LUMIX FZ80D Compact Camera 20-1200mm Zoom, Point and Shoot Lens with Built-in Lens, 4K Video and Photo Recording, DC-FZ80D

I bought this camera for an Alaskan cruise. I was recovering from back surgery, so did not want to carry my heavy Canon with a long lens. This little "bridge" camera was perfect. I got some great photos, good quality. The zoom worked great. It's nice and small, lightweight. My only complaint is the battery goes down quickly if you zoom in and out a lot, as the zoom is not manual. Be sure to take at least one extra battery, two would be better.

Price appears to be on the higher side.

My first digital camera was a Sony Mavica that had 640x480 resolution and saved photos on floppy disks. That will give you some indication of how long I've been playing around with digital photography. For the past several years I had a Canon EOS Rebel T3 with multiple lenses. When I began to travel internationally for work, I wanted something smaller that I could take with me without having to carry both laptop and camera bags. I purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20 and absolutely loved it. It did everything I needed it to do in truly compact and low-stress "point and shoot." Recently, I've been debating whether to upgrade my Canon and investing in additional lenses or purchasing something new. After much research and soul-searching I opted for what many are calling a "bridge" camera. Although it felt a bit like a step down from a DSLR, I had to recognize that I simply don't shoot the same way that I used to. I no longer photograph weddings or senior portraits and really just needed a good, reliable camera that was compact enough that I would be more likely to take it with me when traveling. More often than not, I find myself using my iPhone because I didn't want to have to haul my camera bag around. There were three main reasons why I chose the FZ80 model. 1. Ease-of-use. I already knew from my previous experience with my point and shoot Lumix that this would be fairly easy to use. 2. Affordability. I couldn't justify the expense of the FZ2500, but felt the features and functions of the FZ80 would meet my needs. 3. Leica lens. Perhaps this is a hold over from my film shooting days, but Leica lenses have a reputation of being extremely high quality. If I was going to be giving up lens interchangeability, I wanted crisp, beautiful photos. I've only had this camera for a week and haven't had much of an opportunity to give it a good trial run, but so far, it's proven extremely easy to use and has resulted in some decent back yard photos. I only gave it 4 stars though due to the low F-stop range. I know it has a post-image editing tool to customize depth of field, but that seems like too much hassle right now for something that is a step above point and shoot. I haven't figured out the WiFi link, yet, but am looking forward to playing with that. I'm also looking forward to trying out the video function. The photos below show the "pink" moon on April 10th, a series of shots at different zoom lengths outside of my front door, and some flowers where I played with the various shooting modes. All-in-all, I'm very happy with this purchase. And the best part is that I was able to offset the cost a bit by selling my Canon EOS on eBay.

Small, light & easy to carry around when travelling. Zoom range is sufficient for bird & animal video/photo.

If you are a beginner photographer and looking for a bridge camera, you might immediately think of brands like Nikon and Canon, which have stood the test of time. While I too was inclined toward these brands, I also wanted a camera that packed a decent zoom just to give me that extra bit of flexibility without having to pack several lenses when travelling. Having used this camera extensively for around 6 weeks in a variety of lighting conditions, in cities and in the country, I can say that it does not disappoint. The build quality feels solid and it can easily be carried around for a few hours without too much effort. The Intelligent Auto + (iA+), which the camera is set to by default, does a good job at recognizing particular scene types and adjusting the exposure accordingly. In this mode, you still have control of a number of parameters, including exposure value compensation ( which effectively changes the aperture) and white balance. Image stabilization is smooth even at the longer end of the telephoto range, providing you use the electronic viewfinder and cradle the lens barrel as you take the shot. Telephoto image quality can be improved considerably with the use of a tripod. The lens itself extends and retracts quickly and smoothly, while autofocus easily finds the subject. You can also select the focus point yourself using the touchscreen if you are not satisfied. There are times, for example in low light conditions or indoors, where the camera may select the wrong scene type and completely muck up the exposure. In these cases I would select either Program Auto or Manual modes to get more control over shutter speed and aperture. Bearing in mind the small sensor, the camera's handheld performance in low light is passable. If you anticipate doing a decent amount of low light photography, I would suggest buying a cheap but stable tripod and using Manual modes to adjust exposure. Just remember to turn image stabilization off to prevent unwanted artifacts smearing the image. Those looking for creative control over depth of field similar to what a DSLR can offer will be disappointed. This is not a fixed aperture lens. The camera's aperture range at 20mm EFL is F/2.8- F8, but at 100mm is only F/5.9 to F8. this makes it hard to achieve shallow depth of field at the lower focal lengths, although it is still possible at longer focal lengths providing you use a smaller aperture such as F/2.8 or F4 and correspondingly faster shutter speeds. Having said that, depth of field at the wide angle setting does not change significantly between F/4 and F8. I would argue that F/4 is a better setting for landscapes as you get less softening of the image. You can see some of the images below this review which I have taken using this camera. The resolution, sharpness and detail are more than adequate for the amateur enthusiast. One great feature is the built-in WiFi, which makes transferring images to your smartphone a doddle. One of the great strengths of this camera is the 4K video, which is not generally found at this price range. While 4K only shoots for 15 minutes at a time due to the risk of overheating, you can still shoot in 1080p for as long as you want. In conclusion, this is a great camera for this price and can easily adapt to any situation and help you build your photography skills for years to come. Would I buy it again? Absolutely.