Panasonic LUMIX FZ80D Compact Camera with 20-1200mm Zoom Lens, Point and Shoot Digital Camera with 4K Video/Photo Recording and Power Optical Image Stabilizer - DC-FZ80D

My first digital camera was a Sony Mavica that had 640x480 resolution and saved photos on floppy disks. That will give you some indication of how long I've been playing around with digital photography. For the past several years I had a Canon EOS Rebel T3 with multiple lenses. When I began to travel internationally for work, I wanted something smaller that I could take with me without having to carry both laptop and camera bags. I purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20 and absolutely loved it. It did everything I needed it to do in truly compact and low-stress "point and shoot."Recently, I've been debating whether to upgrade my Canon and investing in additional lenses or purchasing something new. After much research and soul-searching I opted for what many are calling a "bridge" camera. Although it felt a bit like a step down from a DSLR, I had to recognize that I simply don't shoot the same way that I used to. I no longer photograph weddings or senior portraits and really just needed a good, reliable camera that was compact enough that I would be more likely to take it with me when traveling. More often than not, I find myself using my iPhone because I didn't want to have to haul my camera bag around. There were three main reasons why I chose the FZ80 model. 1. Ease-of-use. I already knew from my previous experience with my point and shoot Lumix that this would be fairly easy to use. 2. Affordability. I couldn't justify the expense of the FZ2500, but felt the features and functions of the FZ80 would meet my needs. 3. Leica lens. Perhaps this is a hold over from my film shooting days, but Leica lenses have a reputation of being extremely high quality. If I was going to be giving up lens interchangeability, I wanted crisp, beautiful photos.I've only had this camera for a week and haven't had much of an opportunity to give it a good trial run, but so far, it's proven extremely easy to use and has resulted in some decent back yard photos. I only gave it 4 stars though due to the low F-stop range. I know it has a post-image editing tool to customize depth of field, but that seems like too much hassle right now for something that is a step above point and shoot. I haven't figured out the WiFi link, yet, but am looking forward to playing with that. I'm also looking forward to trying out the video function.The photos below show the "pink" moon on April 10th, a series of shots at different zoom lengths outside of my front door, and some flowers where I played with the various shooting modes.All-in-all, I'm very happy with this purchase. And the best part is that I was able to offset the cost a bit by selling my Canon EOS on eBay.

I've only had the camera for three days. I have to admit that the selection and menu choices were overwhelming at first, even with some familiarity with cameras. Panasonic has some features unique to its brand and learning the terminology took some time. Rather than read the online manuals, I watched some of the tutorials available on You-Tube. I found 16 dedicated videos by Graham Houghton on the use of the camera. I'm about a quarter of the way through. The claims that the camera doesn't perform in various conditions just don't seem to hold any weight when one learns how to operate the camera properly, especially the claim that it performs poorly in low light. I took the camera to the hockey rink and shot in the lighting available in sports mode and was able to capture some great shots. I played around operating the camera in different modes outdoors and shot a hummingbird in flight at 1/8000 of a second, freezing the bird's wings in flight. Admittedly, the lighting was not in my favor from my vantage point but it was just a camera test, not an attempt at a prize winning photo. I took numerous photos of the same dahlias in different modes and ended up with a series of totally different interpretations of the same image.I also operated the camera at low light, using the setting recommended in the videos. The results were outstanding. I've yet to explore many of the camera's other features such as post focusing and operating the camera remotely with my android cell phone.I shot over 330 images at the hockey game and still had half battery life left according to the display. I have not tried the camera in movie mode since I seldom shoot video. From what I've experienced so far, I believe my photos will well exceed my current exposures. I've barely learned the basics of the camera's capabilities.With the huge amount of creative control, this is not a camera you can set down and then pick up a month later and remember how to operate all of its features. And even then, a quick review of the camera's manuals or the videos may be necessary if all of the camera's potential is to be used.While some camera fanatics may complain about the camera's sensor size or some indistinguishable lens aberration due to the camera's long lens, let's face it, most of us will never have our photos printed as wallpaper murals. We view our creations on our cell phones, tablets, laptops, and TVs. The images created by this camera can be as stunning as any full SLR with thousand dollar lenses and are limited only by the shooters capabilities, not by the camera's limitations.A nice feature that many bridge cameras do not have is a threaded front on the lend for filters. The shooter can add a polarizing filter or ND filters to extend shutter times to take specialty photos.If I had one negative thing to say, I would have appreciated a tilt screen since, when traveling and standing in crowds, it is sometimes helpful to hold the camera over everyone's heads and shoot down at a high angle, using the tilt screen to focus. I can live without that one feature given all of the other features of this incredible camera.