Review Date: September 24, 2012
Category: Beginner to Serious Amateur
Photoxels Gold Award – Superzoom
HANDLING & FEEL
The Panasonic FZ200 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 FZ200 has a Leica branded DC Vario-Elmarit F2.8(W/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.
In case you missed it, the maximum aperture at both ends of the zoom is an incredible F2.8! Usually, as you zoom, the maximum aperture gets smaller, allowing in less light, forcing the use of a higher ISO and accompanying reduction in image quality. But on the FZ200, the maximum aperture is a consistent F2.8 throughout the whole zoom range, which means that you are now better able to handhold the camera at the long telephotos (large aperture, low ISO, fast shutter speed).
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 fast at less than 1 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 about 1.5 sec. (approx. 7 shots in 10 sec. in M mode, ISO 100, 1/125 sec.).
The AF is fast and precise in both good and even extreme low lighting, and this has become a hallmark of Panasonic digital cameras.
It takes about 2 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-BLC12PP that can take about 540 shots (CIPA standard) on a fresh charge. A Battery Charger DE-A79B conveniently plugs directly into an electrical wall outlet and will recharge a depleted battery in approx. 140 min.
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 lens), dedicated Motion Picture button, Burst Mode button, Fn1 button, Mode Dial, Power ON/OFF switch around the Mode Dial, Stereo Microphone, Hot Shoe, and Flash Open Lever.
Whether you use the Zoom Lever around the Shutter or on the side of the lens, it takes about 4-6 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. 50 intermediate steps. You can disable digital zoom [Menu – Rec – Digital Zoom – OFF]. The Panasonic FZ200 has Continuous Shooting 12fps at full resolution.
Beginner photographers will leave the Mode Dial on iA (Intelligent Auto) most of the time, and more advanced photographers have access to the full manual and semi-auto shooting modes.
On the back of the Panasonic FZ200, 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 EVF/LCD button; an easy-to-adjust Diopter Adjustment Dial on the left side of the EVF, Playback button, AF/AE Lock button (which can be customized as Fn2), Rear Dial, Fn3 button, Display button, Cursor pad with ISO (TOP), WB (RIGHT), Self-timer (DOWN), AF Area (LEFT) and the MENU/SET button in the middle, Q.MENU/Delete 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. The lens cap goes on top of the lens itself (and not the lens barrel as on so many super zoom cameras) so that you can turn the camera on without encountering an error message.
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 AV OUT/Digital socket (the USB cable plugs in here). The Battery/Card door has 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 FZ200 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 FZ200 is fast, responsive and pleasant to use. It handles well and the construction is very good.
Next: Panasonic FZ200 User’s Experience
