Jay42
Between the click of the light
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- 5,074
The Panasonic's are stunning but can get expensive. Part of that is because they have 4K video built into the FZ1000 as well as having a lens with an f2.8-4 aperture and has a 16x zoom so you would have a lot of versatility in when you can take your photos, lower light photos will look better for instance. But it is $1,000 Canadian. Because 4K video is expensive. The other Panasonic Bridge camera is the FZ200K which is $530 Canadian, has an f2.8 aperture through the whole zoom range and a 24x zoom. No 4K capture hence the cheaper price. Panasonic uses Leica glass for their lenses so the image quality and colour quality is stunning.
I'm less a fan of the Sony cameras generally,Their warranty division is a pain in the ass to deal with and they have become really restrictive in where to get their accessories. You can really only go straight through Sony. However they do own Zeiss so you get some beautiful lenses on their cameras. The RX10 is their highest end bridge camera, it has 20 megapixels, an f2.8 aperture however only zooms to about 8x. But because of the f2.8 and the Zeiss lens it's $1,100 Canadian. The HX400 is $450 Canadian, is 20 megapixels, a 50x zoom but I can't find specifics about the aperture so you're probably looking at roughly an f3.5 to 5.6 or higher. It can't shoot RAW though so if your looking at wanting to edit the photos at all RAW really is the way to go because it preserves more of the picture data.
You will find the bridge cameras usually do have a viewfinder as opposed to just the LCD and shooting through the viewfinder saves the battery life and you can see better on sunny days. I also recommend shooting in Program mode because while it acts mostly like an Auto mode it does give you some control over setting such as White Balance and ISO. With Auto you may also find that pictures sometimes look grainy or coloured wrong when you're shooting in lower lights and that is because Auto forces the camera into Night mode when shooting in lower light. Program doesn't do that. It's a great way to start while you're getting to know a camera.
I'm less a fan of the Sony cameras generally,Their warranty division is a pain in the ass to deal with and they have become really restrictive in where to get their accessories. You can really only go straight through Sony. However they do own Zeiss so you get some beautiful lenses on their cameras. The RX10 is their highest end bridge camera, it has 20 megapixels, an f2.8 aperture however only zooms to about 8x. But because of the f2.8 and the Zeiss lens it's $1,100 Canadian. The HX400 is $450 Canadian, is 20 megapixels, a 50x zoom but I can't find specifics about the aperture so you're probably looking at roughly an f3.5 to 5.6 or higher. It can't shoot RAW though so if your looking at wanting to edit the photos at all RAW really is the way to go because it preserves more of the picture data.
You will find the bridge cameras usually do have a viewfinder as opposed to just the LCD and shooting through the viewfinder saves the battery life and you can see better on sunny days. I also recommend shooting in Program mode because while it acts mostly like an Auto mode it does give you some control over setting such as White Balance and ISO. With Auto you may also find that pictures sometimes look grainy or coloured wrong when you're shooting in lower lights and that is because Auto forces the camera into Night mode when shooting in lower light. Program doesn't do that. It's a great way to start while you're getting to know a camera.