Hi Carl,
Sorry this response is a little late; I have just returned from a volunteer
working party on Skokholm, a major island site for puffins and Manx
Shearwaters in Wales.
Two years ago, when I was suffering from back problems, I bought a Leica V
Lux 3 to take on a trip when I did not fancy carrying my Nikon DSLR's and
lenses through the mud of Malaysia and PNG. This Leica is essentially the
same as the Panasonic FMC-DZ150, (the predecessor to the DZ200) although I
believe that Leica have the first pick of the sensors and lenses.
Whilst the small camera has its drawbacks, I have been very pleased with the
results it gives, which have been good enough for the talks we give. The
main drawbacks are associated with the electronic viewfinder- poor contrast
in the viewfinder image, tricky but possible manual focussing (although
particularly tricky finding and focussing on a small bird in a bush), slow
auto-focussing, delay in taking the shot after pressing the shutter button.
The facilities and adjustments on the camera are pretty well the same as on
a DSLR. The buttons on the camera are small, and pretty well impossible to
use with gloves on (as I recently found out on a trip to arctic Norway).
Overall this cannot be regarded as an substitute to a DSLR set up, but
rather as an alternative lightweight option with some limitations. If you
are used to using a DSLR you will be frustrated at times, but at least you
will always have the camera with you, which may not be the case if you have
a telescope and tripod plus DSLR.
I have attached, in a separate email just to Carl, a picture I took of a
Brown Falcon in NT last year.
Hope this is useful
Peter Royle (UK)
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