FZ1000 cropped or FZ300 at 600mm ?

FZ300 at E600mm f4 full area

This question comes up  fairly often on user forums.

The FZ300  zooms out to (full frame equivalent) 600mm on a 12 Mpx sensor in 4:3 aspect ratio.

The FZ1000 zooms out to E400mm on a 20 Mpx sensor in 3:2 aspect ratio. 

When cropped to the same effective angle of view as the FZ300 an image from the FZ1000 will have about 8.6 Mpx. It is a bit difficult getting them exactly the same because of the different aspect ratios.

So on the numbers and assuming the lenses are of equal quality the FZ300 should come out slightly ahead at E600mm.

I photographed a scene at about 750 meters from the camera, hand held with OIS on, with the FZ1000 at E400mm, f4  and the FZ300 at E600mm, f4.

The sun had moved between the sets of photos which accounts for most of the difference in the appearance of the resulting photos.

In terms of resolution/sharpness I could not separate them.

FZ300 crop from the top photo to show detail.  We tend to get a bit blase about camera/lens capabilities these days.  This is actually an amazingly good result for a consumer superzoom camera hand held at very long equivalent focal length.

FZ1000 at E400mm full area

FZ1000 cropped to approximately the same angle of view as the FZ300 picture

Conclusion

The FZ1000 is as good as the FZ300 at E600mm and better at all shorter focal lengths.

The FZ1000 is easier to use for sport/action/BIF and similar because you can shoot a wider angle which makes keeping the subject in frame easier,  crop later and still get a usable result.

Both cameras are decently capable of holding focus on moving subjects.

The FZ300 might be preferred over the FZ1000 for weather sealing, lower cost, lower mass,  smaller size and availability of f2.8 aperture at all focal lengths.