Nikon D90 v Panasonic FZ18

David Bottel · 14th October 2009, 01:20 PM

Hello,
I currently have a Panasonic FZ18 and I'm thinking of upgrading to a Nikon D90.
The FZ18 has a focal range of 28mm to 504 mm(35mm film camera equivalent) with a small sensor, whereas the Nikon has a focal range of 27mm to 158mm(35mm film camera equivalent) with a much larger sensor.
My question is if a photo was taken with the Nikon and then cropped to produce the same field of view of a photo taken with the FZ18 at maximum zoom of 504mm would the image quality be better on the Nikon, just the same or worse than the FZ18.

Regards, David

Dave Humphries · 14th October 2009, 01:46 PM

Hi David,

I think we need to know the MP of each to help work that out.
The D90 is 12.1MP, the FZ18 is 8MP I believe (both 'effective', not max figures).

To improve the chances of success, you could buy the D90 with the Nikon 18 - 200mm VR2 (28 - 300mm in 35mm/FF terms), instead of the kit lens.
That would almost certainly give a better result at a crop equivalent to 504mm and be less of a shock after the FZ18's range.

Without doing the maths, my gut instinct is the kit lens might give equivalent results, but I have no experience to base that on.

I moved from a very similar bridge camera (see my signature) to a D5000 and kept the same zoom range (28 - 300), so I only see benefit. I did use an older kit lens once, for a week or two, and I felt so constricted by the lack of reach for my staple diet of wildlife shots.

Hope that helps,

David Bottel · 14th October 2009, 02:44 PM

Hi Dave,
Many thanks for your reply.
By the way your photo's of insects etc are fabulous.

Kind Regards, David

Dirk · 15th October 2009, 05:52 PM

compact camera have a bigger DOF than DSLR , but they also suffer from a lot more pixels per inch on a smaller sensor , thus creating much more noise and one thing all compact suffer is that you can't change lenses to get a better quality, the quality if fine on the first eye but when looking at full resolution the dslr wins , also do not forget a dslr is faster than 99 % of the compacts, easy a compact like the FZ18 needs to pull out the lens (takes time) , lock it i a default setting (takes time too ) dfire up the engine (takes time too) in that time the dslr has taken a lot of shots while the compact was still busy

when it comes to quatlity i think de the 90 is a far better camera than the compact , because you can upgrade the dlsr by buying better glass aka lenses and buying fast or ultra fast or extreme fast memmory , while buyng a normal card or one model faster will be faster (the card) than the compact will ever be ready and capeable to write it

but again just my opinioun and i happen to have a lot of compacts also with large lenses so i know what i am talking about..

Dave Humphries · 15th October 2009, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Bottel

Hi Dave,
Many thanks for your reply.
By the way your photo's of insects etc are fabulous.

Kind Regards, David

Hi David,

No worries - and thanks for the compliment.

Cheers,

14th October 2009, 01:20 PM	#1
David Bottel New Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 2	Nikon D90 v Panasonic FZ18 Hello, I currently have a Panasonic FZ18 and I'm thinking of upgrading to a Nikon D90. The FZ18 has a focal range of 28mm to 504 mm(35mm film camera equivalent) with a small sensor, whereas the Nikon has a focal range of 27mm to 158mm(35mm film camera equivalent) with a much larger sensor. My question is if a photo was taken with the Nikon and then cropped to produce the same field of view of a photo taken with the FZ18 at maximum zoom of 504mm would the image quality be better on the Nikon, just the same or worse than the FZ18. Regards, David

14th October 2009, 01:46 PM	#2
Dave Humphries Senior Member / Moderator Join Date: May 2008 Location: Windsor, Berks, UK Posts: 2,372	Re: Nikon D90 v Panasonic FZ18 Hi David, I think we need to know the MP of each to help work that out. The D90 is 12.1MP, the FZ18 is 8MP I believe (both 'effective', not max figures). To improve the chances of success, you could buy the D90 with the Nikon 18 - 200mm VR2 (28 - 300mm in 35mm/FF terms), instead of the kit lens. That would almost certainly give a better result at a crop equivalent to 504mm and be less of a shock after the FZ18's range. Without doing the maths, my gut instinct is the kit lens might give equivalent results, but I have no experience to base that on. I moved from a very similar bridge camera (see my signature) to a D5000 and kept the same zoom range (28 - 300), so I only see benefit. I did use an older kit lens once, for a week or two, and I felt so constricted by the lack of reach for my staple diet of wildlife shots. Hope that helps,

14th October 2009, 02:44 PM	#3
David Bottel New Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 2	Re: Nikon D90 v Panasonic FZ18 Hi Dave, Many thanks for your reply. By the way your photo's of insects etc are fabulous. Kind Regards, David

15th October 2009, 05:52 PM	#4
Dirk Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 37	Re: Nikon D90 v Panasonic FZ18 compact camera have a bigger DOF than DSLR , but they also suffer from a lot more pixels per inch on a smaller sensor , thus creating much more noise and one thing all compact suffer is that you can't change lenses to get a better quality, the quality if fine on the first eye but when looking at full resolution the dslr wins , also do not forget a dslr is faster than 99 % of the compacts, easy a compact like the FZ18 needs to pull out the lens (takes time) , lock it i a default setting (takes time too ) dfire up the engine (takes time too) in that time the dslr has taken a lot of shots while the compact was still busy when it comes to quatlity i think de the 90 is a far better camera than the compact , because you can upgrade the dlsr by buying better glass aka lenses and buying fast or ultra fast or extreme fast memmory , while buyng a normal card or one model faster will be faster (the card) than the compact will ever be ready and capeable to write it but again just my opinioun and i happen to have a lot of compacts also with large lenses so i know what i am talking about..

Nikon D90 v Panasonic FZ18

Digital SLR Cameras