Upgrading from Canon A200

[sujoyp]

panasonic FZ200 have a focal range of 25-600 in 35mm terms ...actually it have 5.2x crop factor

u see even a DSLR with 18-55 and a 55-200 with 1.5 crop factor becomes 24-300mm with DSLR quality ....now nac told me to crop a 4000x3000 pic to 640x480 thats 1/8th part ....I can crop it less to retain pic quality and no one will even notice

megapixel is definitely needed for printing big...12mp is enough to crop a lot...but dont crop it more than 1/3 to print

pic info -
1. 22mm 1/320 , f5.6 ISO800
2. 200mm 1/250 , f10 ISO800
3. 55mm , 1/100s f4 ISO200 with flash diffused

 

[nac]

BTW nac u too post a similar pic to compare...how will we compare it else??

Yeah, that's a fair deal...

Now beat this one taken with my 55mm macro lens

Interesting debate..I am very much interested.

No... It's neither a debate nor I am challenging... Just out of curiosity I asked him...

All shot at base ISO and wide open aperture... For more details, you can check EXIF

5mm (28mm) Crop
*imageshack.us/a/img707/6364/img1206crop.jpg

Original
*imageshack.us/a/img600/3534/img1206zx.jpg

60mm (336mm)Crop
*imageshack.us/a/img20/3544/img2834crop.jpg

Original
*imageshack.us/a/img823/5059/img2834dn.jpg

Macro-Crop
*imageshack.us/a/img197/4513/img2350crop.jpg

Original
*imageshack.us/a/img827/3835/img2350kd.jpg

 

[sujoyp]

those chiks have came really well ...even after crop looking good..

soo we can go by old saying again...if u r ok with the hassle of changing lenses, carrying saperate bag, spending lot of money on photography, taking photography seriously as a hobbie then u should buy m4/3 or DSLR at 25k ....else u can just go for any advance P&S cams ...which may not have pic quality or soo much control...but give u nice shots ..my choice of advance P&S is olympus XZ1

 

[aadi007]

Yep Sujoy, u summarized it well..I agree.

This is what I was thinking -
Say, I buy a m 4/3 like EPM1 with kit lens instead of an advanced P&S and use it as my go-anywhere cam. With the kit lens, it is not too big at least for me. So, it is not a problem. The only issue is the zoom. I won't need big zoom normally but in some cases, if I need, can I crop and still match the image quality of an advanced P&S say, at 300 mm equivalent?
Though I am interested in photography, I can't imagine myself carrying additional lenses and stuff like that. That's what is holding me back from buying a m4/3.
If the answer to the above question is yes, I will go ahead and buy a m4/3 like EPM1. Else, I will go with advanced P&S.
In terms of manual controls, I dont see much difference.

By the way, my choice for advanced P&S is Nikon P7700. It is a much newer camera than XZ-1 with bigger zoom, nice form factor, lots of external buttons/dials for manual settings, higher burst mode etc. and it costs almost similar to XZ-1. The only competitor to P7700 is the G15 which costs a whole lot more than P7700 (in India) and has less zoom.

Another observation - I have compared pictures from bridge cameras like FZ150, P510, Canon SX40 etc with advanced cameras like XZ-1,P7700 and there is a significant difference in image quality.

 

[sujoyp]

a p&s at 300mm is not much....just 12x or 15x max ....soo i think u may be satisfied with one more lens a zoom lens...and thats all...the pic quality and high iso is awesome in m4/3 or dslr
P7700 have nice design and quality but still xz1 have better pic quality...

EPM1 with twin lens combo for 30k was awesome deal

 

[aadi007]

Sujoy - the deal was and still is 27K at ebay.
However, I am not getting confidence to buy from that seller though his rating his good.
I asked him a few questions but he din't reply.

I am waiting for some reputed online retailer to offer a good deal like - flipkart, zoomin,infibeam etc

 

[sujoyp]

27k thats awesome