Panasonic FZ1000 Evolution of the Fixed Zoom (VZ) Camera

Lunch at the Opera House. E33mm, 1/250 @ f5.6 ISO 125 Hand Held 

Art Gallery of New South Wales FZ1000, E25mm, 1/60 @ f4, ISO 1000, Hand Held

 

Fixed zoom lens cameras have been around for quite some time.  Most have been consumer compacts. But a more highly specified camera type has been evolving steadily.

Panasonic produced the FZ1 in 2002 with a specification quite similar in some ways to the current FZ1000.   Both  lenses have a long zoom range and bright aperture. Both have a built in EVF. Both are substantial in form. Both are pitched at the photographer who wants a camera which can handle almost any assignment including those requiring a long lens.

Since the FZ1 Panasonic has produced the FZ10, 20, 3, 5, 30, 50, 8, 18, 28, 35, 38, 100, 40, 45, 47, 48, 150, 60, 200 and 70. I may have missed a few, there are so many. 

Although the theme of the FZ series has been consistent over the years big changes have occurred to the technology inside the cameras.

Consider the imaging sensor. The CCD  in the FZ1 had a diagonal of 5.7mm and 2,  that is not a misprint, megapixels. In 2006 the FZ50 had a considerably larger 10 megapixel CCD  with a diagonal of 8.9mm.  By 2012 the FZ200 had changed to a CMOS type sensor with 12 megapixels but a smaller diagonal of  7.67mm.

These cameras delivered  good picture quality considering their very small sensors and were very versatile.

The first FZ camera which came into our house was the FZ200, in 2013. My wife and I thought it was quite an impressive performer in many respects but it's picture quality made no case for either of us to give up our interchangeable lens cameras (ILC), both of which had a much larger sensor.

Many people call the FZ series and similar cameras from other makers "Bridge" cameras. Presumably they are perceived as a "bridge" between compacts and ILCs. 

The FZ1000 makes the biggest jump in sensor size and resolution since the FZ series began. It uses a 20 megapixel back illuminated CMOS type imager with a diagonal of 15.86mm.   In the past such an increase in sensor size and resolution would have required a massive increase in the size and cost of the lens.  But advances in aspheric technology have made it possible to contain lens size on the FZ100 to a remarkable degree.

I don't regard the FZ1000 as a "bridge", but a fully realised photographic device able to stand alone and produce excellent pictures in a wide range of circumstances. I see it as a game changer that could have the potential to encourage many people to abandon their present attachment to DSLRs and MILCs.

I like to call it a  [V]iewfinder [Z]oom (lens) Camera (VeeZeeC), to distinguish it from cameras with fixed zoom lens but no viewfinder.

I suspect we will see more high specification versions of this camera type in the near future from all the main manufacturers, with variations on the VZ theme.