This scale, 20X zoom or 40X zoom etc. is just some salesman number invention to make certain cameras attractive to customers who do not know much about cameras.

If we use this method for dslr gear the nikon 18-300 lens on a dx camera would equal ca. 17X zoom, but if you add a 10-20 lens to your gear you would have 30X zoom, and if we talk about FX format cameras and have lenses from 14 mm to 500 mm then I would have almost 36X zoom. But if I would use the 500 mm lens on DX camera and also have a 10 mm wide lens for that camera then I have approx 75X zoom (because the lens equals about 750 mm on DX). But there is actually nothing gained with 75X zoom over 36X, the sensor size makes 36X zoom on full frame about equal to 75X zoom on the DX camera. And actually when you zoom in to 500 mm with 36X FX zoom then you get bigger picture than if you use DX with the same lens. So you really can get more with 36X zoom then 75X zoom.

Conclusion?
The 20X zoom is not telling much unless you have much more info like others have mentioned, about start and end point of the zoom range. And you must calculate for the sensor size as well.

And then you can consider the sensor size you are using, it has a lot to do with how much you can crop your pics and keep up the quality. You may get a much better cropped pic from full frame dslr with 200 mm lens than uncropped with a bridge camera with 20x zoom that could equal 600 mm zoom on the full frame camera. This is because you are using a sensor in the full frame that is about 29x larger than typical bridge camera sensor. A DX sensor is about 15x larger than a typical bridge camera sensor. Size matters, but not only the 20X lens zoom number!

Seems fair to me.

Maybe you need to select to shoot jpg, not raw files. I think you can not do HDR using raw. But the best way to figure it out is to read the manual.

Here is one pic from the photoshoot I mentioned above.
Nikon D600. Sigma 75-200 f3.8 from 1986 modified to be used only as fully manual.
ISO 1250
1/1250 sec.
f8
Handheld shot.

I have a D600 since december and it is the best of my Nikons so far. I have had D100, D50, D80, D200, D3200. I got one with the spots, and it is no problem for me, just use spot removal in Lightroom when needed and now i will clean the sensor as I have seen no new spots for awhile. Have about 3400 frames now. Last week I had the opportunity to go on a high speed SAR (search and rescue) boat in rough seas to watch test drive of another SAR boat and a police boat that followed. I used my D600 and an almost 30 year old Sigma 75-200 f3.8. Then lens has no stabilizer and generally does not work with Nikon dslr's, but according to an advice I came across here on UHH I did some modifications to the lens so I could use it with manual aperture and manual focus. Well, I was on a high speed boat in rough seas shooting other high speed boats in rough seas which means it is a bit difficult to get the gear steady when shooting plus the target is moving and the lens is wet and light is dull, all making focusing more difficult. In fact it was difficult to stay on the boat in upright position with camera in hand. So I was tied to the boat with a safety line attached to a rail around the house of the boat. In attempt to get some good shots I set the aperture ring to f8, the ISO to 1250 and gave it a try. And I got a lot of good shots! It was actually a surprize how easy it is to use D600 with fully manual lens in this situation. This shooting has proven to me the good ISO capabilities of the D600 and it has also proven to me that the D600 is well weather sealed. My gear and myself were all soaking wet. I could only have given my D600 a harder water test by literally dipping it in the sea. In my mind the D600 is as good camera as they get these days plus it is the cheapest full frame.

Another thing I like about this camera is that the good ISO capabilities it has gives the chance to get a new life for your old lenses. It is possible to replace stabilizer with ISO using this camera.

And the last thing I learned on this photoshoot is that autofocus is highly overrated. In fact it was much easier to focus manually on this photoshoot than it usually is to use autofocus.

However I disagree with people who want to upgrade from DX to full frame. I like to have both formats, they are a bit different to use and each format is sometimes better than the other. So I recommend not to upgrade to full frame but to add full frame!

Get a new glass for your D80, it would be a good choice. The lumix you have in mind can not compete with the D80 in quality and even less with a D7000 or D7100. It simply does not have the sensor size needed for high quality pics. But the need fir quality pics on the other hand depends on how you use your pics.. So if you are not doing large prints or looking at your pics on big screen tv etc then the lumix can be ok.

Any info available on how the first one is done? It is very good...!!

Canon 5DmIII and nikon D800 at the same price. If you are thinking of spending $2800 on new camera you get a lot more for your money in a D800.

I bought my first full frame in Dec 2012 and my choice was Nikon D600. It has all I needed plus I can use my old Nikon glass and it was the best priced of them all. I was also considering Nikon D800, Canon 5DM1, 2 and 3.

I love them.

Thanks, I need to try this. It is always fun to do something new.

we are cleaning the filter, but as the sensor records the dirt, we talk about cleaning the sensor.

Nikon D600 in the bag. D200, D80, D3200, D50, D100 and some film cameras here and there

you can also figure out by file size, raw is always bigger file.

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