Testing the Lumix DMC-FZ300 on the Job

My Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 arrived yesterday and I have to admit I was a little leary of purchasing a Bridge camera (between a point-and-shoot and DSLR) instead of upgrading my T3i. However, I also feel like I DID actually upgrade from my T3i, which was manufactured in 2011.

I won't go into all the details about the Lumix DMC-FZ300, other than a quick overview of 4K video, RAW ability, a 25-600 zoom at 2.8 from wide to full tele (huge advantage), and some very modern features like face-detection, and AutoFocus Continuous, which follows the subject as it moves, both of the latter are a big benefit to street photography, not to mention the wifi app that allows camera control from the iPhone for even more stealth street shooting.

I also ordered a second battery for the Lumix DMC-FZ300, which I was lucky enough to have show up before I make my trip to the Greencastle, IN Music Fest in western Indiana tomorrow evening to shoot the event for the organizers. The event typically draws several thousand people over the two-day event. My job will be to photograph the people enjoying the event, as well as the handful of bands performing.

I can't think of a better way to try the Lumix DMC-FZ300 out in several different lighting situations. While I will definitely be taking my Canon T3i to get a majority of the images needed, I will use the Lumix DMC-FZ300  in abundance as well, and will assume I will get hundreds of usable images as well.

The only issue that had me frantically searching for a solution last night at 1am was the fact that Lightroom does not recognize the .RW2 raw files produced by the Lumix DMC-FZ300. This had me thinking I had make a mistake in purchasing the camera, as I couldn't imagine developing without using my usual Lightroom workflow.

Alas, there is an easy solution. I searched and found others with the same issue, and rectified the situation by simply downloading and installing Adobe DNG converter. It takes literally seconds for the RW2 files to be converted to DNG files, which are easily imported into Lightroom.

I also found out in my search that it seems to be a better idea to convert ALL files to DNG instead of original CR2 from my Canon, since the CR2's use a second file to keep the edit/image info. But DNG files write the data directly into the same image file. I'll be looking into the idea of converting all my previous 12 years of CR2's into DNGs, but that's for another time.

For now, I'm off to Greencastle with my Lumix DMC-FZ300 and my Canon T3i, and will update this post with a review of the performance of the Lumix DMC-FZ300 when I return later this week.