New Technology | Consumer Product Reviews

Panasonic digital cameras troubles are few, but there are some difficulties that might be worth taking into account when you are looking for a digital camera. The DMC-LZ7 has a little viewfinder, which a great deal of users have said is very hard to use. If you are buying a camera for taking clear and precise pictures, this might be a precipitation for this peculiar digital camera. It is likewise hard to see the viewfinder in bright lights, which may make taking outdoor pictures a bit frustrating. This camera likewise seems to drain the batteries rather quickly, but you may end that problem by using rechargeable batteries.

The usual Panasonic digital camera difficultnesses are more of a comfortableness problem rather than a flaw in the cameras abilities. The DMC-TZ1 has no viewfinder and it seems to have a sluggish autofocus. Many users report that it is hard to learn when it comes to all the features that the camera has available. Although these troubles are minor, you will want to consider any of these difficultnesses before buying a specific camera.

More Panasonic digital camera difficultnesses concern the time it takes to send the camera back to the manufacturer for repair. It takes when it comes to a month before you receive a repaired camera in the mail. This is not very bad for a response time, but if you use the camera each day, it may be an indispensable factor. If you consider all the difficultnesses that this make of camera and others have, you will find that each camera has a heap of difficulties but not all cameras have the same problems.

The troubles that Panasonic digital cameras have are far and in amidst as with anything you buy. The new technology that is employed today may malfunction in one camera but not in another. You just have to compare all cameras before buying the right one.

Panasonic Dmc Fz150k Digital Camera Optical

The 12.1-megapixel DMC-FZ150K proceeds a long line of great hybrid digital cameras from Panasonic by giving you more choices not only in how you take pictures, but including the capacity for full HD 1920×1080 60p AVCHD movie recording. The camera’s 24x Leica DC Vario- Elmarit lens scheme featuring two aspherical lenses, three aspherical surfaces, three ED elements, and one Nano Surface Coated Lens gives you more choices for framing both your photos and movies, and the intellectual automati shooting mode allows you to take great worry free photos and movies. A new High Sensitivity MOS imaging chip, hybrid digital camera technology, and an bettered processing engine make sure that you’re capable to capture photos and movies in the moment by reducing shutter lag and increasing burst shooting potential. Add in a bevy of scene options, movie color modes, and an anti-glare treated 3.0″ LCD view screen and you’ve got one unbelievable package in digital camera form! And it shoots 3D still images that may be viewed on your 3D compatible TV!

The LUMIX DMC-FZ150 is to a complete degree equipped with a 25mm ultra wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens and a powerful 24x Optical Zoom (35mm camera equivalent: 25-600mm) available for shooting both stills and videos. Additionally, the LUMIX FZ150 has two of Panasonic’s most recent features – newly innovative Nano Surface Coating technology which helps denigrate light reflectivity that causes ghost and flare – and the new 3D Photo Mode.

As the top-end model of LUMIX’s ordinary FZ series, the FZ150 combines a new 12.1-megapixel MOS sensor and the famous Venus Engine giving the camera high-performance effigy recording capability in both higher light sensitivity and speed. And as a step-up from the lately declared LUMIX FZ47′s 1920 x 1080 60i video feature, the FZ150 realizes 1920 x 1080 60p Full-HD AVCHD Progressive (MPEG-4 / H.264) format. It is likewise possible to take still images while recording video simultaneously (3.5-megapixel) and the powerful 24x optical zoom is available in video recording. The FZ150 incorporates a stereo zoom microphone with a Wind Cut function, so that videos come with high-quality stereo sound through Dolby® Digital Stereo Creator.

The Light Speed AF of approx. 0.1 sec never misses fleeting photo opportunities. To give hope or courage to step-up users to take delight in shooting even more, full manual control is available with the FZ150. Users may take delight in effigy shooting while expressing their intention not only in photos but also in video, utilizing a host of choices including the new Creative Control and Photo Style with a wide potpourri of preset options. The effective hand-shake correction system POWER O.I.S. now gains Active mode, which helps to record stable video even if shot while walking.

The LUMIX’s ordinary iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode powerfully helps in any shooting situations to get the best results. Thanks to the Intelligent Resolution technology, Intelligent Zoom is available with the FZ150 extending the zoom proportionality by approx. 1.3x, preserving the picture quality while combining a digital zoom. This means the 24x optical zoom may almost extend to a 32x equivalent. Not only drawing near the subject that is far away with it is powerful optical zoom, the 25mm ultra wide angle lens captures approx.196% wider angle of view equated with a frequent 35mm camera. This is helpful for shooting dynamic landscape or indoor group portrait.

The frequent iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode is likewise available in video recording. The POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), Face Detection, Intelligent Scene Selector and Intelligent D-range Control likewise help shooting pretty videos with ease. The Intelligent Scene Selector mechanically switches among Normal, Portrait, Macro, Scenery, and Low Light modes according to the situation, to optimize visual quality. The Intelligent D-range Control makes images look more natural by preventing blocked shadows and blown highlights to optimize the exposure for each share of an image. It likewise ensures a pretty replica of gradation and details.

A new 12-Megapixel High Sensibility MOS sensor carrying out or participate in Resolution, Sensitivity and Speed has been integrated along with the widely known and esteemed Venus Engine enabling the FZ150 to excel in effigy processing power. The combining of these powerful constituents results in the S/N proportionality betterment by 3.9dB (ISO 100) to 4.7dB (ISO1600) equated with the predecessor – the FZ100. Newly invented Multi-process Noise Reduction applies optimal noise reduction according to the luminance of the share of the picture. Both high frequency noise that occurs in the dark share and low frequency noise in the light portion are suppressed even in a picture. As a result, Images recorded in low-lit situations are now dramatically clear.

The Venus Engine has a quad-circuit scheme for processing big amount of progressive Full HD selective information at high speed. Not only 1920 x 1080 60p smooth Full-HD video recording, but likewise super fast successive shots at 12 fps (without automati focusing) and 5.5 fps (with automati focusing) in full resolution. It is also compatible with recording high-speed video at 220fps in QVGA. At the same time, the multi-task image- processing engine, the Venus Engine, realizes a super-fast response time. The automati focus gains approx. 50% more immediate speed equated with the FZ100, achieving Light Speed AF of approx. 0.1 second. The speed in AF Tracking likewise becomes faster, thanks to the bettered tracking performance which doubles it is sampling frequency.

The FZ150 provides the new Creative Control mode with a selection of artistic effect modes; Expressive, Retro, High Key, Sepia, High Dynamic, Miniature Effect, Film Grain and Pin Hole. In addition, Photo Style is newly added to the FZ150 for the expression of finer nuance. It has Standard, Vivid, Natural, Monochrome, Scenery, Portrait presets, while enabling finer adjustment of contrast, sharpness, saturation and noise reduction by each.

As a further step-up from the FZ47, the FZ150 is equipped with a hot shoe permitting attachment of respective accessaries including an optional stereo microphone (DMW-MS1) or an optional external flash (DMW-FL220 / FL360 / FL500). The FZ150 is likewise compatible with an optional remote shutter (DMW-RSL1) for progressed expression in photography.

The newly-added 3D Photo mode takes 20 panning shots and then the camera mechanically selects the two most suitable images – one for the right eye and one for the left eye – to synthesize a 3D composite. The 3D effigy may then be viewed on any VIERA 3D HDTV. The format of 3D images is compatible with MPO which may be played back on other MPO-compatible equipment.

Other features of the Panasonic LUMIX FZ150 include:

Motion Deblur Mode, which helps to prevent blur.
Intelligent Handheld Nightshot Mode, which generates finelooking night scenery with illumination by layering multiple images shot consecutively.
PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.5 BD Edition Software makes it possible to sort and coordinate photos not only of those newly taken but also of those stored on the PC with quick start-up and fast read-in of images. Recorded videos may be edited with the Short Movie Story function and written into MPEG2 to burn onto a Blu-ray or DVD disc.

Most helpful customer reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
Wow, what a camera!
By Rolla Gravett
This camera is everything the FZ100 is and they fixed all the shortcomings to produce the FZ150. The buttons in the back of the 100 were too easy to push. I was constantly pushing the playback button when holding the camera with one hand. No more. The button is recessed and the problem is gone. Most if not all the accessories that work on the 100 also work on the 150. Aftermarket batteries actually show capacity now!

When focusing, when the camera focuses it beeps now so you don’t have to be looking at the screen. That is great for using Red Dot Sights on this camera. Night shots are awesome with the Handheld Night Shots Mode. It takes several pictures and combines them for great shots with no blur. The camera has way less noise then the FZ100. Even at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 the noise is better than the FZ100 was in ISO 400. Camera focus in the picture mode and in the video mode is much faster. You can take 12 frames per second burst inside now at all ISO’s. The 100 will not do that.

The camera works great in iA (intelligent auto) were the FZ100 was real noisy in that mode. The camera will zoom to 62.4X in the 3mp picture mode with I-Zoom turned on. I like setting the camera at 8mp picture size, which gives me 39.1X zoom. It records in 1080P video!

The flash works great! It goes out over 30 feet and lights up the rooms very well. I will post some pictures of that. Pictures are very sharp, not noisy, and crisp.

This camera is everything that the FZ100 is and much more. This camera is a REAL WINNER! Great job Panasonic!

I just went outside and put the camera in the 12 frames per second mode, shot 12 shots, waited 1 second, shot another 8 shots, waited another second, shot another 8 shots.

Someone mentioned the Canon SX40IS, so I checked it out. The cameras are similar in a lot of ways. Each one has it’s strengths and weaknesses. The killer for me is the burst mode. The Canon will shoot at 10 frames per second for 8 shots. The Panasonic will shoot at 12 frames per second for 12 shots. Not that much different there. The part they don’t tell you is the Panasonic after taking the 12 shots, wait 1 second, you can take another 8 shots, wait one second, another 8 shots. In the 5.5 fps burst it will go 30-35 shots before slowing down. The Canon will not do that. At 5.5 fps in Auto Focus the camera will go 30 to 35 shots and focus between each shot. In the Canon the rate of burst in Auto Focus is .8 fps. Yes, .8 frames per second. Less than 1 frame per second and focus in between shots. That in my opinion is a deal killer. That is exactly why I chose the Panasonic FZ100 over the Canon SX30IS. It is just too slow for any kind of action shots.

I was at an Animal Safari this last Sunday and had a problem with the camera focusing on the bars of the cage instead of the animal. Sometimes it focused on the animal and sometimes it would not. Finally I used the button on the left side of the lens. It is a ZOOM/FOCUS button, and to change it to a zoom, go to Menu Set, Setup Menu, Page 2, the third one down (Side Lever) and change it to ZOOM or to FOCUS. I changed it to FOCUS and put the focus lever in manual focus. From that point on I had no trouble focusing the bars out of the picture. This camera is awesome!

Another thing that happened to me is I was inside a display area. It was dark inside. All the displays were encased in glass so flash was out of the question. I was in Aperture Priority and for some reason the pictures kept coming out too bright. I changed the Aperture, no help. Then I put the main dial in iA (intelligent auto) and took a picture. It came out perfect! The FZ100 was always a problem in iA, usually because of the noise. Not this camera! It gets it perfect every time. If you are a novice and don’t want to mess with camera controls, this is the camera for you. Anyone can shoot it and get great pictures as long as they can frame a shot and push the shutter release button! If you want to take full control, fine, the camera will do that too. This camera is great for the novice and the experienced photographers! Panasonic got it right this time!

I have noticed that my camera tends to be towards the warm side in color temperature in Auto White Balance. That is totally adjustable and it is explained on pages 114 and 115 of the manual.

I am listing this and guarantee it will get someone. If you try to take a picture with the flash and it will not go off, the flash is open and it is dark enough for it to go off and it does not……. Your camera is in the Burst Mode!!!! That gets lots of people all the time.

Part of the picture on playback is flashing in black and white…. Your HIGHLIGHT is turned on and the picture is saturated in the black and white saturated area.
To turn it off go to the SETUP menu, page 3 at the bottom.

Did you know that you can take a snapshot or a burst of pictures while taking video? This camera will do that. The picture size is 3.5mp. You can record up to 40 pictures per video. Look in the manual on page 38.

You shot a really cool video and want a snapshot from it. Simply play the video back in the camera in the play mode, and pause the video where you want the shot, press Menu Set, it asks SAVE THIS IMAGE? Highlight YES and press Menu Set! Done. You have saved a picture from the video that you took. I can’t seem to find that in the manual but am still looking. It works just the same. I think the picture size is 2.5mp, but can’t find it in the manual.

The camera has a live Histogram so you can see the picture readout before you shoot it. Go to Menu Set, SETUP, Page 3, second one down. To move from one page to the next, simply pull the zoom lever to the right. To go down move the zoom lever to the left.

The camera will take 5 flash shots in quick succession. To do that, go to SCN on the main dial, go to the second row, the forth one down. Pick your picture size and press Menu Set. It will now take 5 quick flash pictures by holding the shutter release button down. Make sure you open the flash.

The camera will take 220 frames per second in the video mode. To do that go to SCN again and go to the second page and it is the middle icon. HS

If I was using any of the priority modes at night (I would use iA in this camera) go to Menu Set and the REC mode, on the first page under PHOTO STYLE, I would use Natural as it is more sensitive to light. It may be a moot point as iA (Intelligent Auto) is better for low light.

This camera works really well all the way to ISO 1600 in low light areas. ISO 3200 works too, but is more noisy.

I have the Vivitar DF-383 flash that I use on this camera. It is a very powerful flash and is much cheaper than the Panasonic Flash. It is not quite as powerful as the top of the line Panasonic Flash but half the price. Make sure you get the Vivitar DF-383 flash for Panasonic.

I would get a remote shutter or a interval timer for this camera. The camera has to be powered to use for time lapse photography and an interval timer, but if you push the EVF (Electronic View Finder) button to shut down the LCD, the drain on the battery is minimal. I took a 3 hour time lapse video this way and the battery showed 1 mark down from full charge at the end.

Aftermarket batteries now show capacity in this camera. They are much cheaper than Panasonic batteries even though the Panasonic batteries seem to be dropping in price.

An external mike can be used on the camera, but be advised it takes a 2.5mm plug instead of the 3.5mm plug that normally comes on external mikes. Amazon sells an adapter for cheap that will adapt the plug. Rhode Mikes work on this camera.

Teleconverters work well on the FZ150. There are 5 main ones that work well. Don’t waste your money and buy the cheap 2X and larger teleconverters. Two of them are Olympus Lenses. They are the TCON-17 (1.7X with no letters behind the number. It looks like a pear.), and the B300. The Olympus lenses are no longer made and can be found on Ebay. Nikon makes the TC-E15ED (1.5X).
Panasonic makes a 1.7X lens as well. , The last lens is a Raynox DCR-2025 Pro (2.2X).

This camera has excellent stabilization and I am able to shoot at 39.1X (8mp picture size with I-Zoom turned on) without blurry photos during the day with no problems.

This is my opinion and others may disagree. Don’t connect the camera to the computer and risk damaging it. Pull your SDHC card out of the camera (it takes a whole 1/10 second to pull your card out of the camera, just open the door and push on it) and put it into the computer if your computer has a SDHC card reader. The software supplied with the camera will know you put the card into a reader and it will prompt you to download the files, both video and photo. If your computer doesn’t have a SDHC card reader, buy a good inexpensive USB card reader. They are only around $15 or so. It is much faster and safer and less hassle to pull your card out of the camera to download the files. Just do it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Exceeded Expectations!!
By April H. Little
After trying out the new Lumix G3 to replace my FZ30, I was sorely disappointed. The sample images I viewed on dpreview.com were excellent, but the pictures I took were horrible. That’s because they were using super expensive lenses. Hmm….The kit lens was useless and I wasn’t wanting to spend lots of money on more lenses. I also missed the zoom capability….enter the new Lumix FZ150. This looked more like the camera I have been using since 2005 (the FZ30), just totally upgraded.

Right out of the box, I was not disappointed. The FZ150 is smaller than my FZ30, yet still feels very comfortable and secure in the hand. All the buttons seem to be in the right place. (The G3 was not designed well and I kept hitting a button I didn’t want to press when I held the camera.)The FZ150 also takes great, natural-looking pictures indoors (which was what I was looking for) without a flash. It also takes wonderful macro images, which the G3 had a very difficult time doing. The G3 wouldn’t even TAKE the picture if it wasn’t in focus. The FZ150 focuses quickly and accurately.

The video looks great, as well. The only drawback is the format of MP4. It does not import in Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 without first being converted to an avi or mov file, but that seems to be the trend in all newer cameras, so I won’t fault the FZ150 there.

All in all, I am very, very pleased with this camera and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wants to take great pictures without the bulk and expense of a DSLR.

UPDATE: I took this camera to an event this weekend and it performed almost FLAWLESSLY!! Out of hundreds of pictures only a few were deleted! Also took lots of video (in MPEG4). As a heads up, the video did have a jerky playback on the computer until I converted it to an avi.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
WOW!
By Snapdrgn
Absolute beginner photography enthusiast. Have only used iA (intelligent auto setting) as that’s all I know. Have so much to learn but this camera is a dream. The zoom is magical! Am thoroughly impressed with this camera and can’t wait to learn all the tricks, bells and whistles. Thank you Panasonic for creating such an amazing camera. Great camera capable of so much more than I have the knowledge to do… yet I have been able to create amazing photos and video straight out of the box. Was scared to make this purchase but am so glad I took the chance. Panasonic DMC-FZ150 I’m lovin’ it!!

See all 21 customer reviews…