Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a top of the line point'n shoot camera. Without any doubt the 12x optical zoom with image stabilizing and fast 2.8f aperture along the whole zoom range of 35-420 mm (35mm equiv.) are the icing on the cake. Nevertheless I'm slightly dissapointed about this camera because the specs read like my dream camera and the engineers from Panasonic just couldn't keep it together. Why? - I will cover this later.
I was so anxious about getting my set together that I bought a bag first going by the size of the FZ1 - big mistake. The FZ10 is about double the size. Definitly no camera to slip in your pocket.
Battery are pretty expensive, about 50$ a piece. A good replacement, not from Panasonic but way cheaper and even higher in the mAh rating is AC-CGAS002 (the barn were you get 'em from is great). Charge and running time equal almost 1hr.
The Tripod adapter blocks access to the battery and memory compartment.
In dcresource the macro is described to work only in the automatic macro mode. So you couldn`t go by your own settings (manual). Good news - not true-. What is also not described in the manual, the camera does the same macro in manual mode. Literally up to the lense, almost touching it, with super sharp images.
Personally, I do prefer the manual mode for several reasons and this is where my dissapointment starts. In a dim light situation, still enough to take a decent picture, the LCD is pitch black. It is not broken, that's just the way it is. The techs from Panasonic told me something about achery techniques and how to shoot over the body. I call it a "Misconception". Also the brightness of the flash is not displayed, saying the LCD should get brighter when flash is activated. Still you get nice pictures - with dim light focusing slightly advanced to some other digital pointers- just you don't see the composition and focusing. I consider this the major drawback of this camera. Surprisingly enough though, if you switch to Automatic mode the LCD display in the very same dim light situation with exactly the same setting, is fine. Aperture- or Shutter priority are also good in this respect. I say it again, this applies only to dim light situations in manual mode. In standard light situations you won't notice.
Talking about low light situations, the flash is quite impressiv. Gives you also the option to compensate (-2/+2). This is very helpful if you don't wanna compensate the flash by shutter/aperture.
Lense cap has no string to hold it to the body - risk of losing it.
I am an avid Photoshop user. So I like the auto braket function to take 3 consecutive shots with different esposures for different layers in the software. Still after every shot you have to kick the bracket in again. There is no button to enable this function permanently like cameras for only a fraction of the price do. I wouldn't mind that if it were not so long winded to get to that function. Between changing the shutter/aperture in Manual mode, engaging the bracket to -1/+1 and back again, it is necessary to push 9 buttons. (Wanna count? exposure/dial up/3x dial right/3xdial up/exposure.) And this after every shot, huhhh.
Most people won't mind, but it takes only jpeg format. No non-compression formats available. This camera lets me take considerably more pictures (about 165) with 256mb than my Dimage s414 (about 125), which also happens to be a 4 MP camera - each camera in the best jpeg settings. With best settings this camera takes file sizes wich average about 1,5MB (Dimage S414 about 2MB). OK not every manufacture uses compression to the same extend, and in this setting Panasonic has surely found a nice compromise between quality and compression. Still I would be happier if Panasonic had tweaked its compession less aggressively, in order to achieve higher quality (but lager file size). Expecially since non-compression is missing and this camera is supposingly more oriented towards the prosumer section.
Nevertheless the picture quality is superb across the whole zoom range (the lense seems to make up for it).
I read reviews were people complained about noise. I figure they chose the wrong ISO (Auto ISO?). Try to use 100, 50 if possible. Everything from ISO 200 on gets indeed noisy, so is it with other cameras. And the fast lense 2.8f over the whole zoom range together with the Image Stabilizer give you quite some options here.
The image stabilizer works great. I think this feature should become as much of an standard as it is for camcorders. This from Panasonic should be a wake up call for the other manufactures to install it in there ultrazooms.
Very positive is the overall speed of the camera. SD memory might help it. Run-up, Burst mode and time between shots is very fast. High Burst gets you 4-5 shots in 2sec. After that you are ready again after about 4 sec. I consider this to be very fast. The only issue in the Burst mode is that it freezes the picture in the LCD screen. Burst makes sense for moving objects. And that is were you find it almost impossible to keep your object in focus when you just see a series of taken pictures with a delay of about 0.5 seconds.
The purple fringing, which often comes along with extreme zoom lenses seems to be moderate. I haven't seen any so far with taken lots of pictures in situations where this is supposed to be most present, like against the sun with darker objects in front. Still it is mentioned in some of the reviews.
Verdict:
Even thought I wrote critically this shouldn`t distract from the fact that this is a state of the art point'n shoot camera with a great Leica lense and a stabilazation system you won't find in any other model of this category.
So giving away some of my high expectations this is still an excellent camera which will epeal to the advanced photographer with a need for an extreme zoom.
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