PANASONIC LUMIX DIGITAL CAMERAS
DMC-FZ10 DMC-FZ20 DMC-FZ30

I've been a photography nut since the 1960s, and am now on my fourth digital camera.  I bought a Panasonic DMC-FZ10 in 2003 and later decided to upgrade to the newer DMC-FZ20.  Click here to read about my experiences with the FZ10, here to read about my experiences with the FZ20, and here to learn about the new FZ30.

If you like the big zoom lens on the FZ20 and FZ30, but are interested in less expensive alternatives...  consider the DMC-FZ5 or the budget-priced DMC-FZ4.

The basic differences between the models are:

Other than what you see in the chart, the basic features of the four cameras are the same.  All have a 12x optical zoom lens with image stabilization, a full set of automatic or manual controls, high-speed burst shooting mode, .jpg or .tif file formats, movie mode, and come with a very long lasting rechargeable battery (with charger) and a lens hood.

Let me give you a little demonstration of the #1 greatest feature of the FZ4/FZ5/FZ20/FZ30 digital cameras:  the big image-stabilized zoom lens.  No other cameras in this price range can come close to matching this lens!  You may be able to get a 10x zoom in this price range, but not a 12x...  and it won't be image stabilized, so you better carry a tripod if you buy something other than a Panasonic!

Here are some pictures I took at our neighborhood park with my DMC-FZ20...  to demonstrate what that big built-in zoom lens can do.  These pictures were shot handheld without a tripod, and without any additional lenses or filters.

You can see I was quite a distance away from the action

With the big zoom lens, I was able to get a very clear view of the batter.
By not using the digital zoom, the picture has extremely high resolution.

But if you're willing to give up a little bit of picture quality...

By using the full power of the optical zoom plus the digital zoom,
I was able to get incredibly close.  And remember, I was not using a tripod!

If you've been involved in photography for very long, you know that to get a shot like this 10 years ago would have required a 35mm SLR camera and a huge, expensive zoom lens.  2 or 3 years ago, there were digital cameras that could match this shot...  but the camera would have been a couple of thousand dollars and the lens would have been a couple of thousand more.  Now in 2005 I was able to get this picture from a $599 Panasonic DMC-FZ20 without even using a tripod.  It's absolutely incredible.  And another interesting thing to consider is that the $449 DMC-FZ4 has basically the same lens so presumably it could also have gotten that shot, too.

Need more information about the Panasonic Lumix digital cameras?  Follow these links:

Ready to purchase?  The best way you can show your appreciation for the information I've taken the time to post here would be to purchase a camera from one of these links:

May I give you a suggestion regarding memory for the Panasonic Lumix digital cameras?

The cameras come with a very small Secure Digital memory card to get you started.  Once you realize that each picture you take with the FZ20 requires over 2mb of storage space (about 1.4 mb per picture on the lower resolution FZ10) you can easily see that those supplied 16mb memory cards won't get you very far!  So, you're going to want to buy a larger SD memory card for your camera.  I'd suggest a 512mb card, which will allow you to shoot well over 200 pictures on the 5 megapixel FZ20 (and even more on the lower resolution cameras) before you'll have to connect to your computer and download them.

Here's the thing that most people don't understand about memory cards...  they come in different speeds.  The cheap ones can't read and write data to and from the card as fast as the more expensive high-speed cards can.  So, it takes longer to download your pictures from a cheap memory card than it will if you shell out the few extra bucks for a high-speed card.

But most importantly, a high-speed card will allow the Panasonic cameras to work much better when you are using the camera's high-speed burst mode.  In boost mode, the camera can take a series of five pictures back-to-back extremely quickly.  I've found this to be VERY handy when shooting kids and animals since they tend not to sit still!  But if you buy a slow memory card, the burst mode won't work very well because the camera is sitting around waiting for the card to finish writing the pictures to the card.  The memory card ends up being a bottleneck to the flow of data simply because it's too darned slow to keep up with the camera!

So my strong advice to you is to spend a couple of extra bucks when you make your memory card purchase and get yourself a high-speed card such as the 32x Lexar SD memory card.  There are cheaper memory cards on the market, there's even a cheaper line of Lexar cards...  but the 32x card is what you really need to allow the Panasonic camera to work at full potential.  Click here to order a 1 gigabyte high-speed Lexar card through Amazon.com...  and once again, you'll be giving me a nice "thank you" for the information because Amazon.com will send a small commission check my way.

Why do I recommend a 1 gigabyte card for the FZ20 instead of a 512mb or 256mb card?  Trust me on this one...  you're going to LOVE taking pictures with this camera, so you'll be taking LOTS of pictures.  You have to remember that since the FZ20 is a 5 megapixel camera, each picture can take up as much as 2.5 megabytes of disk space.  It's so frustrating to be shooting pictures and then to run out of disk space on your memory card!  If you use the burst mode...  which fires off multiple shots back-to-back...  or the TIFF mode which shoots a 14mb uncompressed image...  it doesn't take long at all. 

You might also think about ordering an extra battery if you're going on vacation or in any situation where you might want to take hundreds of pictures before you get back to your computer.  While shooting several hundred pictures may sound excessive to you right now...  you'll quickly find out once you get this camera in your hands that it's easy to do!

One of the reasons that I've liked both of my Panasonic Lumix cameras is the hot-shoe which allows you to use an external flash unit.  Most digital cameras do not have a hot-shoe, so you're stuck with only the built-in flash.  By adding an external flash on to the camera, you will find that you are able to get much better results in many situations where you are shooting indoors...  especially if the room has a white ceiling you can bounce the flash off of.

I purchased a Sunpak 383 flash for well under $100, and it has made a big difference in the quality of my indoor photographs.   Here is a little demonstration.  The following 3 photos were all taken in my living room with my DMC-FZ20.

This first photo was shot using natural light only.  It was mid-day and there was light coming in through the windows, but because the light was uneven you can see we had major shadows.  Not a good picture.

Look at how harsh that lighting is.  Yuck.  It's very un-natural looking.  And since the flash was so close to the lens, she got some red eye, too.

This is why people who are really in to photography make sure they have a camera with a "hot-shoe" so that they can use an external flash unit.  Finally, we have evenly distributed light...  and it gives the picture a nice soft look.  I doubt you could get much better lighting than that without spending a ton of money on studio equipment!

You get the soft lighting effect by not pointing the external flash directly at the subject...  you swivel it up towards the ceiling and let the light bounce off the white ceiling and fill the room.  This is called "bounce flash".  So, if you're going to buy an external flash, make sure it can swivel!  Some lower-priced external flashes can not.  And make sure it can swivel both vertically AND horizontally, so you can bounce it off the ceiling regardless of whether you are shooting in portrait or landscape orientation!  The Sunpak 383 is a good match for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10 or FZ 20 cameras and will swivel in both directions.

My advice to owners of the FZ10 and FZ20 cameras:  get yourself a Sunpak 383 external flash.  I highly recommend it.  If you click on this link you can order a Sunpak 383 for well under $100, and Amazon will give me a small sales commission...  which is the nicest way you can thank me for taking the time to give you this little lighting demo.

I'm working on writing a few pages of things I've learned about digital photography.
I've finished the first one...  about compressing images.  Click here to read it.

If you enjoy digital photography, you'll like one of
my favorite Internet sites, onlinephotographers.com
Be sure to browse the forums there.

If you own a Lumix digital camera but aren't quite sure how to
take advantage of some of the advanced controls,
check out Panasonic Lumix shooting manual

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