What camera should I buy?

Nature Talk
#21

If you can find which Leica compacts have a Panasonic version - the Panasonic version is same glass (lens) but you aren’t paying for the name and the UI software is a bit different otherwise it is the same camera

Ex: Panasonic ZS200 is 'the same" as Leica C-lux, offering a 24-360mm equivalent lens in a tiny package. New about $600, used around $200-$300. The Leica version? $1200.

All the Lumix cameras I have loved were Panasonic branding of the high quality Leica cameras :)

#22

Do you know if that’s true for the fz-80 (or 82) cameras?

#23

FZ80 is not leica at all; I dont know about the 82.

#24

I kinda figured, judging by the ticket price.

It sounds like you’re stuck in a very tricky user group: people who need a ‘reasonably affordable’, rugged, compact bridge that can handle near microscopic with a full range (true) f-stop lens.

Or maybe the ‘lensless’ camera is closer than imagined? (Of course, you’d need a bigger, faster processor…

#25

For myself; I adore my Lumix LX100 (and prior to that, LX3). These are based on Leica but I personally do not need zoom for birds; the OP wanted that :)
I need wide angle mostly, and hotshoe, for cave photography (sunguramy.com) that has macro ability for the bio work; which the LX100 is perfect for. Sadly it isn’t weather sealed…I keep hoping for sealing on future models. The LX3 actually holds up better to cave environ; but the IQ is much less than LX100, being so old and a much smaller sensor.
I dipped into the olympus tg6 for having a good macro when the caves are particularly muddy & wet & crawly, which is more often than not for the cave bio. If the lx100 came in a sealed version that would be idyllic! Or I would absolutly love to find a panasonic GM5: the smalled m4/3 system camera ever made <3 it is so teeny but all the packed features and I could throw a wide angle macro on it and it would still be smaller than my LX100!

1 Like
#26

Thank you so much for all of the replies everyone!

#27

An example of what kind of camera’s is used in iNaturalist you can find Excel document with list of camera’s used in iNaturalist:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fliiB5RgbYx9-N88R-xPMsUfDVjfnLLo9p_tKERKJrQ/edit?usp=sharing