Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 Review

The all-glass aspherical Leica DC-VARIO ELMARIT 12x zoom lens is equivalent to a 35-420mm zoom on a 35mm camera. This is the most powerful zoom lens available on any 3-megapixel digital camera. It maintains a fast and bright F2.8 aperture throughout the entire zoom range. The Leica lens is constructed of 13 elements in 8 Groups (3 Aspherical Lenses/3 Aspherical Surfaces and 1 ED Lens.)

The DMC-FZ3 is equipped with an optical image stabilization system to minimize camera shake at long focal lengths. You learn to really appreciate image stabilization when you go beyond 5x and are not using a camera support like a tripod or monopod.

The 9-point TTL contrast-detection auto focus system covers from 0.98 ft. (30cm) to infinity at wide angle and 3.94 ft. (120cm) to infinity at telephoto (in normal mode.) Macro mode can covers from 0.16 ft Wide / 3.94 ft Telephoto. Auto focus options include normal Single AF, Continuous AF and Spot AF. There is a focus-assist illuminator to aid in low-light conditions.

This is what you can do with a 12X zoom!

To minimize the occurrence of flares or ghosting when shooting outdoors or in any bright environment, you can attach the supplied lens shade.

The lens shade is actually two parts, the adapter ring and the petal-shaped shade itself. The adapter ring can be used separately to mount 55mm filters on the lens.

The eye level viewfinder is a miniature color LCD monitor with a magnifying eyepiece. It has a diopter adjustment and can be used with eyeglasses. This electronic viewfinder (EVF) gives you true TTL (through the lens) viewing and overlays important camera and exposure data on top of the live display. It can also be used to review images and access the menu system which is handy outdoors where it can often be difficult to see the LCD monitor.

The pop-up speedlight features Auto, Auto Red-eye reduction, Slow-sync Red-eye, Fill and Forced Off modes. The flash range (at ISO Auto) is 11.8 in. - 15.10 ft.

Controls on the top include the combination shutter release and zoom control ring. The zoom ring is used in playback to enlarge the image or display an index page. The button toggles the drive mode between Single frame, High Speed or Low Speed Continuous.

The Mode Dial has positions for:

P - Program AE which is a point-n-shoot simple mode

A - Aperture priority mode

S - Shutter-speed priority mode

M - Manual mode

Macro - Macro focus mode for closeup photography

Movie - Capture motion JPEG with audio, length is limited only to available memory

SCN - Scene Mode: Portrait, Sports, Scenery, Night Scenery, Night Portrait, Panning, Fireworks, Party or Snow

"Heart" - Simple mode: Fully automatic mode for beginners, minimal Menu options.

Play - Play back of still images, movie or audio notes

Controls on the back: The OPEN button pops up the built-in flash. The EVF/LCD button switches between the EVF and LCD monitor, the DISPLAY button controls the amount of data displayed. The EXPOSURE button is used to enable the 4-way controller to change shutter speed or aperture values. The ON/OFF switch turns the camera on and off. The MENU button calls up and dismisses the menu system.

The 4-way selector in Record mode toggles the flash mode when pressed "Right." When pressed "Up" it toggles exposure or flash compensation, AE Bracketing or white balance adjustment. Press "Left" to activate the Self- timer and press "Down" to use the Quick Review mode to examine the last image captured. In Playback mode the 4-way selector is used to select images and of course in both record and play modes it is used to navigate the menu screens. The Focus/Trash can button is for deleting images in playback mode, or in record mode, it can be set to pre-focus instead of using the half-press method on the shutter release.

The A/V Out port sends the audio and video to a television set, the video format is user selectable for NTSC or PAL standard. This is also the USB 1.1 data I/O port, it is Mass Storage compliant and also supports the PictBridge direct-print standard.

An optional AC power adapter or external battery pack can be connected to the DC IN port.

Still images, movie clips and audio files are stored on removable Secure Digital or MultiMedia Card flash memory cards. Panasonic supplies a 8MB size SD card so the first thing you need to buy is a bigger one. We had no problems using a fast and spacious Transcend 60X 512MB SD card and there are now 1GB capacity SD cards available.

Approximate Picture Storage

Power is supplied by a Panasonic 7.2v 680mAh Li-ion battery pack. The battery is good for approx. 260 pictures (CIPA standard testing, 50% with LCD on) and when using the electronic viewfinder (approx. 280 pictures). It has a playback time of 240 minutes.

The battery charger can replenish a fully depleted pack in 120 minutes or less. Batteries are charged out of the camera so you can be charging one and using another.