Aircraft shooting with a small-sensor superzoom

[mjkerpan]

Most people here seem to be using DSLRs, myself included, but upon reading some reviews of the new Panasonic superzoom, which has DSLR-like (aka virtually no) shutter lag and a lens that is long (480mm equivalent), sharp and fairly fast (f/4.4 at maximum zoom length), I'm starting to wonder if something like this might be valuable for aviation photography, especially given the fact that it's small enough not to be easily noticed by paranoid busybodies (It's a bit smaller than the average DSLR+kit lens combo, so it's MUCH smaller than any DSLR with an equivalently long lens) and cheap (It seems to be selling for about $400 US)

My question is simple: is anybody else using something like this, and if so, how is it working out for them?

[kukkudrill]

I've never used the Panasonic but any small-sensor camera will be noisy and above ISO200 it will produce very poor quality images by comparison with a DLSR. I dare say, however, that in good light images are still likely to be good enough for Jetphotos (if that's what you mean by viable for aviation photography).

Also, compacts usually take longer to focus than a DSLR and do so less accurately with moving subjects.

Another issue is how easy it is to zoom while composing a shot. The compact superzoom I used to use had a zoom lever around the shutter button so you had to take your finger off the shutter to zoom, which basically meant forgetting about zooming while tracking a subject. You had to estimate in advance how much zoom you were likely to need to catch, say, a takeoff because you wouldn't have time to readjust before taking the shot.

In other words you won't get as many keepers as you would with a DSLR, but you'd still get many at least in fine weather conditions. If you can't use a DSLR, a good compact superzoom will serve you reasonably well.

[B7772ADL]

As mentioned above, i'd hazard a guess that noise will be an issue due to the nature of the sensor used in p&s units.

[heez10]

For me the biggest problem with my P&Ss has been the slowness of the camera as when adjusting the zoom between shots, quality has not been a big problem with ground shots, unfortunately I have not been to a major airport since I got my DSLR.

[seahawk]

Well, if you have lots of sunny weather and can accept a higher percentage of not useable images it works.
Taxiing planes will work better then flying and forget about anything small and fast like military jets.