Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 – Great Video Quality But Inferior In Photos
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Great for capturing videos, lot of options for manual and automatic exposure controls, image stabilization is excellent, 27mm wide-angle zoom is always welcome.
Thumbs Down:
No hotshoe.
Inside the Trunk:
USB cable, A/V cable, battery charger.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 is a 12.1 mega pixels camera, light sensitivity options include ISO auto (1600-6400), ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 80. It has 4x digital zoom.
Shooting programs include pet, snow, baby, candle, sunset, scenery, fireworks, film grain, flash-burst, aerial photo, portrait mode, night portrait, high sensitivity, food, beach, panning, pin hole, soft skin, starry sky, sports mode, party/indoor, hi-speed burst, panorama assist. Special effects include warm, cool, sepia, black and white.
Exposure modes are program, manual, automatic, aperture-priority, shutter priority. White balance presets include shady, halogen, cloudy, daylight. Videos are stored in MJPEG, AVCHD Lite or QuickTime format and images are stored in RAW or JPEG format.
Video capture resolutions are MPEG – 1280 x 720, AVCHD Lite – 1280 x 720, MPEG – 848 x 480, MPEG – 320 x 240, MPEG – 640 x 480. Resolutions for image storage are JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 1920 x 1080, JPEG 2048 x 1360, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 2560 x 1440, JPEG 2560 x 1712, JPEG 2560 x 1920, JPEG 3264 x 1840, JPEG 3264 x 2176, JPEG 3264 x 2448, JPEG 4000 x 2248, JPEG 4000 x 2672, JPEG 4000 x 3000
Flash modes are Red-eye reduction, Rear curtain sync, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode, Auto mode.
The camera has Zoom lens – 4.8 mm – 86.4 mm – F/2.8-4.4 which has focal length of 4.8 mm – 86.4 mm, minimum focus range is 11.8 inches and maximum focus range is 1 cm. Lens aperture is F/2.8-4.4, has 18x optical zoom.
Additional features include DPOF support, Audio recording, Date/time stamp, Contrast control, Histogram display, Sharpness control, Saturation control, Face Detection AF/AE, Digital image rotation, Highlight point display, In-camera red-eye removal, Motion Detection Technology, Automatic face tracking technology, Direct print, Auto power save, Built-in speaker, Cropping an image, Resizing an image, PictBridge support, Built-in help guide, USB 2.0 compatibility, Digital noise reduction, RGB primary color filter, Scene Detection Technology, Camera orientation detection
The camera has a 2.7 inch TFT LCD display.
SD memory cards are supported and the camera has internal memory of 40 MB.
The connectors on the camera include – HDMI output, DC power input, Composite video/audio output, USB and there is an expansion slot for SD memory card.
Bundled software includes Panasonic PHOTOfunSTUDIO 4.0, SILKYPIX Developer Studio, ArcSoft MediaImpression, ArcSoft Panorama Maker.
The device is powered by 710 mAh li-ion rechargeable battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
The exteriors have a cheap plasticky feel to it fortunately you can still grip and shoot comfortably. The lens of the camera bulge out of the body so you will struggle to put this unit in your pants pocket. But this is not a compact camera so you really cannot complain much about it. However we must say that this camera is seriously low on good looks quotient.
Inside Dope:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 is an improved version of the older FZ28 from the same company. This new camera has bigger resolution, faster AF, AVCHD Lite movie code support and improved optical stabilizer. All this gives you better photo quality and better performance from the older model but we don’t think this is the best of mega zoom cameras.
The modes such as intelligent auto, PASM and preset scene program are all there and in addition to it, we really liked the new movie mode which had manual controls and the capability to save three custom settings groups. There are plenty of options for AF like tracking, face detection, narrower spot, 1-area and 11 area mode. The Fn button is programmable and is the short cut button to white balance, ISO sensitivity, metering, AF mode or mode of intelligent exposure.
You will have to read the reference manual of the camera carefull before you start using the unit even if you are a veteran photographer. This is because Panasonic has convoluted some of the functions for example, your JPEG pictures may look bad until you realize that when you shot in raw+JPEG mode the camera drops to standard-quality JPEG. Download a PDF manual from the internet for a complete list of FZ235’s features.
FZ35 is definitely better than its predecessor and it is mainly because of the improved hardware inside. We found that this camera performed faster too, it took just 1.6 to wake up and start shooting. When it comes to focus, it takes about 0.4 seconds in bright light and 0.9 seconds in low light conditions. Panasonic told us that the new AF system is twice faster than the previous model and we fully agree with it.
It takes just 1.7 seconds between shots and 0.3 seconds if you turn off the flash. LCDs have always been overwhelmed in bright sunlight, we have had problems with mobile phones and the camera also has the same problem. You might have a tough time with the LCD in bright sunlight because the pictures are not visible clearly.
Performance limitations and EVF make FZ35 a bad option for shooting sports, pets and kids. Power OIS image stabilizer is great in image stabilizing. We tried to shake around and then click still it gave accurate images.
Exposure and color are good and so is the lens which is great for megazoom. But there are a few drawbacks for this camera like at low ISO sensitivities like ISO 100, the blue channel processing is poor. Fortunately the print quality is good even at bigger sizes of 12X16.
FZ28 supported 720p high definition movie recording, this camera has taken the quality to the next level with AVCHD Lite codec, it supports Motion JPEG MOV files and there is also support for stereo sound. For movie recording it has pretty good controls like full PASM and scene modes, metering options and ISO sensitivity. The quality of video and audio is average on the camera.
Nitty Gritty:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 is better than your average mega zoom camera but it has some serious drawbacks such as inferior photo quality. If you are serious for buying this, it must be for excellent manual feature set and video capabilities.
