Panasonic FZ5 Noise Report

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

This is part of what www.digitalcamerainfo.com actually said that
alarmed me. If you need smaller aperture and a hand holdable shutter
speed you have little choice than to shoot at ISO400. And look at what
they say:

"the resulting images are fraught with noise and rendered virtually
unusable"

I certainly want to know why they said this.

The 3.52 score still indicates the camera’s difficulty handling noise,
even when the user sets the sensitivity rating. The issue stems from the
limited sensitivity ratings offered: 80, 100, 200, and 400. While the
ISO 80 setting is a fortunate inclusion to ensure that crisp images are
recorded with utter clarity in abundant lighting (beyond the ISO 100’s
capabilities), the ISO 200 and 400 settings are completely ineffective.
As is evident in the chart above, the FZ5 will provide images with
adequate clarity and definition when the ISO 80 or 100 settings are
used; however, once it is pushed to ISO 200 or ISO 400, the resulting
images are fraught with noise and rendered virtually unusable.