Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 12.1MP Digital Camera with 18x POWER Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD
From the Manufacturer
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 features AVCHD Lite, High Definition (HD) video recording capability, combined with a powerful 27mm wide-angle, 18x optical zoom Leica DC lens. A successor to the popular FZ28, the FZ35 packs enhanced creative features combined with the power to shoot HD videos, including motion zoom capabilities to take full advantage of the 18x zoom. The operational layout of the FZ35 includes a dedicated video record button, making it a true (further details about this electronic product…)
Rio said
January 8 2010 @ 10:41 am
This is the first of the Panasonic Lumix superzooms that I’ve had an opportunity to use extensively. I regularly use both small point and shoot digital cameras (Canon SD550 and a waterproofed Canon S100) and digital SLRs (Canon 5D and Rebel XTi), but this is definitely a different sort of beast. It’s nearly the size and weight of a DSLR with a lens that is noticeably long in use. It’s sold as straddling the line between the two categories and it initially seems that way. But the more that I think about it, the more I think this camera really fills a different niche. If you’re a serious photographer, a DSLR is really the way to go. You get full control over the images, a large sensor size, a selection of lenses, and filter options. If you’re that person, this is hardly a replacement, and for the compact point and shooter this is a massive camera. Where this camera wins out is for a very simple kit covering wide angle (27mm equivalent for a 35mm camera) and the stunning 18x zoom. You’ll be able to do most everything passably with this camera and with no additional lenses. Maybe this is the camera to put in the glovebox of your car? It’ll always be there, and you can get most any shot with it. No preparation needed. Okay, enough thinking about who wants the camera, how does it work?
Well, it works pretty darned well. The image stabilizer seems to work extremely well, especially at moderate zoom (say 50-150mm equivalent), the battery lasted about 300 shots with some flash use in there, and image quality (subjective, not measured scientifically) was quite good. The camera was a bit slow to react at times though and the face detection works only occasionally. Still, that leaves this a solid camera for what I think is a quite good price. If you’re not going to take advantage of the DSLR capabilities, this is a good functional camera for you. Or an excellent second camera for simplicity.
Pros: 18x zoom with a genuine wide angle, solid construction, good battery life, image stabilization that works, one size might well fit many
Cons: big for a point and shoot, slow acting at times, gimmicky features are, well, gimmicks
Jael said
January 8 2010 @ 1:13 pm
As a serious amateur, I’ve been fortunate enough to own a number of point and shoots including Panasonic, Fuji, several Nikon’s, & a couple of Canon’s. All have had their strong points and I’m not a brand loyalist by any means, but after a couple of weeks, I must say I absolutely love this camera.
My first impressions were ones of pleasant shock. The camera seemed smaller than in the pictures and if it seemed smaller, it seemed doubly more so in terms of weight. Compared to my SLR this thing is an absolute lightweight but very well built and certainly heavier than the smaller ‘in your pocket’ point and shoots. A great balance…although I wouldn’t want to drop it. Some strategically placed silicone on the housing would make this a bit more rugged without much if any impact on cost. Powerup is about as fast as you can bring the camera up to your face – amongst the best of the point and shoots. Controls are easy to use and I like the mini joystick for making on the fly adjustments in manual and scene modes. The menus are fairly well laid out although some items I had to resort to the manual to find their location for the first time.
The iA or Intelligent Auto function gave consistently above par picture quality, although I was always able to tweak it better myself (this could have been as much preference as anything). The AVCHD and HD movies worked absolutely flawless with my Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]. (NOTE:Make sure you lowlevel format these SDHC cards a COUPLE of times BEFORE first use). I do wish that you could use the normal shutter release instead of the dedicated movie button on the back face when in movie mode. I kept forgetting and tried to stop the movies using the shutter button instead of the record button. Minor nuisance, but will be overcome as I get my brain wrapped around the change in button locations.
The battery worked well past 300 stills and about 35 clips, so I am very pleased with it with the LCD display being used for most of the shots. I purchase another spare battery;Lenmar DLP006 Lithium-ion Digital Camera/Camcorder Battery Equivelent to the Panasonic CGR-S006A Battery, also available here at Amazon, and it appears to be working about as well as the original Panasonic (a great buy). The EVF or Electronic View Finder was very handy, although most of the overlaid information is very hard to distinguish in the small EVF. I CAN’T BELIEVE PANASONIC DIDN’T INCLUDE A RUBBER BOOT FOR THE EVF! Please someone, anyone, make it as an accessory.
The EZ or Extra Zoom function is quite handy. Using this feature, you can shoot at lower resolutions and get more effective zooming power out of the camera…over 30x and it works very well. The LCD screen is clear and crisp, but its performance in high ambient light is about average. Thank goodness for the electronic view finder mentioned above.
Image stabilization is the absolute best amongst my camera collection and is especially noticeable in low light and full zoom. I was pleasantly surprised how well I could take indoor pictures at night with a simple tweak of the exposure. Far better than any of my other point and shoots, although nowhere near my SLR.
The standard 3picture burst mode was fairly standard and unimpressive, but the 10pics per second for speed priority and 6 pics per second in image priority burst mode worked well for catching difficult shots like geese landing on the water and children jumping out of swings, but I still wish the resolution and picture quality was better in these modes. Still, for a point and shoot, it’s ability to catch the fast action is at the top of it’s class.
The lens cap interferes with zoom, but the camera will kindly remind you that you have left it on with a 17,000 volt discharge…just kidding…it will tell you on the LCD screen.
LIKES: Ease of use, picture quality, zoom and extra zoom, HD movie, lightweight, stop action. BEST Point and Shoot I’ve ever owned ! ! !
DISLIKES: (all minor) No eyepiece boot for EVF, lens cap interferes with zoom, tripod mount interferes with battery/memory door when in use. Only 10 sec. max on the built in timer.
Ottavia said
January 8 2010 @ 1:56 pm
(Copy of a review posted on the UK site – this is the FZ38 over there)
This is an initial review after one day of ownership, which I’ll revise. My previous experience of digital cameras is limited to a Nikon Coolpix compact, now about 7 years old, and this camera is intended to replace the Nikon film SLR and three lenses which I’ve lugged around on holidays for 10-15 years. So some things that are amazing me will be just what you expect if you’re used to similar cameras.
From that standpoint, the first thing to amaze me is the weight. Complete with battery, SDHC card, lens cap, lens hood and shoulder strap, it’s 1lb 1oz on the kitchen scales. And there’s very little to add in the accessory line – a clear and polarising filter (unlike some ‘bridge’ cameras, this one has a filter screw thread), spare battery, blower brush and mini-tripod from old stock and a new bag, and we’re done. This probably means the full kit weighing less than the SLR with mid-range zoom.
One reason for persevering with the SLR was being able to use an 18-35 mm lens for wide-angle shots. As the wide end of this camera is only equivalent to 27mm, I was pleased to see the panorama assist facility, and will be testing out the “stitching” software supplied with it to see whether I can still get a picture of a cathedral from the square in front of it. (An initial experiment suggests that given a level tripod, some good results should be available). At the narrow end, you don’t get the same power as the 24x or 26x alternatives, but with my previous range of 18-300mm, I used the 300 end less often than the 18, so probably not a big issue unless you’re snapping birds or cricketers. (You can have 32x if you reduce image size to 3Gb, but a very quick comparison suggests that unless stuck for memory space you may as well use 18x/12Mb and crop the picture later.)
The next big surprise was the quality of the results from “Intelligent Auto” mode. As soon as the battery was charged, I went outside and snapped away without worrying about where the sun was, or anything else I’d have pondered with the SLR. Results were very good, so you can do some very lazy photography, and if one or all users of the camera have never cared about shutter speeds and exposure compensation, it barely matters – Intelligent Auto and some other top-wheel choices like the scene mode will do most of the work.
I haven’t yet tried the movie-making side, though that’s not of great interest to me.
Various minor points:
The supplied Photofun Studio 4 software says that it doesn’t support 64-bit Windows Vista, but does install and seems to work OK.
You do NOT get a printed copy of the full manual, just a short ‘Getting started’ guide. The full manual in PDF is supplied on CD and you can find it and read it on the Panasonic website before buying, but I would have liked to have to whole thing – spare time on holidays is an ideal time for reading it. As and when we have a netbook PC for keeping and editing pictures, this issue will disappear!
The lens hood is easy enough to fit but its guide mark is unhelpfully placed on the bottom of the camera and common-sense fitting by eye without inverting the camera works just as well. The lens cap fits on the screw-in ring to which you attach the hood, though I’ve not yet checked whether you can stick this whole lot in front of a lens-protecting filter without vignetting or other trouble.
The square “+/-” symbol on the display may cause mild panic if you’re used to an old SLR’s top-panel display, where the symbol itself indicates under/overexposure. On the FZ38, it doesn’t unless there is a number next to it. The display options are worth exploring – the guidelines option is a boon for lining up, and when displaying pictures, you can optionally show a lot of information like shutter speed and aperture. Another user interface issue is that some selections are made without the equivalent of an “OK” button and some with, so at first you may find yourself pressing the “Menu/Set” button too often, despite the camera’s efforts to guide you.
One problem with the user interface is more significant – some lists of option choices use graphical symbols whose meaning may not be obvious. In some cases (like the ones shown when you select portrait with the mode wheel) these have explanatory captions (my favourite is “Smooth skin – shoot potrait’s skin more smoothly” – misspelled and a bit repetitious, but they tried). In others, there’s no help – try Setup – LCD mode, where your choices are “Off”, “A*” and “*” with no help about what LCD mode is or what these settings mean. You have to go to the full manual in PDF to find out. Depending on your experience, other symbols may be obvious, and explanation might be irritating, so there’s probably scope for some kind of “expert/beginner” setting which determines how much is explained. This is the one that stops me upping the rating to five stars.
The electronic viewfinder works well as an alternative to the screen, once adjusted with the diopter wheel. The display is exactly the same – you can even look at your stored pics with the viewfinder.
The battery is good for 470 shots based on the CIPA standard, but the manual warns you that this is based on a particular usage pattern – “e.g. when recording once every 2 minutes, the number [...] decreases to about 117. So a spare battery is probably worth buying. The charger is good for voltages 110-240, so for foreign trips you only need the kind of adaptor that makes the plug fit.