Reviews of Panasonic - A Bridge Camera with an f/2.8 Zoom Lens

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 Review

Published on April 5, 2013 by Nino Wong in Superzoom Digital Cameras

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200.

Performance

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 comes with the company’s “Light Speed” autofocus feature, which makes it a very responsive camera. The FZ200 has a blazing fast startup time of less than 1 second and approximately the same shot-to-shot time, while activating the flash will only slightly prolong the shot-to-shot time to 1.3 seconds. The FZ200 is also a fast camera when it comes to shutter lag, with measured times of 0.2 second at wide-angle and 0.3 second at the telephoto end. Last but not least, the FZ200 is capable of shooting full-resolution images with a continuous shooting speed of 12 frames per second with focus locked from the first frame. Activating the autofocus will indeed reduce the speed to only 5.5 frames per second; however, it is still fast enough for most people.

Image Quality

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200’s rather conventional resolution of 12.1 megapixels won’t give you much room for cropping, but don’t worry, as long as you utilize its massive 25-600mm equivalent zoom range well, you won’t need to do a lot of cropping in the post-production process. The reason why Panasonic decided to put a 12.1-megapixel sensor inside the FZ200 is because a sensor with fewer pixels usually performs better in low-light, and the result can be seen clearly. The FZ200 manages to maintain accurate colors up to ISO 3,200, although with noticeable noise. Noise is well-controlled up to ISO 1.600, which is quite a performance. Generally, the FZ200 is capable of producing very sharp and detailed images with vibrant colors.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 top view.

Video Quality

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200’s video feature is impressive, capable of recording full HD 1080p60 videos in AVCHD Progressive format or 1080p30 videos in MP4 format. There is also a Creative Video mode which gives you manual control over aperture and shutter speed. But the thing that really impresses us is the FZ200’s capability in producing highly realistic and very clean soundtracks. As we tested the FZ200’s video feature, we didn’t hear even the faintest sound of the lens’ zooming mechanism, this can be achieved thanks to the zoom noise reduction feature which works in tandem with the wind cut filter and the built-in Dolby Digital Stereo Creator technology.

Conclusion

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 is the only superzoom bridge camera on the market today, that offers a fixed maximum aperture of f/2.8, and it is the first superzoom bridge camera ever to achieve it on a 24x 25-600mm equivalent lens. Thanks to its very bright and long zoom lens, the FZ200 is currently the most suitable superzoom bridge camera for low-light and fast-action photography. Moreover, it also comes with an impressive video feature, making it a very versatile and complete superzoom bridge camera.