FZ38 vs FZ300 FZ300 general view FZ300 top view FZ300 side viewFZ300 back view

Cloudy's Panasonic FZ300 website

by Claudio Di Veroli

Comparisons

The compact cameras that are typically recommended instead of the FZ300 are the Sony RX10 (in its II and III versions) and the Panasonic LUMIX FZ1000. Let me comment on their “pros and cons”.

Main “pros” of both the FZ1000 and the RX10 II/III against the FZ300: their superior 1" sensors, yielding significantly less digital noise, and 20Megapixels yielding a higher picture definition.

Main “cons” of both the FZ1000 and the RX10 II/III: they are significantly more expensive, especially so the RX10 II, three times the cost of the RZ300. Also, their larger sensors imply a much smaller depth of field in close-ups and require much larger lenses, yielding much heavier cameras, IMHO too much so for carrying around a full day out. I have tried the FZ1000 in a shop and had the clear impression of a very bulky and ugly object: it looks and feels much worse than the FZ300. The FZ1000 is also an older camera (mid-2014) and lacks important new features of the FZ300.

An advantage of both the Sony RX 10 II and the FZ300 over the FZ1000 is the 2.8 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range, while the FZ1000 shrinks to 4.0 in the telephoto range.

Perhaps the main advantage of the FZ300 over the other two is the touchscreen. At first one may believe that the touchscreen just replicates the physical buttons, but actually it provides functionalities that buttons can hardly replicate:

Please find below a comparison of the three cameras based on the features I personally find more significant. I have marked in bold type the "pros".

FZ300 FZ1000 RX10 II
Announced Jul'15 Jun'14 Jun'15
Total Megapixels 12.1 20.9 20.2
Sensor size 1/2.3" 1" 1"
Zoom ratio 24x 16x 8.3x
Aperture at Telephoto 2.8 4.0 2.8
Tilt-swivel screen Yes Yes No
LCD top screen No No Yes
Touchscreen Yes No No
Integrated ND Filter No No Yes
Weight inc. battery grs 691 831 813
Amazon.it 2016 - € 454 767 1340