Pasasonic fz20 vs. fz30 - help me decide!

[MRizzman]

Budget

I am aware of the difference in price, and am comfortable paying the extra $$$'s for the fz30 if I decide it is the best camera for me.

Size

I am a little concerned about the size of the fz30. To me, that is one of the biggest drawbacks vs. the fz20. Still, if I determine the fz30 is the right camera for me after everything is considered I am OK with the size of the fz30.

Features

While the additional megapixels in the fz30 would be nice, they are by no means necessary. I am most concerned about image quality. With 8 megapixels I will be able to get more detail, but I do not have any plans to develop any massive printys that will need the extra 3 megapixels.

Both have the same optical zoom. One thing that is important to me is manual focus, which is why I have ruled out the fz5 as well as other manufactures.

Image quality is THE most important quality for my decision. I have read A LOT about the fz20 and fz30 and I know that the 30 has a bad reputation, but it is one that I for some reason think is overblown. Maybe it is just a gut feeling. I do not want excessive noise, but again I don't really see a problem with the fz30 in sample prints online (albeit ones that were downsized).

Manual controls are nice, but not an absolute necessity. I want to get more involved with the nuances of manual photography as I currently only have a "pont and shoot".

General Usage

The camera will be used primarily for taking photos of my 11 month old daughter. Most pics are taken indoors in medium to low light. She moves around a lot, so it is a challenge getting good quality shots without her movement causing blur with my current Canon s400.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
No

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Yes - see above

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Not initially, but I would like to have the cabability.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
I believe I am going to stick with one of the 2 cameras by Panasonic. I have not found a compelling reason to go with a different brand.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
fz20 and fz30

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
IS is a must. I also want manual focus. A rotating LCD would be nice for self portraits, which the fz30 has, but when I checked it out in the store it did not rotate completely to 180 degrees, making the rotating LCD on the fz30 worthless to me. Was the camera floor sample's LCD stuck?

Bottom line - I want the best image quality I can get, with a propriatary battery, manual focus, while also trying to have the "latest and greatest", assuming that the latest and greatest (fz30) is truely better than its predecesor (fz20).

Thanks in advance everyone!

[BonjiB]

I can tell you from my own experience of owning both the fz20 and the fz30 that i'm most pleased with the fz30. The image quality is superior to the fz20 and i'm glad i made the upgrade. A really nice feature of the 30 (which i didn't expect it to be) is the almost instant startup time. Without an extending lens the startup time is less than 1 second (versus the fz20's almost 5 second time) which is really nice. If you're interested in making use of that hot shoe i'd recomend a sunpak 383 to go with it (that's what i have.) It really makes your indoor low light shots awesome. The built in flash is less than impressive, it just blows up on your subject overexposing it more often than not (with either of the two cameras.) All in all i find the fz30 to be far superior to the fz20 and well worth the extra money. The manual zoom ring is quite simply a joy to use and doesn't hog the battery like a motorized zoom. The movie mode is OUTSTANDING on the fz30, FAR superior than the fz20. I've authored a couple dvd's with video i've captured from the fz30 and they look great on the tv. But really you buy a camera for overall image quality and i can say from first hand experience, the detail and quality of the fz30's images are superior to the 20's. The "noise issue" is only an issue if you're printing a low light no flash shot over i'd say about 13x19 which is farther than i'd want to push the 5 megapixels of the fz20 anyways. Besides, grab yourself a copy of neat image to clean up the few and far between shots that might show excessive noise. It works miracles and i don't mind at all running a special image that i'll be printing large enough to show noise through some computer post processing to assure a good print. Good luck in your decision. I'd say myself that the extra cash for the fz30 is well worth it. Like i said, I upgraded from the 20 to the 30 and i'm really happy i did. Good luck!

[tim11]

SIZE is the reason - the sole reason - that I will not upgrade to FZ30.
Apart from that, I love the extra features of the FZ30 and I think it's worth every extra dollar you pay for.