are recommended. All well understood in English, but with little knowledge of the language, because also applies here: "a picture is worth a thousand words"

In this sense, a lot of joy with the FZ200.