User reviews for Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10: Digital Photography Review

Opinion: The main feature is the large Leica lens with is allthe way 2.8 from
35 to 400 mm. Brilliant picture on a fairly good resolution.

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Opinion: I have owned this camera for several years now and due to its low MP sensor I have been trying to find an upgrade that I will like as much as this one...well I suppose it is a testament to this camera that I have had a hard time upgrading.

I want a fairly compact size but I also want a good zoom range, so that is exemplified in this camera.
To switch to a compact for portability is in the back of my mind but the lenses on those and the rush toward piling more and more mps on the same size sensors makes these a less than ideal choice.

I use a Eos 20D for my professional work, and believe it or not, when it malfunctioned and I had to send it in for repair, I actually substituted this camera for a couple of weeks and it worked adequately (even with substantially fewer megapixels. Now I am not saying this camera is comparable to the Eos 20D (or any other digital SLR), just that it was not so much worse as to be unusable.

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Opinion: A bit bulky for a fixed-zoom-lens digital, but nice weight. I've taken about 8,000 pictures, more or less, with it. It's a right-handed camera, period, and I'm left handed. I've gotten over it.

Problems: Auto-manual focus now has a small piece of duct-tape on it, as it kept getting shifted into manual focus. The diopter adjustment wheel also is constantly out of focus unless there's tape over it. The multiple-exposure button on the top near the "go" button keeps getting accidentally engaged. A lot of dust has appeared insided the lens. The control knob on top right (near the "go" button) frequently gets moved to an incorrect position.
The "big" screen on the back is so scratched up that it's hard to see anything in it unless lighting is perfect. I keep getting a blue error screen when I switch the camera on, unless the camera is pointed at the sky when I do it. Sometimes, it even requires a slight jolt to the camera with the palm of my free hand to get the camera to turn on after retrying it following a blue error screen. Other than these problems, I'd have to say that this camera can "take a licking and keep on ticking" as the old Timex ads used to say. On the pictures themselves, I seem to have to frequently jack up the brightness, contrast, and saturation on the ARCSOFT editing suite accompanying the camera, especially if I'm going to try to make a paper print on our old HP scanner, fax, printer. I've never used the camera on a tripod for maximum or near maximum zoom photos, but most high-zoom pics, hand-held, turn out to be just "so-so". It took me awhile to get used to the anti-shake mechanism making noises while I was just walking along with the camera turned off. It takes forever to get fired up--I've missed I don't know how many good pictures because it took so long to get ready to shoot from the off position.

Might seem like I don't like this camera, but I do. I'd like to try one of the advanced versions of it and see if they've (PANASONIC) improved any of the problems I've had with it. The one problem I can't figure out is how dust gets inside the lens.

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Opinion: Superb digital camera

- Easy to handle

- Excellent image quality

- Very long battery life

Problems: None

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Opinion: Genuine 12x Zoom A Winner.

I can't for the life of me work out where Jamesdak is coming from in his earlier review. I have borrowed one of these cameras and compared the zoom range to that of my Lumix DMC-LC5 (3x zoom). Both cameras have a near identical wide angle field of view. The FZ10 clearly zooms in 4x more at maximum optical zoom than my LC5. I overlaid a 400% blowup of a 3x optical image (max zoom) from the LC5 onto a 12x optical image (max zoom) from the FZ10 and they matched.

I am considering purchasing a DMC-FZ50 and was interested to see the 12x zoom range at work.

The Lumix zoom lens works well in this older camera, does great macro and performed well in low light. I can't wait to see the newer Leica zoom lens at work in the FZ50.

Problems: A brief look at the camera to look at the zoom lens only. I saw no obvious problems in a ten minute play with the camera.

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Opinion: This may be the last FZ10 review you see, since it's nearly 3 years old, but I thought it would be helpful to people thinking about the durability of the Panasonic brand. My FZ10 remains pristine despite a fair amount of use. The images are phenomenal in my opinion. Noise is in the eye of the beholder, and as a 40+ year film camera (Leica) vet, respect "graininess" and find it no problem. There have been great advances in camera features since then and I am itching to upgrade (contra to my standard rule of no change for 5 years at a time).
1: the zoom control doesn't specify exactly where you are and because it is not a manual ring, requires finger flicks if you want to make minor adjustments -- the FZ30 zoom ring is a huge plus.
2: on/off lag time: it's ok but again the FZ30 in particular reduced this significantly by having the lens move IN the barrel as opposed to the FZ10 in and out in front of the barrel.
3: using the camera AE or 'manually' would be better with fstop & shutter controls similar to older film cameras -- the button system is time consuming -- the L1 design in particular seems to accomplishes this.
4: No AF assist lamp: makes AF dim/dark focussing problematic. FZ30 & L1 seem like they overcame this.
5: ISO range: frankly I would have liked it if it went above 400 for certain applications, but as it is it is very flexible.
6: lens cap fits only the basic camera -- not with the lens hood attached. I had to buy an "after market" cap which is a "fair" fit.
7: lens hood: one good thing is that it the outer edge accepts a screw-on filter (72mm), protecting the lens w/o interfering w/ the zoom function. The FZ30 allows the hood to fit over a filter.
8: dipoter: my eyes are just a shade worse than it will go.
9: LCD: had this been a swing-out moveable version, I would have considered this a totally perfect photographic tool. FZ30 adds this feature; too bad L1 didn't and is a significant draw-back to me (esp compared to the Olympus E-330).
Otherwise, I couldn't be happier with my experience. Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. And I will have a very difficult time giving this gem up when I upgrade.

Problems: None that I couldn't live with.

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Opinion: I've used this FZ10 cam for 18 months. Taken 20,000+ pics (not a typo) - I use the burst mode a lot for wildlife (birds n the bees etc).
Only upgrade been purchasing a 1G card, well worth it. Reduces time (before the creature exits the shot) saving files and allows 540 odd instead of 70 pics on the larger setting. The colour is very good, the focus on zoom reasonable but not great. I use the manual and/or AF switch down most of the time. Macro is generally very good.
Noise on very low light (like night stuff with very poor additional light is not great. I find the menu pretty easy to use and shoot on 50 ISO as much as possible, as well noted it gets noisier on large ISO ratings.
I also use the 2 sec delay often esp using a tripod for slow shutter speed water shots and try to force myself to using the M (manual setting) to teach myself the best exposure settings (often the spot metering still lies)

Problems: My biggest niggle is the delay from pushing the button to the pic being taken. Half a second is a loooong time to miss wildlife (hence using burst mode) shots.
I feel although the lense is very good compromise lens, it is still that, and some shots taken (in focus and correct exposure) should have reproduced better. Fussy bugger I am.
When I get rich, I wanna make the move to dSLR to overcome the delay problem, and better lenses.
Having said all this, I haven't compared this cam to the FZ30 and know that we're talking a jump of 4-5 times the expense to buy a new back and lenses

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Opinion: Zoom no where near as powerful as they lead you to believe, may have the angle of view of a 420mm but not even close on the magnification. Autofocus is too slow for action and exposure is a hit miss deal. Noise is bad above ISO 100 and in my opinion make the camera unusable at the faster speeds.

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Opinion: Just got it USED new to me. Had a S5100 good camera but needed the hot shoe for long range flash work. The lens WOW 35mm 420mm no need for a converter here. Read the other reviews here and there right on read the manual to get the most out of it. The zoom control could be a little easyer to use. Man the lens hood makes it look mean. Love the look and feel, solid and robust. Cost me 539 cnd from a dealer with warranty and I feel like its money well spent.

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