BACKGROUND:.I’ve been a hobby photographer pretty much all my life and honed my photography skills on a 35mm Canon EOS 650 in the nineties. I wanted to go back to a decent camera after using my phone most recently. I hated carrying that big camera bag of accessories!Bridge cameras seemed the way to go for a reasonably priced all-in-one camera, but I’d have to accept the low light limitations, greater depth of field, and the lower overall quality from the small 1/2.3 sensors. Low light is not that big a deal when I have a very capable phone for those occasions.I finally decided upon the Panasonic Lumix FZ300. It is a very budget-friendly price and, most importantly, has a 25 to 600mm, 35mm equivalent focal length zoom lens with maximum f2.8 throughout that focal range. I’d have to spend maybe $10k to get the equivalent capability with a DSLR and a constant f2.8 is unheard of with bridge cameras. That’s a great feature. Of course, you have to consider that f2.8 from a cropped sensor camera like the FZ300 is actually a 35mm equivalent of f16. So, getting a shallow depth of field is a challenge, though not impossible with a longer zoom setting and large subject-to-background spacing..BUILD/ERGONOMICS:.The FZ300 is a very well-built camera. It is not too heavy or bulky, but it feels solid and there are no parts which feel cheap. The dials have a good detent, the buttons work well and the zoom is smooth throughout its travel. The camera just feels ‘right’ in the hands, though with an extended zoom, I do have to get used to holding my left hand under the shorter, fixed part of the lens body, rather than out at the front on the extending portion. I don’t want to overload the motor or put undue sideways force on the zoom. I like how the lens hood can be reversed and stowed on the lens.Once you get used to the location of the buttons, it’s fairly easy to find what you need without taking your eyes off the scene on the monitor or the view finder.You'll need to buy an extra battery or two as it only lasts a maximum of 350 shots and takes at least a couple hours to recharge..FUNCTIONALITY:.This camera has all the same functions as a DSLR, including time-lapse. So, this is definitely way beyond a point-and-shoot camera. If you don’t know the basics of photography or don’t want to spend the time it takes to learn, don’t buy this camera.You will also need to play with the settings to get the best from this camera. It’s very easy to get poor quality photos. The two Intelligent Auto (IA) modes help the amateur but are not foolproof.The 25 to 600mmm zoom lens is an excellent feature for both macro and long-distance photos all in the same camera. The fully tiltable and articulating view monitor is a must-have. Both the electronic viewfinder and monitor are very detailed, clear, and bright.So far, I’ve taken only about 50 shots. I’d watched Graham Houghton’s superb tutorial videos on YT for the FZ series of Lumix cameras, but it still took some head-scratching to work out what was going on at certain points. As with any new camera, trying to remember where the menu settings are is a mental challenge. Then, some settings disable other options. For example, the flash wouldn’t work. The manual didn’t help. By trial and error, I found that selecting SILENT MODE not only turns off all beeps and shutter sounds, but it also disables the flash! STEALTH MODE might be a better description. You can actually set the volume of the beeps elsewhere in the menu with 3 levels from OFF to HIGH, which allows the flash to work with no camera sounds. Also, I couldn’t get a shutter speed longer than 1 second. It turned out that selecting electronic shutter, instead of mechanical, limits the shutter speed range. Reverting to mechanical shutter and I was able to achieve a 60s exposure time.With a 600mm zoom range, camera shake is a major problem for great shots. The on-board optical stabilization (vertical and horizontal) does not eliminate that, though it’s a useful aid. A tripod is a must in those cases, unless you have lots of light, and then you can get some great pictures from the FZ300. You also have the iZOOM function which doubles the zoom. It works similar to cropping and enlarging in a PC, but only on the JPEG files, not RAW. I find just cropping in post-processing on a PC provides a less noisy image. Digital Zoom, which adds another 2x zoom, is rarely worth using unless you must get that shot. The quality is pretty poor.I have found the 4K BURST MODE particularly useful for animal shots. The camera takes a 4K video and, in-camera not on your PC, you can extract individual JPEG frames and save them as 8MP photos. Most of the animal shots in this review are 4K Burst frames. I can never get a good single shot with fast-moving critters!The flash is pretty powerful, though utilitarian. My dog shot is with the flash in a dark room from about 8ft. At 20ft, the illumination gets a little weak for a nice shot.Focus seems fast and precise, though spot focusing doesn’t always find its mark.With the f16, 35mm equivalent aperture, it is not like a DSLR when trying to achieve minimal depth of field. You have to have a good distance between your subject and the background, plus use a higher zoom factor. I miss what I could do with my 650’s larger effective apertures.I’ve yet to use the camera's 4k Video mode, other than the attached slow-motion clip, created with no preparation, just hitting the record button. Video is not something I’d use very often to be honest..OVERALL QUALITY:.With good lighting, a still camera and the optimum settings, this camera produces good images. They do lack some sharpness.As mentioned, bridge cameras perform poorly in low light. The FZ300 optimum settings for best quality are f4 and an ISO of 100. With a long exposure and those two key settings, the quality is very good. Of course, you have up to ISO 6400 and you can always use noise as part of your artistic photography.However, I typically post-process my RAW files to optimize what I take. Most of my shots here are post-processed to improve sharpness, exposure, composition, and color and they show the best you can get from this camera.The shot of the field and the distant green toy is the JPEG straight from the camera, handheld at a wide 25mm focal length, f2.8, 1/500s and ISO 100 on a very overcast, dull day at noon. No post processing. The camera is reaching about 135 yards. The close-up is the complete 135-yard view at full zoom (600mm) and the extreme close-up is just cropping that image to show the image at 100% actual size. The quality with diffuse light is excellent..APP SUPPORT:.Quite frankly the app isn’t worth bothering with unless you absolutely need it.Firstly, I couldn’t get it to open and stay open in Android 13. I found that was because, if you don’t give permission for Location to be on all the time, not just when the app is open, when setting up the app, the app will open and immediately close without any notification as to why. Once the app stays open, you have to try and connect to the camera’s WiFi. The whole process is VERY slow and you think it isn’t working, then suddenly it connects. Do NOT cancel the pop-up message that appears. If you do the connection process is cancelled. Leave it and eventually the connection might be made. When you do get connected, you’ll likely lose the connection in the app at some point and have to start all over, even though the camera still indicates it is connected and the phone also says it’s connected. VERY frustrating.I did manage to remotely take a photo and transfer that photo to my phone. It was quite a fast transfer with a connection speed of 72mbps. However, I initially kept getting a message that stated ‘this function is not yet available’ when I clicked the transfer icon, until I found an option with all the camera photos displayed in a grid, where selecting one and sending that to the phone actually worked..CONCLUSION:.So far, I’m impressed with the value of this camera. It does a lot for comparatively little. Yes, it’s not as high resolution as an expensive DSLR, but it is capable of some great photos, though those do take some effort, and technique relearning, to get a really high-quality photo. Do some off-camera processing and the photos really can shine. That f2.8, 25-600mm lens is an awesome feature.The FZ300 is only 12MP, (it sounds low for today’s cameras), but an 8 x11 print only needs an 8MP, 300 dpi shot for a high-quality rendering. A 4k TV also needs only 8mp. Higher pixel count is just marketing hype for photographers like me, and most of you. Don’t be put off by the number on the FZ300.The app support was very disappointing and removes one of the features I was really looking to use for remote control of time lapse and bird photography..I can certainly recommend this camera if you want a budget camera with expensive features which does a superb job for the price.