Photography Equipment

Having been an amateur and professional photographer for a long time, starting with film and now with digital, I know the importance of the right equipment...the right cameras, lenses, lighting, etc., that will give you the best results.  This article is about one camera's pros and cons.

There are some who will say the equipment doesn't matter, it's the photographer.  It's both.  To illustrate this point, I have what I call my beach camera, a Panasonic FZ200.  It uses a fixed Leica zoom lens, f2.8 at all focal lengths, and zooms from 24mm - 600mm.  Sometimes I'm amazed at how well it works, other times it's a bit limiting.  For example, after shooting a photo, it takes a couple of seconds before I can shoot the next one.  Sometimes it takes a few seconds to find the focus or doesn't focus on the subject correctly.  One of the dials is in a spot where it is easy to accidentally move it to a different setting - this recently happened until after shooting several images.  The zoom is with a lever instead of a ring on the lens, so it's difficult to make a quick or accurate change.  All these variables cause problems.  I learned in a photo class many years ago, eliminate the variables.

On the other hand, the zoom range lets me get up close to a subject, even when far away.  For an everyday walk around camera, or as I call it, my beach camera, it works pretty well.  But having used professional equipment, it leaves a bit to be desired.

Below are some photos I have taken with this camera.

Shot at f5.6 at about 600mm - pretty sharp photo

Shot at f5.6 at around 24mm - these top two show the benefit of the long zoom range.  The cloud formation was quite unusual - seen at Venice Beach. 

The above two photos were shot at f5.6 at around 450mm -500mm - although they aren't bad, they are not as sharp as what I would like.  One was shot at the art walls at Venice Beach, the other on the Ballona Creek bike path near Mar Vista, CA.  At this size they look fine, but when enlarged, then the problems show.

The above two were shot at a Tommyland show at Venice Beach - the fog kept going in and out.  I was happy with these results.

In the above photo, the image is nice and sharp.  This is why the focus is so important.  You can always soften an image, but you can't really sharpen an out of focus image (well, a little bit with editing software, but not a lot).  In the photo below, the image is pretty soft.  She almost looks like she's part of the painting on the wall because of that - an interesting effect.   Both these images were shot along Ocean Front Walk at Venice Beach, CA.

I hope in a future article to shoot a series of photos with a different camera lens combination, and then link the two articles so you can see the difference.  Keep in mind these will be with zoom lenses, so they will never be as sharp as fixed focal length lenses (also call prime lenses) - they would be what I would use for portraits (families, children, boudoir, headshots, etc.).