Lumix
Since I bought it 2 weeks ago, I have been practising and exploring all the features of this Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 compact camera with no reservation. Until this morning, I have shot a total of 1100 photos which I think is quite enough to understand, if not fully, the characteristics of my new toy. I did this evaluation exercise with 2 reasons: One being so ‘hot’ and tempted to shoot photos while it is still new and fresh in my hands, while the other resaon is to try out and figure out the capabilities of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 in handling all kinds of environment, situations and lighting (not in the rain of course:) ) before I take it along as my new travel camera to Shanghai in another 11 days!
However, I need to stop this evaluation exercise at once (or temporarily?) before my travel blog turned into a Tech savvy blog 
. As a conclusion, I have summarised 5 top ‘Wow’ factors of my new camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28
- 18x Ultra Zoom- One of the biggest selling points of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX28 is its awesome 18x optical zoom (though the latest Canon boosts up to 20x) from 27mm wide angle to 486mm telephoto. Thanks to the business collaboration between Panasonic and Leica, FZ28 uses a multi elements Leica’s high precision DC VARIO-ELMARIT zoom lense that produce stunning and bright telephoto picture while keeping the least distortion to wide landscape; 27mm Wide Angle View
27mm Wide Angle View
486mm Telephoto View
- Optical Image Stabiliser- This is also one of the strongest weapon of Panasonic with its proprietory O.I.S. technologies that produces one of the best stabilised image even in those shaky hands like me . I’ve tried to shoot a night object with 1 sec exposure and the result was to my biggest shock!;
Awesome O.I.S. stabilised this dark image for 1 second!
- Intelligent Auto- Also the Panasonic’s proprietory features, this camera is equipped with the latest Intelligent functions of such as Intelligent ISO, Intelligent Exposure and off course, the fully Intelligent Auto for Point-and-Shoot. The IA is especially great to me which the camera could detect the scene (either potrait, landscape, macro, night portrait or night landscape)and adjust the setting and colours automatically, when I want to merely point-and-shoot various scenes on vacation but lazy to dial the scene mode. This IA could even trigger macro focusing mode automatically when I point to an object as close as 10mm without pressing any button!;
Intelligent Exposure automatically adjusted highlight and shadow
Intelligent Auto triggered Macro mode when point closely to an object
- RAW Shooting- Such a big ‘Wow’ for such a competitive price! There is not many cameras in the market at this price range actually allowed to shoot in RAW or RAW+JPEG format! This used to be DSLR dedicated feature is now available in FZ28 for me to shoot in RAW and process it myself later for full flexibilities and creativities (though inexperienced user as me would raher leave it to the camera to post-process my photos most of the time). This is an once-in-a-while feature for me when I decided to shoot some ‘serious’ scenery shot (when I hold the camera and stand like a professional photographer ), and
KL Night Scene
Morning Call
- HD Video – For its selling price or rather my buying price (I bought it for RM1300 which is quite a lot cheaper than the market price of RM1499 ), nobody would expect it to record nice video but it does! Even better, it records video in HD format! And the best, it records while zooming in and out!
“‘Wow wow wow wow wow”. That’s the top 5 ‘wow’ factor features of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28. Did I mean it is the perfect camera for all? Not quite. Not unless Panasonic incorporated an even better and larger image sensor than 1/2.33″ in this compact ultrazoom camera. However it is definitely the perfect choice for me at the moment.- Travel Feeder.
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Yes! My final choice of digital camera for my travel is Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28! The decision made was not easy at all as I talked about my 5 finalists before that all have their individual strength and weaknesses (for travel purposes particularly). However, I made my life easier by first decided the shop of purchase. Selangor Photographer is a specialist photo shop in Pertama Complex, KL, which is ‘famous’ for its ‘understanding’ towards customers’ need: NEGOTIABLE PRICE! So, I would decide there for whichever the most value-for-money choice. Unsuprisingly, they offered attractive package price for all my 5 finalists:
- Canon EOS 1000D – The least competitive package offer which comes with a 4GB SDHC and camera carrying case but is still selling at RRP of RM1999. So I started to convince myself not to choose it and concentrated on its weaknesses (for travel purposes) of bulkiness, sluggish live view composing over LCD, and… nothing much indeed. Oh yes, no operation manual included and it’s expensive. OK! At least 1 finalist’s out!
- Panasonic Lumix FX38 – Their offer for this compact’s was slightly cheaper than the market’s: RM50 less but still comes with 4GB SDHC, carrying case and mini tripod. However, the price was not convincing enough for my temptation and lack of P,A,S and M shooting mode (which I found useful and neccessary) meant I would rather choose SX110IS…;
- Canon Powershot SX110IS – With their cheaper offer price of RM1050 with 4GB SDHC, case, tripod and 2 AA batteries (the only camera here that uses AA instead of Lithium Ion battery), it was hard to convince one not to choose it. What is lacking is indeed … not much… but is not a definite ‘no’. It’s a camera which you would not find any major deficiencies… and superiority either! 10x optical zoom is better than some but not the best in the range; Body size is quite compact but not the most compact; Looks good but not stunning…. It has shied away from me’
- Nikon Coolpix P80 – It is the most value-for-money model in my list: offerred price of RM1200 with 4GB, case and tripod. It has the stunning 18x optical zoom lens, full manual control of P,S,A,M, Nikon trademarked of perfect colur tone, stylish design and the most compact bridge camera in the market except…. it was out of stock in the whole market for 2 months! They said I could wait for a month to ‘see’ if there is any new stock coming, which I couldn’t! So, I have to convince myself again for its shortfalls in features of such as Auto-focus tracking and unable to shoot RAW! It was out!
- Panasonic Lumix FZ28 – Tang Tang Tang Tang! Here comes the winner! Though it is not the best value-for-money option on offer, apart from P80 (on paper only as no stock available!), Fz28 is the second best value-for-money I could get from this shop: RM1350 c/w 4GB SDHC, carrying case, mini tripod and UV filter lens! It has all things and features that I could think of: 18x zoom, RAW+JPEG shooting, fully customisable shooting mode, flexible composing options, stylish, LEICA distortion free lens, also comes with lens hood, rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries, lens cap, strap, with optional lens converter adapter for wide angle or telephoto converter lenses. For this kind of value, Panasonic Lumix Fz28 is unbeatable with its price except some could still criticize its puny 1/2.33″ CCD sensor, relatively bulky for travelling, too big to hide it inside pocket and less vibrant color tone (it shoots the least vivid image among this group of 5 cameras).
For me, the advantages of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 are more than enough to compromise on its deficiencies. Moreover, with a price of RM200 more than compact’s and RM650 less than DSLR, it finally won my heart effortlessly. I decided to grab it for good sake! While I’m typing out this post with my right hand, my left hand is already holding my new toy Fz28. The countdown to my Shanghai vacation trip continues. :) – Travel Feeder.
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I have been very busy shopping around recently for a new digital camera to replace my ageing 4MP Nikon Coolpix 4100. As technology advancement has come to a stage that digital camera can now challege the phasing out film camera in terms of printout photo quality especially in the mass general consumers niche (read more [...]
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