Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom - Almost Perfect. Almost.
Written: Nov 17 '04 (Updated Sep 01 '05)
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Battery Life:
Photo Quality:
Shutter Lag
Pros: Excellent 12x zoom Leica optics, optical image stabilization, features and controls, fast
Cons: LCD could have better visibility in sunlight, lens hood installation could be simpler
The Bottom Line: The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 is an advanced and flexible camera with excellent Leica optics, powerful 12x optical zoom, optical image stabilization...
dkozin's Full Review: Panasonic Lumix® DMC-FZ20 Digital Camera
Not many people consider Panasonic digital cameras when shopping. They may be making a big mistake. Although not as well known by potential digital camera consumers as Canon, Nikon or Olympus, Panasonic does produce excellent digital cameras that utilize Leica lenses by Leica Camera AG.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 belongs to the Lumix "FZ" line of cameras by Panasonic. Cameras of this line feature optical image stabilization (OIS), powerful 12x optical zoom and fast maximum aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom range.
The latest Panasonic Lumix cameras also feature fast Venus II engine, which, among other things, effectively suppresses chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in virtually all conditions.
The FZ20 features a 5-Megapixel resolution and manual focus via a ring around the lens, in addition to the auto focus. It is available in black (FZ20K) or silver (FZ20S). Black finish looks more professional, whereas silver reflects more light and keeps the camera cooler in sunlight.
The 5-Megapixel resolution is enough for larger than 11x14-inch prints or cropping and printing a part of the image.
If you don't need 5-Megapixel resolution and want a cheaper camera, check out the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ15. It has 4-Megapixel resolution, lack the FZ20's hot shoe for the external flash, but has very similar features and performance otherwise.
Lens
Among the major factors contributing to the picture quality, the lens is usually the most important one. The FZ20 features amazing optics. The lens is multicoated to reduce flare and reflections and features 13 elements in 8 groups, including 3 aspherical lenses and 3 aspherical surfaces as well as one ED (extra-low dispersion) lens. The FZ20 is the only camera of the Lumix FZ series to have an ED lens.
The lens has 12x optical zoom (36-432 mm in 35-mm equivalent) and has fast f/2.8 maximum aperture throughout its impressive zoom range as well as the optical image stabilization (OIS) that really works.
The powerful 12x zoom is especially useful for sporting events or wildlife shooting (where you cannot get close to the action) and is practical in this application because the image stabilization really keeps unintended camera shake at bay. As such, you can zoom in optically instead of having to rely on the digital zoom of lesser cameras or cropping. Majority of compact digital cameras use only about 3x optical zoom and then switch to digital zoom, removing any advantage of their higher-resolution CCDs.
An example would be, the otherwise capable, Olympus D-580 camera that has 3x optical and 4x digital zoom and 4-Megapipxel resolution. If you use it to get 12x combined zoom, the real resolution drops to just 0.25MP. When using digital zoom, the resolution drops proportionatly square of the digital zoom factor. This means that resolution drops 16 times if using 4x digital zoom (linear resolution drops 4 times both horizontally and vertically).
Obviously, for situations that require good zooming power, the real optical zoom is much better than the combined optical/digital zoom.
The camera's optical image stabilization lets you shoot with up to three stops slower shutter speed with no blur. In other words, you will be able to shoot at shutter speeds, which would have consistently produced blurry images without the use of OIS. This helps in low light situations as well as at high zoom levels.
The lens features excellent f/2.8 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range and can be stopped down to f/8 minimum aperture (also throughout its zoom range). This powerful lens is relatively large, but certainly not as large as an SLR with comparable set on lenses. To approach this kind of flexibility and maximum aperture, you would have to get several SLR lenses (that would cost a lot, be heavy to carry and you would have to change them).
The lens in question is very flexible, sharp and fast. The camera also has the ring around the lens, which lets you focus manually when you need to. Combine it with optical image stabilization and you get a great, flexible camera. The use of 12x zoom lens makes the use of the electronic viewfinder (EVF) instead of the optical one a necessity.
EVF
The EVF is fluid (more so than the 2-inch LCD), has diopter adjustment and is much better visible in the sunlight than the LCD. For ease of manual focusing, the central portion of the image (on the EVF or LCD) gets enlarged 4x.
OIS - Optical Image Stabilization
The camera has a couple of sensors that detect camera motions and move a lens element inside the camera to compensate for this unintended motion. Having such a powerful zoom, the optical image stabilization comes in handy and lets you shoot with several stops slower shutter speed than you would be able to use otherwise. This is useful not only at high zoom levels, but in the darker environments as well.
The optical image stabilization, combined with the f/2.8 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range lets you shoot handheld in situations that would otherwise have required a tripod. Keep in mind that it is recommended that you disable the OIS if you are shooting using a stable tripod.
The OIS can be disabled or enabled in either continuous mode (the OIS is always on, even before the shutter release button is depressed) or in the mode where it is activated only when the shutter release button is depressed.
Disabling the OIS also saves power, since there is no need for the motors that move the lens element to draw power from the battery.
Body
You can see how the camera looks (both front and rear) at the address below:
(you can copy and paste this address into your borwser's address area).
The camera is not compact, due, in part, to the size of its powerful lens. The body itself is larger that that of the majority point-and-shoot digital cameras and the lens is substantially larger than most, both in diameter and the protrusion when off (and especially when the camera is on). Even in the powered off state, the lens barrel is relatively long - you will definitely need a carrying case for it.
The back of the camera houses the 2-inch LCD screen with 130K pixels, the menu control buttons, the sliding power switch, several other buttons and an electronic viewfinder (EVF) with diopter adjustment. The top deck has a rotary mode switch, flash and hot shoe.
Flash
The camera has a hot shoe, which you can use to attach the external flash to. The built-in flash is invisible and extends if you push the "Flash" button on the rear of the camera.
After the flash is extended, you can select the flash mode using "right arrow" menu control button. I find the fact that the flash has to be activated manually a good thing, since some other cameras make the flash pop up whenever they please, sometimes ruining the shot. The popup flash in this camera is necessary because the lens barrel is long and the flash on the body of the camera would be blocked by it, plus it helps with the red-eye problem if you move the flash away from the lens's optical axis.
You can adjust the flash output /- 2EV in 1/3 EV steps.
Some Features and Specs
The camera has shutter speed of 8-1/2,000 sec (some values are accessible in aperture and shutter priority modes only). The camera has automatic white balance as well as presets for Cloudy, Daylight, Halogen, Flash and Custom (using white or gray card). The custom white balance using a white card is very useful, especially in incandescent light as there is no Tungsten preset.
You can also adjust the white balance manually between -1500K and 1500K in 150K steps, unless the white balance is set to automatic. This not only lets you adjust the white balance to the proper setting, but also to adjust it to get slightly "warm" or "cold" effect. Example: I sometimes use "warmer" settings for autumn foliage and "colder" settings for snow.
The camera has live histogram, which is very helpful when assessing the exposure. This is unlike some cameras that have no histogram whatsoever and you have to rely on what you can see on the LCD as far as detail in shadows and highlights goes (usually not much). The only way to make sure your shots are perfectly exposed in this case is to take multiple shots with different exposures and then open the files in Photoshop or other editing software.
And some cameras have histogram in review mode only (e.g. Canon Powershot S410). With that camera, only after I took the pictures, switched to review mode and hit a button twice, was I able to see the histograms on the photos already taken. Not surprisingly, it was immediately visible from the histogram that several of them were underexposed, which was pretty difficult to see on the LCD.
With FZ20, you see the live histogram and can use exposure compensation ( /- 2EV in 1/3 EV steps) to correct for this. The camera also has auto exposure bracketing, which lets you take three consecutive shots at the selected exposure, slightly overexposed and slightly underexposed (in 1/3, 2/3 or 1 EV steps).
Sensitivity
The camera has Auto mode as well as ISO 80, 100, 200 and 400 presets. The ISO 400 setting (as well as Auto in dimly lit environments in some camera modes) is quite noisy, but with optical image stabilization you can use lower ISO and slower shutter speeds.
Storage
As other Panasonic digital cameras (and cameras of some other manufacturers), the FZ20 uses Secure Digital cards as media. It can also use MultiMedia cards, but they are slower (have slower data transfer rates) and I do not recommend that you use them. The camera comes with a 16-Mb SD Card and you can buy a 512-Mb SD card for about $40-60. Such capacity will let you store hundreds of pictures (at least in JPEG format).
The camera"s 5-Megapixel sensor lets you shot (and store) at the following resolutions: 2560x1920, 2048x1536, 1920x1080, 1600x1200, 1280x960 and 640x480. The JPEG format can be utilized with Fine or Standard quality settings and there is a mode in which the pictures are stored in TIFF format. The camera can also record video at 320x240 resolution.
Battery
The FZ20 uses a proprietary 680mAh Li-Ion rechargeable battery, which is charged outside the camera. It is slightly inconvenient that you have to remove the battery every time you want to charge it, but it makes it easier to charge a spare battery wile keeping the original in the camera and replace them when needed.
The battery charges in 60-90 minutes and lets you take a couple hundred pictures on one charge, unless the weather is cold. As with other Li-Ion batteries, it is recommended not to discharge the battery completely and recharge it once in a while. "Aftermarket" batteries (other than Panasonic) are available if you need spares and cost much less.
Supplied
The camera comes with a cool lens hood you can attach (a very useful gadget for reducing flare), lens cap with a string (making it more difficult to loose), a 16-Mb SD card (you can buy a 512-Mb SD card online for $40-60), a CD-ROM with software, a USB cable, a battery and a charger/power adaptor, AC and DC cables, A/V cable, camera strap, manuals, etc.
I have to mention that Panasonic cameras do not require USB drivers on Windows 2000 (and later) and I never had to load the software from the supplied CD. This is unlike some Canon cameras. For example, I borrowed Canon PowerShot S410 without the CD and found out the hard way that you need to install the driver for my Windows 2000 computer to see the camera.
Computer Connectivity
Obviously, you can get a card reader that supports SD cards and remove the card from the camera to be read using it. Alternatively r you can use the USB cable supplied with the camera to connect it to your computer. The computer connectivity is easy and fast, unlike some Canon models (e.g. Canon PowerShot S410).
For Windows 2000 or later, there is no need to install the USB driver. But if you have an older version of Windows (e.g. Windows 98), you might have to install it from the supplied CD.
The camera appears as a removable drive when powered on and you can simply copy or drag-and-drop files from it. The software that comes on the CD includes an SD Viewer - a utility that lets you see not only the thumbnails of the pictures that are on the SD card, but the EXIF information about the photos as well - date/time, aperture, shutter speed, camera model and other information.
Usage
You can see that the camera is not targeted to beginners by the fact that it has no easily accessible "Easy" mode - the mode that less expensive FZ1, FZ2 and FZ3 cameras have on their main rotary mode switch (the easy mode on those cameras is marked with a red heart icon).
The FZ20 has a no-nonsense main rotary switch with P (Program mode), A (Aperture Priority), S (Shutter Priority), M (Manual mode), macro, review, movie mode and a couple of modes, which let you select among the multitude of pre-programmed auto exposure modes in the menu (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Snow, Night Portrait, etc.)
The power switch on the rear of the camera is a simple sliding type with a LED that stays lit when the camera is on. Once the switch is moved to the "on" position (and provided the mode switch it not in "review" mode), the camera's lens extends.
The FZ20's menus have pleasing colors and are very easy to use. I find that Panasonic makes the easiest-to-use interfaces and the FZ20 is no exception. I find the menus on this cameras much easier to use than Canon S410's menus, for instance. The 2-inch LCD is well-visible and sturdy, but visibility in sunlight suffers. It seems to be a compromise - the LCDs that are better visible in sunlight do not provide as good of picture quality as the ones that do not work well in sunlight. So in the sunlight, you may want to switch to the EVF, which is fluid and lets you see the camera information as well.
The camera's shutter lag is short, when prefocused by pressing the shutter release button halfway. The focusing itself is by TTL contrast detection, which is slow in the dim environments. In the dark, the camera seems to select smaller apertures and longer shutter speeds to keep everything in focus. The camera's optical image stabilization helps a lot when the slower shutter speeds are used.
When taking pictures in dim environments without flash, the camera does not refuse to shoot (unlike some others) and with help from its OIS, the pictures are not blurry.
The camera has exposure compensation, exposure bracketing, continuous AF (when needed) and self timer. The aperture and shutter priority modes are selected by the main mode switch, but the modes like portrait, scenery, party, etc. are selected from the menu.
When white balance is set to any mode other than Auto, pressing the "arrow up" button also brings the option to change white balance from the current value towards red or blue. In fact, the arrow up button is loaded with a lot of functions and scrolling through them to get to the ones you need is a bit annoying. Provided you selected settings other than automatic, you can use this almighty button to get to the exposure compensation, exposure bracketing, white balance, flash compensation.
The "arrow down" button helps you review the last taken photo without going to the "review" mode. In fact, you can view other photos on your SD card as well, all without rotating the main mode switch to review. To do so, you use left and right arrow buttons after pressing the arrow down button. You can zoom in and out in this (pseudo-review) mode or review mode by using the zoom control on the camera.
The optically stabilized lens works well at wide angle and at telephoto. The OIS is no magic bullet however - it is difficult to shoot at full magnification while holding the camera steady, but it is still feasible.
You can also focus manually by sliding the focus switch on the side of the lens from Auto to Manual position and rotating the ring around the lens barrel. Since the SVF and LCD don't have the resolution similar to the ground glass of the SLR, the central part of the image gets magnified 4x to help you focus.
Performance
Obviously, this camera has impressive specifications and features. And FZ20 does not disappoint - the pictures it takes (provided you don't screw up the exposure or focus, of course) have amazing sharpness with excellent color rendition. The colors are vivid and true to life. The camera has manual adjustments for contrast, sharpness as well as saturation. Using saturation control, you can adjust the colors to be more or less saturated. Reducing saturation will make colors less vivid.
There is no vignetting - the corners of the photos are as bright as the center. There is also no noticeable purple fringing (chromatic aberrations) at all - the purple fringing is effectively suppressed by the camera's Venus II engine. The lens does not exhibit any noticeable pincussion distortion at telephoto end. There is slight barrel distortion at wide angle, but it is minor.
The live histogram is very useful for judging exposure and if you are Photoshop-proficient, you can make your photos shine even more (even simply by using Levels). The camera's burst mode lets you take up to 7 pictures (Standard mode) or up to 4 pictures (Fine mode) in rapid succession (at 3 or 2 frames per second) at full resolution. This mode is activated by the button on the top deck of the camera.
Unlike some cameras, the LCD/EVF does not lock up or go blank while the photo is written to the memory card.
The camera's amazingly fast (throughout the zoom range) f/2.8 lens is very sharp and the optical image stabilization helps when shooting handheld - you can shoot several stops slower than you would be able to without the OIS.
The camera also lets you record short (5-sec) audio annotations and attach them to the still pictures. The supplied lens hood is handy at fighting flare, but could be a little easier to install. You have to install the supplied adaptor ring first, which in turn accepts the supplied lens hood (or other accessories). Also, you have to remove the lens hood if you want to use the built-in flash.
The zooming is fast, responsive, smooth and quiet. Moreover, it is precise, unlike some lesser cameras (e.g. Canon PowerShot S410).
Panasonic FZ20 vs. Panasonic FZ5
The new 5-Megapixel Panasonic DMC-FZ5 is more compact than the Panasonic DMC-FZ20, weighs less, has a slightly smaller LCD (1.8-inch vs. 2-inch) and has no manual focus. It also has a slightly "slower" lens at the telephoto end (f3.3 vs. f2.8) and no ED element in the lens.
In practice, it is virtually impossible to distinguish between the image quality produced by the two cameras. They use the same CCD, very similar optics and processing. The Venus II engine in the FZ5 removes chromatic aberrations and virtually eliminates the need for the ED element.
The FZ5 is cheaper than the FZ20. If you want a larger-sized camera with a slightly larger LCD, a slighlty "faster" lens and manual focus, the FZ20 may be a better choice (but at a higher price). Otherwise, the FZ5 will provide the same level of picture quality in a more compact package. Check out its review here: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 review
Bottom Line
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 is an advanced and flexible camera with excellent Leica optics, powerful 12x optical zoom, optical image stabilization that works and easy to use controls. It is not targeted to a beginner photographer, but people familiar with things like aperture priority will find it an excellent tool of self-expression as well as a great tool to keep memories. Its high-powered zoom, great optics and optical image stabilization are indispensable if you want to take pictures from afar.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.