Review Date: December 12, 2011
Category: Beginner to Serious Amateur
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150
Photoxels Gold Award – Superzoom
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Panasonic FZ150 Review is based on a production model. All sample images are unretouched, except where specified.
Super zoom powerhouse. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150 packs a punch in a DSLR-styled digital camera with features that should appeal to everyone and especially two groups: students of photography who need a camera with all the important manual functions, ultra wide-angle and super tele focal lengths, and travel photographers who wants to capture shots ranging from 1 cm macro closeups, wide vistas and bring far away subjects close. All of that in one well-designed and solidly constructed camera.
The Panasonic FZ150 handles beautifully with a deep handgrip and control buttons and dials for the important functions. The large 3.0-in. Free-angle LCD with a high 460k-dot resolution is clear and bright. The lens has the convenient Power Zoom lever on the side that is becoming a staple on Panasonic lenses.
Image quality for a small sensor camera is very good up to ISO 400 with ISO 800 and 1600 very usable. Get creative with Creative Control, Photo Style, and 3D Photo Mode. Continuous Shooting is 12fps at full resolution, 5.5fps/2fps with AF Tracking and 60fps at 3.5MP.
The FZ150 shoots Full HD Movie 1920 x 1080/60p with stereo sound. You can even select your preferred shooting mode: iA, PASM or Scene mode for movie recording. High-speed videos at 220 fps in QVGA size (320 x 240 pixels) allows slow motion playback. You can also take still images (3.5-megapixel at 16:9) without interrupting video recording.
The Panasonic FZ150 is a well-featured super zoom camera that both beginners and serious amateur photographers will enjoy using. But it’s not just features for the sake of it; all of them work very well, giving you the confidence that every picture you take has the potential of being a keeper.
Next: Panasonic FZ150 Image Quality