Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35

Excellent – We looked at a new camcorder and i noticed a side by side review of this little baby vs a high def camcorder. The results for the FZ35 were great. Purchased and very happy. We upgraded from mini dv and captured side by side footage. Quite literally night and day, as the FZ 35 peforms so well indoors As an everyday camera for snaps, very… Read more

good also.

Not missing any new baby footage now! Video, Video and did i mention video.

The 720P high def video looks great and performs well under low light - inside. No cons to speak of, very good.

Excellent – Overall however, this is a magnificent, incredibly versatile camera! From the massed summer flowers in the beautiful Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island to the Scottish Highlands; to the Roman ruins and castles of England and on to the Grand Canal in Venice, this camera performed faultlessly. In more than 2,200 stills and some 80 movies, the very… Read more

few errors incurred were all mine! Before taking an overseas trip I decided I needed a new digital camera. My requirements were a long telephoto lens; good optical image stabilisation; a viewfinder as well as the LCD screen and ability to take high definition movies.

I reviewed a wide selection of likely candidates from all the major manufacturers, studying specifications and reviews. All the cameras I studied had different strengths and weaknesses but I finally settled on a 12.1 megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 (aka FZ38) which had a good, balanced specification and performance to match my requirements.

At that time, August 2009, the RRP was $699 but I shopped around and eventually paid less than $500.

The FZ35's lens is by Leica - their massive 18x Optical Zoom 27mm Wide Angle Leica DC Vario-Elmarit Lens. This lens gives sharp pictures through the whole telephoto range, from 1cm to 486cm (0.04" to 19.1") with the full f2.8 aperture open for focussing whatever the picture-taking setting might be. The viewfinder was excellent, with a tiny adjustment wheel for those of us with less than perfect eyesight. The large LCD had adjustable brightness to help in bright sunlit situations.

The camera's extensive menus made it easy to set up basic settings, such as 4:3 16:9 or other picture formats as well as picture quality from full 12 mpx down to 2 mpx.

For video I chose the new AVCHD-Lite system with H.264 compression. A 4GB memory card will hold 30 minutes of video at the highest video quality, or up to 60 minutes at the lowest quality. I chose the highest quality which created 1280 x 720 High Definition movies in 16:9 format and with stereo sound! For both movies and still, the Optical Image Stabilisation system worked brilliantly well, even at full telephoto zoom.

This camera, about the sixth generation of its line, has far too many excellent features to cover in just a few paragraphs. Almost everything can be automated, leaving the user to concentrate all his or her time on taking great pictures. But there were a few "Cons".

As is generally the case nowadays, the buyer has to print his or her own manual - 218 pages - from the supplied CD.

The red Record movie button is above and to the right of the LCD, easy to push On, but a fumble to push Off - while the camera can move jerkily off target. However, if you have time to set the top rotating dial to "Movies", then videos can be started and stopped with just a push of the shutter release button. This is not in the Manual.

The supplied software, Panasonic's PHOTOfunSTUDIO 4.0 HD is easy to use and allows selected video frames to be saved as still pictures at high quality. Very useful. However the only means of loading pictures into your PC is via the supplied USB lead directly from the camera into this program, from where it can be sent to any desired folder. I would much prefer to use a USB card holder, but I cannot make this work on my WinXP SP/3. It seems to not recognise the card and/or the media content.

Top Camera In Its Class – This camera brings together the best features of a digital compact and video camera. A truly top bridging camera ( step before going to SLR). Excellent 15x telephoto leica lens. Allows you to zoom while videoing, and in HD! It's a camera you will love using. Great, accessible features packed into a compact with an excellent lens. focusing window could be a bit bigger, but it's a minor criticism.

love the zoom! – Wanted the high lens to get shots of my kids without them knowing I was taking them. They hate getting their photo taken! The beauty with the 18x zoom is that you don't need a trypod. Unlike some other brands that advertise up to 24x zoom. Our's came with a very good manual. We bought this camera beause it has an intelligent mode. But it doesn't… Read more

work well in low light. Will have to read manual after all! Sure it's the user problem, not camera. Takes beautiful outdoor shots. The zoom is amazing! The video recording take better footage then our actual video recorder! And again great zoom that you can change while recording Can't get it to take decent photo's in shade or inside on intelligent mode. Not a whiz to work out how to do it manually to change shutter speed, apertaure etc. And couldn't download the photo editing suite that came with it. Not compatible with Windows 7 even though it says it is. Paid a professional to come and work it out and they couldn't!

Great photos – Easy to work on the automatic for general shots, however, I am into close-up ground orchid photography and it has taken a bit of time to figure out the manual workings. I have to say that this is my first camera for this type of photography. It has been all around Australia in 2010, from gold mines to the top of jump ups! Gotta love this camera!… Read more

Easy to take automatic photos; wide angle of lens so people don't realise that they are in the shot! the zoom and it goes on and on.... As with many cameras sometimes the colours in close up shots of flowers are a little different to that of reality, but maybe this is the photographer ...

Excellent – A awesome camera which does most things.We had a standard def video camera and the video was poor.There is no comparison with this.We use it for children's sport days and indoors.You only need one camera.Photos are great also. Night and day with video quality.Very easy to download and archive not like our jvc camcorder. Easy to use,Video in 720 p high def is excellent,looks great. none at this point