Comparisons
The compact cameras that are typically recommended instead of the FZ300 are the Sony RX10 (in its II and III versions) and the Panasonic LUMIX FZ1000. Let me comment on their “pros and cons”.
Main “pros” of both the FZ1000 and the RX10 II/III against the FZ300: their superior 1" sensors, yielding significantly less digital noise, and 20Megapixels yielding a higher picture definition.
Main “cons” of both the FZ1000 and the RX10 II/III: they are significantly more expensive, especially so the RX10 II, three times the cost of the RZ300. Also, their larger sensors imply a much smaller depth of field in close-ups and require much larger lenses, yielding much heavier cameras, IMHO too much so for carrying around a full day out. I have tried the FZ1000 in a shop and had the clear impression of a very bulky and ugly object: it looks and feels much worse than the FZ300. The FZ1000 is also an older camera (mid-2014) and lacks important new features of the FZ300.
An advantage of both the Sony RX 10 II and the FZ300 over the FZ1000 is the 2.8 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range, while the FZ1000 shrinks to 4.0 in the telephoto range.
Perhaps the main advantage of the FZ300 over the other two is the touchscreen. At first one may believe that the touchscreen just replicates the physical buttons, but actually it provides functionalities that buttons can hardly replicate:
- By just using one physical button, the Q.MENU, the screen opens a very handy customisable menu with many common controls (see our Customisation webpage).
- By touching the “arrows” in the screen's right hand side we access a further set of customisable “soft buttons”: useful, though much less so than the Q.MENU. Why? Because pressing a physical button takes a split second, while locating and pressing a soft button onscreen is a more delicate affair.
- By touching part of the image we can quickly define the subject we wish the camera to focus.
Please find below a comparison of the three cameras based on the features I personally find more significant. I have marked in bold type the "pros".
| FZ300 | FZ1000 | RX10 II | |
| Announced | Jul'15 | Jun'14 | Jun'15 |
| Total Megapixels | 12.1 | 20.9 | 20.2 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.3" | 1" | 1" |
| Zoom ratio | 24x | 16x | 8.3x |
| Aperture at Telephoto | 2.8 | 4.0 | 2.8 |
| Tilt-swivel screen | Yes | Yes | No |
| LCD top screen | No | No | Yes |
| Touchscreen | Yes | No | No |
| Integrated ND Filter | No | No | Yes |
| Weight inc. battery grs | 691 | 831 | 813 |
| Amazon.it 2016 - € | 454 | 767 | 1340 |