Digital Camera Review:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1
Page 3

ABOVE: These buildings were photographed from a tour boat in Copenhagen, Denmark, before a Silversea cruise to the British Isles.

See unedited 1600 x 1200 image (714 Kb)

Automation for every occasion

The Panasonic DMC-FZ1 has two basic shooting modes, Simple and Normal. Not being simple, but being reasonably normal, I opted for the latter most of the time. The camera automatically focuses and sets the lens opening ad shutter speed in both modes, but “Simple” is a strictly point-and-shoot mode while “Normal” unlocks a few of the camera’s settings.

The FZ1 offers very little manual control, since it’s being marketed primarily as a family camera for people who want to capture little Johnny’s first soccer goal or Great-Aunt Helga’s 100th birthday party with the convenience and ease they’d expect from a camcorder. In lieu of manual settings, the FZ1 has Scene Modes that automatically choose the optimum shutter speed, depth of field, etc. for special situations. These modes include:

Macro, for extreme close-ups of flowers or your dog’s nostrils.

Portrait, which blurs the background as a professional photographer would do.

Sports, which uses faster shutter speeds to minimize blurring as Kayci, Jr. swings her bat.

Night portrait mode, which helps to keep your favorite Fr‹ulein from disappearing into the Black Forest in pictures taken after dark.

Panning mode, so you can keep a moving person, dog, car, etc. in focus while tracking the subject with the camera.

Movie mode, for continuous 320- x 240-pixel videos that are limited only by the storage capacity of your memory card.

Audio annotation is another option: You can record a voice clip of up to five seconds with each picture, although this will reduce the number of pictures you can store.

If you need to capture fast action, use the dedicated Burst Mode button on top of the camera to grab four images in quick succession at 2 or 4 frames per second.

Although I used Normal autoexposure mode most of the time, I did take advantage of the FZ1’s Exposure Compensation when I was shooting into the sun or against bright backgrounds. This was easy to set with the four-way controller button to the right of the camera’s LCD display. (If I’d wanted, I could have used auto bracketing, which lets you quickly snap three successive photos at different light values to ensure an accurate exposure.

Next page: More sights, less shake

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