New Mega Zoom Model - Panasonic Lumix FZ35

A great mega zoom camera that is the new is the Panasonic Lumix FZ35. This camera is an updated version of an existing camera but it is so different that it is almost a completely new model. The image stabilization technology is excellent, the zoom is 18x and the camera has some of the highest resolution found. For so many features and such as great lens the camera is surprisingly light.

There are cameras with greater zooms as the Lumix has an 18x zoom and the largest mega zoom cameras are now at 26x or 28x zoom lenses. However an 18x is great for regular use and much better than most cameras on the market. You can choose from many different shooting modes such as preset options, intelligent auto and PASM. The Lumix also allows you to shoot videos.

If you want to manually set several settings then there are many different AF options to customize such as white balance, light metering, 11 area mode, narrower spot, intelligent exposure mode, ISO sensitivity, 1 area, tracking and face detection. You can review all of your photos on the back digital screen and delete those that are unsatisfactory.

If you start using the camera before reading the direction than you will have problems as you need to read the manual first. Much of the functions are similar to other cameras but they have different labels so you may think you are changing what you want, but actually you are changing something else. The manual will have all the information you need to work the entire camera.

This camera has high performance as it will focus in as little as 0.4 seconds and then immediately shoot. This is slightly longer in low light scenarios as it will take 0.9 seconds to focus and shoot. When the camera is in sleep mode it only takes 1.6 seconds to wake up and start taking pictures. This is much faster than other Panasonic cameras.

Even though you have a great zoom the photos are all sharp and crisp with no blurriness. The photo colors are true and exposure is perfect for the type of picture you are taking. Two of the main issues are that JPEG compression is not very good and there are problems with blue channel processing. This produces yellow splotches on the photo but you can easily perform color correction or cropping the photo to take care of this issue.

The video technology on the Lumix uses an AVCHD Lite codec and unlike many other cameras it also records in stereo. The controls for movies allow you to change many things though the shutter speed has a minimum boundary of 1/30 second. The main issue is that the microphone is on top of the camera and even though there is a filter the mic will record wind interference.

As with most mega zoom cameras you need to have great finger control when focusing but if you have trouble just turn of the automatic focus and do everything manually. Finding all the buttons can be tricky but once you are familiar with the camera this is not a problem.