Looking at buying the FZ50. I know there are quite a few out there with the FZ50 or FZ30 who are very happy with these cameras. Would love to see some photos taken with these cameras. Links to pictures would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I remember Phil's gallery was great, he shot with the FZ30, the link to his gallery is near the beginning of the trip report.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34742104

If you go to www.pbase.com and choose "search," it gives you an option to "search by camera." Do that, then choose Panasonic and then the Fz50. It will then randomly choose sample photos for you from all of the pictures hosted on PBase taken with that camera. You can look through as many as you like.

This is one of the features of PBase that I really like -- you can see pictures taken with any camera or lens you want, and there are usually lots of them. It shows that it has over 8,700 Fz50 pictures.

Chris
www.pbase.com/cwillis

Great info Chris. I love your galleries, especially the baby pandas!

Hi eenusa

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...5o006&Ux=0

I took these photos with a FZ 30.

Kind regards

Kaye

Thanks Carla. Hopefully we will have a lot more baby panda pictures in September when we visit Wolong and Chengdu Panda Centers in China!

Chris

Lucky you Chris. I remember Atravelynn was there last year and reported here with photos. That trip is on my long list. I can watch the pandas here in San Diego all day long (when they are moving!) I was there last month on the day they mated.

Lynn was actually the one who gave us a lot of information to help plan our trip (using the same company she traveled with).

Speaking of baby pandas, I heard the Memphis Zoo is expecting a baby sometime soon. Maybe they will do a "panda cam" like Zoo Atlanta has!

Chris

Buzztechie just posted her photos with that camera.

Chris... Africams, eagle cams, panda cams...so many webcams not enough screen space! I am going crosseyed between webcams and Fodors. I guess there are worse addictions.

Thanks for the links. I'll do some browsing.

Chris - I checked pbase last night before I posted here. As you mention, there are a lot of photos to browse through.

Here are some sfari photo galleries I found taken with the FZ50:
http://www.pbase.com/martinroesslein/southafrica
http://www.pbase.com/jamesthorpe/kliens_campserengeti
http://www.pbase.com/hildurunnur/botswana
I don't know any of the photographers, these just popped up on PBase. But I think they can give you a godo illustration of what you can expect from this camera.
Chris

I haven't learned yet how or where to post pictures, and to add insult to injury, I haven't even seen ALL of my pictures yet from or safari in May, but I LOVE the camera! From what I saw, it took wonderful pictures! It did everything I needed it to do, and it did it simply & with ease - I only had to get the manual out once to look up to see how to focus on the bird instead of the tree leaves.

Chris, is pbase maybe a good one I should look at to see how to do a gallery? Is it easy?

Thanks Chris; I looked at quite a few photos and albums on pbase (these were not amongst them, so I took a quick look at these too) and SmugMug. I think this will do as my all-around camera for quick getaways and hiking trips where I don't want to lug a whole lot of lenses and equipment. I have a Canon 20D with several IS lenses, including a 100-400, that will still be my primary for wildlife photography on safari.

Lynda, Pbase is really easy to use and I like it a lot, because there are a lot of really talented photographers who post their work there, and you can see their work and talk to them about their comments on your own photos. It's a nice community. The drawback is that PBase does not do prints, so if you want to order prints of your pictures (or make it so that others can do so), PBase does not do that. The cost is $23 per year, I think, which gives you 400MB of storage space. Given that most people downsize their pictures for the internet, I find pictures generally average around 200k each, so you can get a lot of pictures up there with 400MB of space. If you want to try it out, PBase allows you to create a free 30-day trial account so you can see how it works, so give it a try and see if you like it.

eenusa -- now your request makes more sense. I think the FZ50 or Canon S5 would be a good "pack and go" alternative to your DSLR gear, but I am quite sure that your 20D/100-400 combo will be superior for wildlife photos on safari.

Chris

Lynda, I'll put in a plug for SmugMug. I recently started using it instead of Yahoo photos (which I was never too happy with). So far, I've only loaded my Antarctica photos, and not even finished with those yet (way too many pictures). But I am loving it. I find it very easy to use. They have different levels of accounts from regular to professional with prices ranging from $40 and up for unlimited storage. They also do prints and burn back up CD copies - haven't done that yet. (I did look at pbase as well, but I found SmugMug easier to use, hence my decision.)

Chris - question about downsizing photos - I'm always afraid to downsize too much for fear of losing quality. What would you say is the optimum pixel size to upload to view in the "large size" on pbase? (I want to keep jpeg quality at high or maximum if possible when resizing for web in Photoshop.) Thanks for any comments.

For re-sizing, I generally set it to 1024x683 pixels and then set the quality to at or near the highest level. I would say that 1024 and 800x600 are the most common sizes to see on PBase or any other photo hosting site. Naturally, I keep the original RAW files on my hard drives (internal and external), and if I print pictures, I do it from those files and not the downsized JPEGs.

I think if you keep the quality setting high and downsize to 1024 pixels on the long side, you will be happy with the results. Obviously some of the fine detail that you would otherwise see if you viewed the original image at 100% will be gone, but in practice I think the JPEG looks pretty similar to simply loading the full-size image in photoshop and then fitting it to the screen for viewing. Only rarely have I felt that the JPEG compression process itself was really changing the look of some element of the picture for the purpose of viewing over the internet.

Chris

Thanks for the prompt reply, Chris. I'll give the 1024 a try. I too keep my RAW photos on my PC and external drive and would use those for printing if necessary.

Appreciate the help.

By the way, great photos ... don't have the fastest connection at work, so I'll go back to browse through some more of your galleries when I get home.

Thanks, and thanks for the comments on our PBase pages -- those are always appreciated!

Chris

eenusa: I have the FZ30, and have been really happy with it. The photos in the link have been taken withing the last 16 months. Hope it helps!

http://tinyurl.com/2n6p6k

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

Cyn - thanks for the link, enjoyed your photos. Loved the butterflies, the giraffe on the horizon, and the Lake Desolation photos in particular.

Hubby is in NYC for a seminar; went to B&amp;H (his favorite &quot;toy&quot; store) and got the FZ50 for me last night. Will have to take it out and practice with it this weekend. Want to get familiar with it before our trip to the Canadian Rockies next month.

Thanks again to everyone who posted with links and comments.