You have touched upon my favorite issue. As a member of the WestBridge Camera Club several members have moved from the big equipment Canon and Nikon promote and have looked at the Mirrorless lines of cameras. I just returned from a trip down the Columbia River. shot over 3,000 images with my Panasonic Lumix FZ200. (now replaced by the FZ300). The Camera weighs under a pound, Has German Leitz optics, 25 to 300mm zoom at a constant f2.8 and enough electronic switches with 15 presets to make you refer to the manual constantly. I print with a Canon Pro-10 printer and find the sharpness of the images excellent at 13x19". I do not use a tripod but find hand held dark shots at 1/15 very easy to hold. I've abandoned my backpack of hardware and the many shots i missed changing lenses. Check it out you may be surprised. Oh and the camera cost with the optics is under $400.00.

Check the Set up screen. On the "Rec" menu, Line item 1 fourth item down is "Quality". Make certain the camera is set for "Raw and 6 squares". There are 3 other settings. "Raw with 3 squares", just "Raw" and just "6 squares".
The squares represent the resolution in JPG. I've shot "Raw with 3 squares"and had similar bad results. You may be able to salvage the photos using Topaz Denoise5.

The attached JPG photo of the moon was shot handheld at night with the camera set at 96 times full frame with no loss of clarity.

I hope this helps. Again look up Graham Houghton on the internet he has great videos on how to use this camera.

I am a member of a very active local Photo Club that meets twice a month.

The debate between Nikon and Canon go on at each meeting and I personally use a Canon 7D with all the trimmings. However, for trips and around town street photography about a dozen of our members bought into the Panasonic Lumix series of mirror-less cameras. My personal favorite is the DMC FZ-200 which has a 28-600mm Leica lens.The marriage of Japanese Electronics with German optics is spectacular with a complete f2.8 aperture thru the entire optics range. This Bridge Camera arrived in the fall of 2012 with little fan fare for about $600 and now can be bought for about $425. The manufacturers documentation is unreadable but an English reviewer has issued a number of great free videos as well as a free Users Manual. Check out Graham Houghton on the net. Hope you like it as much as we do.

I've taken the chip out of the case. attached 2 photos show top and bottom with crack in chip. Not what I first thought. I guess it's toast....

3 more photos

Has anyone had luck rescuing photos from dog damaged chip. Bite did not touch internal chip but damaged case and apparently broke several connections.
Peter Lenz

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In December 2013 Panasonic came out with a mirror-less fixed lens "bridge camera. Model "LUMIX DMC FZ200". 8 of us, in our photo club bought the little camera and it is amazing. The lens is a Leica Vario-Elmarit 18-600mm with a constant f2.8 aperture thru the entire range. The panasonic electronics are supurb. I personally now only use my Canon 7D occasionally and at 1.5 pounds the little camera generally meets my photography needs. Between us we have gotten club recognition with a number of awards for the quality of the end product images. The Camera was originally sold for $600.00 US, but I've recently seen it advertized under $300. I suggest you check this out if you want a little camera with a big pedigree.