FZ1000 Concept and Capabilities

 

The FZ1000 is one of the most capable, versatile, multi purpose cameras ever made.  Reviewers and commentators who think it is "just another bridge camera"  have not been paying attention. 

The FZ1000 could be the only piece of camera equipment that many photographers  need.   It could make interchangeable lens cameras (ILC) irrelevant for most photographic requirements of  most people most of the time.

Most people who buy an ILC, be it Mirrorless (MILC) or DSLR,  buy a kit zoom and leave it on the camera, never making use of the potential for various different  lenses inherent in the ILC concept.   These users would be better served by a well implemented "all in one" camera which can be smaller, lighter, less expensive or have a longer zoom range (although not necessarily all of these things at once) than an ILC with standard kit lens or travel/superzoom lens.  The FZ1000 is just that camera.

Even ILC users who have two or three lenses might find the FZ1000 covers the great majority of their requirements, while forever eliminating the need to buy, carry and change several lenses.

 

Of course there are thingswhich the FZ1000 cannot do.  There is no direct access to an ultra wide angle (UWA) lens. But the camera has a panorama mode which works well and for all but pixel perfectionists largely rectifies the UWA deficiency.

There is no direct access to the super telephoto end of the lens spectrum either. But i-Zoom is a useful substitute which can make decent photos suitable for modest scale reproduction.

The buffer is not as large as that in some other cameras, but shooting JPG in short bursts makes the FZ1000 genuinely useful for sport/action photography.

It  is easy to find a camera or camera/lens combination which can outperform the FZ1000 in one specific area of  capability. Some have less grain at high ISO settings.  Some (not many) can focus on a moving subject more effectively.  Some have access to lenses of greater aperture.  Some (not many) have more advanced video.  Some are smaller.....and so on.

But it is difficult to find any camera+one lens combination which can match the FZ1000 's size, pricepoint and wide range of capabilities.

It might be tempting   to dismiss the FZ1000 as a jack of all trades but master of none.  It is indeed a jack of most trades and I think does a good enough job for most users at most of them.

The key feature of the FZ1000 is it's ability to tackle almost any photographic task and  in the right hands come away with good pictures.  It manages this with a single module, one box solution requiring no extra equipment or accessories and  no need for interchangeable lenses.

There has been an ongoing debate on user forums around the proposition that the FZ1000 is a game changer in the camera world  as a result of it's "one box" multipurpose capability.

I think it is a game changer. The FZ1000 has no direct competitor at the moment, the Sony RX10 lens having only half the zoom range. But when other manufacturers release high performance "all in one" cameras like the FZ1000, I think many photographers will wonder why they would buy anything else and in particular why they would buy an interchangeable lens camera.