Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20

Larger than most superzooms, Panasonic's top-of-the-line Lumix DMC-FZ20 is similar in size and look to a digital SLR. It combines very good image quality with top-notch specs and features. It isn't perfect, but if we could take only one camera with us on vacation, it would be high on our list. With its impressive zoom lens and other capabilities, there are few scenes this camera couldn't handle with aplomb.

The 5-megapixel FZ20 has a 36- to 432-mm (35-mm equivalent) 12X optical zoom Leica lens; only the Konica Minolta DiMage Z3 can match its range. The FZ series are the only superzooms that maintain a constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range, which makes it easier to use lower ISO settings for less noisy images or faster shutter speeds for freezing the action. But don't worry if your shutter speed drops a setting or two below what you'd ideally want to use—built-in optical image stabilization, as in the Z3, reduces camera shake for sharper pictures.

The FZ20 is very comfortable to hold; as with an SLR, you cradle the lens in your left hand while your right hand grasps the rubberized grip and your forefinger rests on the shutter release. We wish the zoom lever were under your thumb instead of around the shutter release collar, which would make zooming easier while you're poised to press the shutter.

The FZ20 comes with a two-piece lens hood to reduce glare when shooting outside. We found the second piece too cumbersome and had to remember to remove the hood when shooting with the flash so it didn't cast a shadow at the bottom of the frame.

People looking for a dead-simple point-and-shoot camera can get most of what they want from the FZ20 by setting its mode dial to Program mode and snapping away. You'll just have to remember to pop up the flash manually when needed—it doesn't go up automatically. (The FZ20 also has a hot shoe for a nondedicated external flash.) But the controls are all business: easy to set, with no cutesy options, making the camera seem oriented more toward enthusiasts. For instance, like most mainstream cameras, the FZ20 has several scene modes, but rather than making you scroll through a menu for your preferred scene each time, it lets you pick two favorite modes that you can assign to positions on the mode wheel and choose as quickly as any other camera mode.

In addition to its 2-inch LCD, the FZ20 has an electronic viewfinder (EVF), as do most current superzooms. While we've gotten more used to using an LCD to frame our shots, the FZ20's D-SLR-like feel made us prefer shooting with the EVF. But we found it annoying that photo review and menu selections also had to be done through the viewfinder if we selected the EVF for shooting. We wish the FZ20's LCD were articulated, but this, of course, would add weight, bulk, and cost. In shooting mode, the camera can go from a clean screen to showing as much information as you'd like, including a real-time histogram.

There are plenty of advanced settings that people will find useful, such an uncompressed TIFF mode. The camera can shoot short bursts at 3 frames per second (the speedier 4MP FZ15 can achieve 4 fps) or it can shoot at a slower rate until the memory card fills up. Its 320-by-240 pixel video mode is less impressive, though it can shoot clips that last until the SD card is full. You can set exposure and flash compensation, auto-bracketing, and white balance.

We like how Panasonic designed the FZ20's manual focus: Pressing the manual focus button on the side of the lens makes the camera do its best guess, so that you only need to refine the focus. And as you turn the collar on the lens, the center of the image is magnified for more precise focus.

In our testing, the FZ20 averaged an excellent 1,550 lines of resolution—above what we'd expect for a 5MP camera—with a decent average pixel transition ratio of 2.5 percent. Our daylight photo exhibited very good sharpness, but a color shift toward magenta—which artificially saturates the colors—lowered our impression of the image. There was a lot of data throughout the dynamic range, including the midtones, and the image was well exposed, with no edge fall-off and minimal noise. The picture showed good contrast, which added to the overall impression of sharpness. The colors of our flash shot were very slightly warm, which Panasonic may be doing deliberately to enhance skin tones.

The FZ20 is no speed demon, taking more than 5 seconds to start up and 3.5 seconds between flash shots, which makes it too slow for sports photography. For that, we'd recommend either the Panasonic FZ15 or the Fujifilm FinePix S5100.

With its specs, we had hoped the FZ20's images would be outstanding, rather than "just" very good. Still, many D-SLR owners may be drawn to the FZ20 for those times when they don't want to lug their full rig around.

Benchmark Tests
Click here to view the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 benchmark test results