Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ82: Wildlife video at extreme range

Readers of my previous post on the Lumix FZ82 bridge camera will know that it is a mixed bag. Some features I like; some desirable features are missing; implementation of some features is poor. However, I have it for its very long focal length. With 4K video the 25 mm equivalent maximum focal length is 1,680 mm.

On the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan, China, last November I used it to take videos of Blue Sheep a very long way away on an alpine meadow and of Pallas’s Cats also a long way away. I had the camera mounted on a Manfrotto Befree Live Video tripod. The wind was strong and gusting and even the crumbly soil (undermined by Plateau Pikas) caused a wobble. I could have done with having the tripod at minimum height but the camera does has not have a moveable screen!

At maximum focal length shimmer caused by warmed air rising is always a problem that nothing can be done about.

The footage is 4K. I was outputting at 1080 so could scale up by a factor of two if necessary, i.e. to the equivalent of about 3,500 mm. Yes, on a full-frame 35 mm camera and a non-telephoto design, that’s a lens 3½ metres or 11½ feet long.

Here are some examples:

Video at these extremes and under such conditions is like the dog that talked with a Birmingham accent. The remarkable thing is not the accent but the fact that it could talk at all.

I also used the camera at a long focal length to take close shots of a Plateau Pika. The distance—and, therefore, shimmer—was much less evident.

These are the full versions of the videos on Youtube (most of the footage is from my Sony AX33):

Is there a non-professional and light camera that in the conditions could have done better?