However, it has a reputation for excessively "smeary" noise reduction at higher ISO settings, which can be ameliorated by using the RAW capture mode.

No storage is built into the camera; an MMC, SD, or SDHC memory card is required.

The camera has many SLR-like handling features — dual control wheels for aperture and shutter speed, manual focus (focus-by-wire), zoom rings and a flash hot shoe.

Macro photography is not outstanding (5 cm minimum focal range at 1× zoom), and the tele-macro capability on the lower-end Panasonic FZ models (the ability to focus down to 1 m at 420 mm) is not present; the FZ50 can only focus down to 2 m at 420 mm.

The FZ50 has a screw mount to accept 55 mm filters, and is compatible with a wide variety of Panasonic-branded and third-party lens converters that can provide greater wide-angle, telephoto and close-up capabilities.