Review Date: December 12, 2011
Category: Beginner to Serious Amateur
Panasonic FZ150
Photoxels Gold Award – Superzoom
HANDLING & FEEL
The Panasonic FZ150 is styled like a DSLR and has therefore excellent handling. It has plenty of manual controls and DSLR users will feel at ease using it.
The Lumix FZ150 has a Leica branded DC Vario-Elmarit F2.8(W)-F5.2(T) lens that provides a 24x ultra wide-angle optical zoom. At 25mm (equiv.), the starting focal length is great for ultra wide-angle shots that will allow you to include a large group of friends or capture wide landscapes. The 600mm (equiv.) super tele allows you to bring far away subjects close. Of course, in between, you can select a medium tele focal length (e.g. 135 mm equiv.) to use as a perfect portrait lens allowing you to get close without getting “in your face.” Optical image stabilization helps reduce camera shake at the long focal lengths. Macro mode allows you to get as close as 1 cm (0.4 in.) of your subject at wide-angle. The incredible lens reach makes this camera an ideal travel camera as there is not much you can’t capture.
On the front of the camera, at top left of the lens is the AF-assist Light/Self-timer lamp. Be careful for it can easily be hidden by your fingers.
Startup is about 2 sec. (from Power ON to LCD ready for capture, i.e. time-to-first-shot) which is quite fast for a super zoom. There is no practical shutter lag, especially if you prefocus. Shot to shot times is fast at about 1 sec. (approx. 10 shots in 10 sec. in M mode, ISO 100, 1/125 sec.) or pretty much as fast as you can press the shutter release button.
The AF is fast and precise in both good and low lighting, and this has become a hallmark of Panasonic digital cameras.
It takes about 3 sec. to save a Fine JPEG to SD memory card. At Quality = Fine, a 12MP JPEG image is compressed down to anywhere between 4MB and 5MB. A RAW image saves at about 14MB.
Included in the box is a rechargeable Li-ion battery DMW-BMB9PP that can take about 410 shots (CIPA standard) on a fresh charge. A Battery Charger DE-A83 conveniently plugs directly into an electrical wall outlet and will recharge a depleted battery in approx. 155 min.
Panasonic FZ150 Top View
The top of the camera has, from right to left (viewing from the back), the Shutter Release Button with a Zoom lever around it (there is also a zoom lever on the side of the lems), dedicated Motion Picture button, Burst Mode button, Power ON/OFF switch, Mode Dial, Stereo Microphone, Hot Shoe, Antenna and the Speaker.
Whether you use the Zoom Lever around the Shutter or on the side of the lens, it takes about 3-6 seconds to zoom from wide to tele, depending on how light your touch is. Slide the lever a small amount for slow zooming and a larger amount for fast zooming. I counted approx. 46 intermediate steps. You can disable digital zoom [Menu – Rec – Digital Zoom – OFF]. The Panasonic FZ150 has Continuous Shooting 12fps at full resolution.
The iA (Intelligent Auto) mode on the Mode Dial is probably where you’ll leave the camera on most of the time.
Panasonic FZ150 Back View
On the back of the Panasonic FZ150, you’ll find a generous 3.0-in. Free-Angle LCD panel with 460k-dot resolution. The control buttons are on the top and right side of the LCD. Clockwise, from top left, there is the Flash Open button, Diopter Adjustment Dial on the left side of the EVF, EVF/LCD button, AF/AE Lock button, Rear Dial, Display button, Playback button, Cursor pad with MENU/SET button in the middle, Q.MENU button.
The Q.MENU (Quick Menu) button displays a menu on screen for fast settings changes. The LCD is not touch screen so you change settings using the control buttons. You cannot conveniently go into the Playback mode directly if the camera is powered OFF. You have to first power the camera ON, causing the lens to extend. Then, as you go into Playback mode, the lens retracts.
You can record Full HD movies 1920 x 1080/60p with stereo sound. You can zoom while filming videos and you can barely hear the zoom and continuous focus sound. You can however hear any noise you make with your finger as it handles the zoom lever, so recommendation is to film longer than you need (before and after the desired scene) and edit the noise sections out.
The Terminal door opens up wide enough to allow access to the HDMI socket and A/V OUT/Digital socket (the USB cable plugs in here). There is a nice Battery/Card door and there is a latch to keep the battery from accidentally falling out. The tripod socket at the bottom is metal; it is not centered nor inline and you won’t be able to change battery or memory card when the camera is on a tripod.
The Panasonic FZ150 should make a great travel camera or all-purpose bridge camera. As Panasonic digital cameras have gained the reputation for, it works very well and the overall experience is that the FZ150 is fast, responsive and pleasant to use. It handles well and the construction is very good.
Next: Panasonic FZ150 User’s Experience