Panasonic Lumix FZ30 vs Fujifilm FinePix S9000 Head-to-Head Review

Video Performance
Since one of the inherent advantages of a super-zoom camera over a digital SLR is the opportunity for video capture, we decided to utilize some of the knowledge possessed by our sister site, www.camcorderinfo.com and put the FZ30 and S9000 through some rigorous video tests.

Control Options (Advantage: Panasonic FZ30)
In terms of manual control in video mode, the Panasonic FZ30 is by far the more generous of the two models. The opportunity to manually control focus, white balance, metering modes, AF modes, image size and quality, continuous or single AF and color effects are an impressive canon of features when compared to the S9000. The Fujifilm S9000, by contrast, only offers manual control over image size. While an overwhelming disparity of this level in control is often indicative of a distinctly superior video recorder, our batch of video performance tests revealed a different story.

Motion / Compression (Advantage: Fujifilm S9000)
Motion capture is essential to video quality and the results found with these two camcorders will certainly solidify the strong advantage of the S9000 when shooting with automatic settings. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 is capable of shooting video in frame rates of 30 fps and 10 fps with two quality settings for resolution. The resulting footage from the highest quality 30 fps VGA video displayed a competent handling of motion that was unfortunately diminished by the struggling auto focus and occasional underexposure. While these problems will be enough to dissuade many hybrid enthusiasts, an additional motion problem occurred that truly hammered the final nail in the coffin of the Lumix DMC-FZ30. When viewing footage in playback mode, it became apparent that the FZ30 was unable to handle the speed of the approaching trains and the resulting footage displayed artifacts that strongly detracted from the recorded footage. The S9000 reproduced motion accurately in its highest 640 x 480 resolution (at 30 fps), and the in-focus and legible results were much cleaner than those of Panasonic.

Autofocus (Advantage: Fujifilm S9000)
When shooting video footage with both cameras in a low light situation with motion, the Fujifilm FinePix S9000 was able to lock focus automatically with far more accuracy and only slightly apparent "breathing" when compared to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30. The FZ30’s struggle to find focus oscillated between minimal and oppressively heavy, lasting upwards of five or six seconds. The FZ30 searched for focus when shooting static scenes, in addition to moving subjects.

The FZ30’s auto focusing deficiency in video mode resulted in inferior, often out-of-focus video footage, which unfortunately negates the advantages offered by the more versatile control array. The opportunity to adjust focus manually enables users to avoid this problem, although it will only be possible if users are capable of manipulating and maintaining focus throughout video capture, with accuracy and control. Unfortunately, the manual focus feature included on the FZ30 is also quite noisy and audible during video recording; the noise from spinning the external focal ring was recorded by the in-camera microphone located directly to the rear on the top of the camera. This handling noise muffled the audio track and compromised it beyond recognition during adjustment.

Metering (Advantage: Panasonic FZ30)
Metering in movie mode provided the Fujifilm FinePix S9000 with better results when shooting in the default center-weighted averaging mode when compared to the results of the FZ30. This setting, however, is unfortunately the only metering option available on the Fujifilm camera. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 on the other hand does allow for users to select between the three standard metering options of center-weighted averaging, spot, and evaluative modes found when capturing still images. When used properly, the metering modes on the FZ30 produced accurate and consistent results when manually controlled.

  
                     Fujifilm FinePix S9000                                    Panasonic FZ30 

Color (Advantage: Fujifilm S9000)
The Fujifilm FinePix S9000 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 were tested in full auto mode for color accuracy with both video and still color charts and the results for these cameras in both strongly lit and low light situations were quite revealing. When shooting at a light level of 3000 lux, both cameras displayed footage that strayed heavily in terms of both tonal accuracy and saturation. The FZ30 produced far worse results than the S9000, however, with the camera heavily over and under-saturating the color spectrum. Cooler colors produced by the FZ30, in the blue and magenta areas of the color chart displayed under-saturation while the green, red and yellow areas displayed over-saturation. More worrisome than the over-saturation however was the errant tonal hues which shifted colors like dark blue nearly into the red section of the color spectrum. The S9000 also had problems with saturation when shooting at 3000 lux although more reserved in its extremity when compared to the FZ30. Under-saturated colors were more common with this camera, although again, the real issue revolved around the tonal shifts. These tonal shifts are most noticeable in the red and green sections of the color spectrum although a general inconsistency appears throughout the chart. When it comes to general color accuracy in strongly lit situations neither camera turns in spot-on results, however, the S9000 comes much closer to the ideal.

Fujifilm FinePix S9000



Fujifilm FinePix S9000

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30



Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30

Low Light Performance (Advantage: Panasonic FZ30)
When shooting in low light situations, both in lab tests and with outside scenes, the cameras were able to produce far more accurate saturation levels than when brightly lit. In terms of tonal accuracy in the dimly-lit conditions, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 gained an advantage over the S9000 from the 3000 lux test. The FZ30 produced images that were more saturated and  tonally accurate in comparison to the results of the S9000. The S9000 does have a problem with noise in low light and this is definitely apparent in both the studio and field samples provided. While the noise levels may be problematic, focus and the handling of motion with the S9000 is distinctly better than the blurred and unintelligible findings of the FZ30. Users will find that while noisy, the S9000’s low light video footage will be much more crisp than comparable footage from the FZ30, though the footage may be slightly darker.

Audio (Advantage: Fujifilm S9000)
The audio was lackluster with both models, as might have been expected; each inadvertently recorded handling noise, mechanical noise, and generally suffered from the regular laundry list of problems encountered with a petite, monaural in-camera microphone. Users shouldn’t expect the frequency or dynamic range found with external or in-camera stereo microphones. Monaural recordings reveal inconsistencies, errors and glitches that would normally be balanced and masked by the presence of a second track in the case of stereo recording. When a second microphone is present, the two audio tracks work together to provide cleaner audio in playback. Since both models relied on a single audio track, neither performance was stellar. In general, the Fujifilm FinePix S9000 produced audio that was cleaner and more sensitive to subtleties in terms of both frequency and dynamic levels.

The S9000's video mode has fewer options, but we found that the quality of the video is better than the FZ30's. Our general view of still-camera video modes leans in favor of the "simple-but-usable" variety, and the S9000 is way ahead in our book, although still way behind a true camcorder.