Versatile camera's lens a powerful advantage

By RICHARD WOOD

The key to this digital camera's versatililty is its amazing zoom lens. Made by Leica, the 12x optical zoom of Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ2 extends just 56mm from the body, meaning it's a camera that can fit easily into a jacket pocket.

The 35-420mm equivalent to this lens for a 35mm single lens reflex camera would require a solid camera bag to lug around and a very steady hand or tripod.

To compensate for hand shake for those long-distance shots the FZ2 includes a technology called optical image stabilisation borrowed from video cameras.

The FZ2 is an upgrade on a previous model, the FZ1. This tweak was mostly about adding capability such as aperture and shutter priority modes. These fall short of giving total manual control, but then the FZ2 is a camera targeted at the consumer market.

The camera has only a two megapixel rating and it has to be acknowledged that this level is rapidly going out-of-date. But this isn't of great concern unless the intention is to print pictures A4 size or above, when four or even more megapixels are recommended.

Pictures can be set to two compression settings and three different Jpeg format sizes, depending on how much memory is available and the resolution required.

I particularly liked the FZ2's lightweight feel and button layout. A dial selects from a limited range of preset modes that includes simple, macro, portrait, night portrait, sport, panning and video. Through the menu, "film" sensitivity (ISO) settings can be automatic or under manual control from 50 to 400 and colour effects can be added.

White balance adjustments to account for various indoor or outdoor lighting environments and exposure settings are accessible from a button that adjusts aperture and shutter speed when required.

One button that doesn't work well is pre-focus (for when you're not on auto-focus). It is almost impossible to use without loosening your right-hand grip on the camera or covering the liquid crystal display (LCD) with your left hand.

Another button in a similar spot flicks between the internal LCD and viewfinder LCD, which I would have liked to automatically switch to the viewfinder as I put my face near it.

Otherwise zoom, shutter, flash, timer, and picture review buttons are all well positioned, with a handy delete button - important when you are getting close to the limit on your memory card and need to delete dud shots as you go.

The menu system varies according to the mode you are in and is easy to follow, but it is a little irritating that you can't use anything but the play menu when the lens cap is on.

Unfortunately the FZ2 comes with only an 8MB Secure Digital memory card, which you may as well throw in the bin and replace with at least a 128MB one. The 32MB card I used to test the camera was barely adequate and hopelessly lacking when recording sound or video.

The burst mode operates at four frames a second, increasing to seven frames a second if low compression is used. A bracketing mode is also provided that takes three successive shots at different exposures.

The camera uses a lithium ion rechargeable battery so when I forgot to recharge I couldn't use standard batteries.

Buying a second battery might have to be budgeted for.

The FZ2 has a digital zoom of 3x, reducing to 2x for burst mode use. But digital zooms are mostly a gimmick as they tend to simply crop the picture and blow it up larger in the liquid-crystal display.

I can't emphasise enough the value of a 12x optical zoom for distance shots - providing a quality you can't achieve just by increasing megapixels and using digital zooms.

To match this camera for such shots by using, say, a 3x zoom with a 4x digital zoom would theoretically require a 32 megapixel camera.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ2

Panasonic.

Price: $999 (but budget for extra memory).

Pros: 12x optical zoom and image stabilisation.

Cons: Only 2 megapixels. Non-standard battery.

Rating: 7/10