Both say right now, I do not like small digital camera. Personally I prefer a camera bigger and heavier with a very good grip as are most of the reflex and it's obviously one of the characteristics that I find interesting in the FZ50.

The FZ150 weighs 200 g less than an FZ50 and 400 g less than the new Fujifilm X-S1, for those who want a light and powerful camera it's an advantage, not for me.

Specifically, the clearance for the thumb is small enough and if we take the FZ150 with the whole hand, thumb covering the buttons with the risk of accidentally press it (left). We must therefore dismiss the thumb a little, which is a little more uncomfortable and less accurate for shooting (right).
Let's not exaggerate, it's only a matter of practice and those who have the habit of using a compact camera will not be embarrassed.

Click to Enlarge!

FZ150

FZ150

The FZ50, by its size, has a large space that can well take over without covering the function buttons.

FZ50

In addition, Panasonic had the bad idea to put the screw near the SD card and battery access door.
Result, the door is condemned when the camera is mounted on a tripod.

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To see the noise, I redo the test of the black lens cap photo.
It has absolutely no interest in photography, but it can "see" the noise generated by the sensor.

To do that, it's very simple, just take pictures in JPG and RAW with the lens cap.
JPG images show only black because they are processed by the camera that remove the noise, but not for normal photos. But the RAW will "show the noise" at the same time that the sensitivity increases.

I used SILKYPIX standard settings to develop JPG photos.
What we see will never be visible in this way with normal photos, it's just to compare each RAW level noise generated for both cameras.

RAW files are being very heavy and with no interest, there is just the comparative side by side with FastStone.
The complete test is available in SmugMug.

All the cameras settings are on 'Standard'.

Left FZ50 - CCD Sensor - Right FZ150 - MOS Sensor

Click to Enlarge!

RAW - ISO 100

RAW - ISO 200

The difference is imperceptible to ISO 100 and ISO 200 very low.

Left FZ50 - Right FZ150

RAW - ISO 400

RAW - ISO 800

From ISO 400 the difference is clear for the FZ150.

Left FZ50 - FZ150 Middle and Right

RAW - FZ50 ISO 1600 - FZ150 ISO 1600 and 3200

At ISO 1600 noise is present and the difference with the FZ50 is important.

Left FZ50 - FZ150 Middle and Right

RAW - FZ50 ISO 200 - FZ150 ISO 400 et 800

By comparing FZ50 ISO 200 with FZ150 ISO 400 and ISO 800, we find that the ISO 200 FZ50 are slightly worse than the FZ150 ISO 400.
The gap must be of the order of one diaphragm 1/2 which almost compensates the difference between f/3.7 and f/4.3 to 420 mm.

For now it's theoretical, we will see if this is confirmed with real photos.

FZ150
Left RAW - Right JPG

FZ150 ISO 3200 RAW and JPG

The black lens cap photo shows some noise at jpg ISO 3200, but we can see that the treatment is effective compared to RAW.
The noise reduction will be more or less important on a normal picture and will result a loss of details which is not seen on this test.

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FZ150
Wb AUTO >

FZ50
Wb AUTO >

FZ150
< Manual Wb

FZ50
< Manual Wb