Oct 18, 2008 07:42 PM
22101 Views
I was recently in a quest to find out the best digital camera to suit my needs. Since I am in the advertising field point and shooters are of no use to me and yet at the same time buying an SLR ( to the people new to the camera field like I was around 2 months ago, an SLR is the absolute in photography. Its precision and crisp clarity is unmatched and thats why proffesional photographers swear by these even though the entry level SLRs cost around Rs 35000and the good ones around Rs 1 lakh plus an. Everything is manually set in this camera and its humongous with its extra lens and all. So to get an SLR a novice should be ready to dedicate considerable amount of time to master it or the feeling of money down the drain comes pretty quickly !! ) seemed like not a wise choice. So I decided to get the best of both worlds...... the superzoom digital camera.
The superzoom digital camera is like a bridge camera between the point and shoot and the mighty SLR. Though bulkier than a conventional point and shoot its much lesser in size and weight than the SLR . Point and shooters lose focus and clarity on zooming and most have optical zoom of 3 to 5 max which trust me isnt much to write home about. It might look well on the lcd screen but print it to see the pixellated image ! Most superzooms in the market today has an auto mode in which the camera software itself picks out the optimum settings for a particular pic so that you just have to point and shoot and at the same time a manual mode to manually set functions such as aperture settings, shutter speed ,ISO settings etc lets you play around like a SLR.
When I decided to get a superzoom the models that came up were sony H50 ( 15 x optical zoom ) and canon S5IS (12 x optical zoom ). I was totally confused as H50 was a new model with even the smile shutter featuring on it but the picture quality of the canon was far superior even in zooming though the model came out in late 2006. Just as I was in the last straw I came across some articles in photography sites proclaiming a newly launched panasonic FZ28 with 18 x optical zoom as the recent best thing that happened to superzoom camera catagory. Trust me minimum of 12 websites have ranked FZ28 as the no 1 digital camera. Add to it 27mm wideangle shots, auto intelligent mode and various other functions like AF tracking where u can lock on to a target of your choice and the camera follows it clicking pics. An amazing feature for sport functions. ok I am getting way ahead of myself here, let me get to the bare basics of the camera.
It is a 10.1 megapixel,18 x optical zoom, 32 x digital zoom, ultra wide 27mm angle lens, JPEG and RAW file formats, lens shift mega OIS image stabilizer, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 aspect ratios, ISO 100 - 1600, and the clincher ( if u need more ) a 720 P HD movie mode !! and not to forget on a 2.7 inch LCD screen and a high power lithiu ion battery with capacity of 450 + photos. Trust me guys the battery stays really really long. The picutre clarity is amazing even that of exreme close ups ( macro ). Upto 15 faces can be detected but thats standard nowadays. As with all Lumix cameras this too can take HD photos which can be viewed on any HD TV of your choice via the TV out.
The camera basically is a blast to use with intelligent auto mode recognizing and adapting to any scene you may throw at it. The stringent Leica lens ensures crisp photos each time. This successor of the highly popular and acclaimed FZ18 has set the bench mark as the camera to beat for the other ultra zooms. It is way ahead of its time and the addition of an electronic view finder and music enabled slide shows. It hasnt officially been launched in India where the FZ18 still sells for Rs 28000 eventhough you get the FZ28 for half that prize in US and european markets which makes it a very attractive purchase. I got mine from abroad and am loving every second about it. Try one to realise why the world is raving about it !!
