BIG ZOOOOOOOM Bridge Camera. Panasonic FZ70/FZ72

This is a story of BIG ZOOOOooooOOOOOM ! or how I re-kindled my interest in photography as a hobby. First of all, I am not an expert, and all information is given as "just that"... information.. you use it any way you want to, at your own risk!.... My first digital camera was a very basic model... it had only got 3 x digital zoom... no optical zoom... it was small enough to put in my pocket and made taking pics "on the fly" quite exciting, knowing they would not cost me anything to develop and view, using the computer.. after a couple of years, I "moved on"... and got me a Fuji bridge camera with FIVE TIMES OPTICAL and 4 x digital zoom... what a leap !.. and most of my pics on my website http://www.nemosphotography.co.uk were taken with that camera, I was a happy "tog" for a couple more years.... ... until......  I started to get greedy !.. I wanted MORE ZOOOM ... So I decided that the next step would be the upgrade of the FUJI to 18X optical zoom... but... it failed to impress me, the pic quality was poor, the colours were not good. so... I returned it, and scanned the internet for a replacement... along came the Panasonic FZ28.. with 18 X zoom... and 4 x digital... GREAT... this camera "worked" right from the first shutter press !... then I managed to find a friend, who gave me a Sigma 1.4X teleconverter lens, and it "just happened" to fit the FZ28 by screwing onto the lens barrel....

In this blog, I have reviewed several "add-on" telephoto lenses, that screwed on to the FZ28, but none came close to the Sigma... by various devious methods, I managed to improve the FZ28 basic 18 X optical zoom to 30X optical zoom... ( add on the sigma 1.4 then drop the mpx count to 10mpx).. still had the 4 x digital, so potentially got 120 X zooooOOOM.. ( drop the mpx even more, increases this again)... Well, the FZ28, served me well, but because I took it everywhere with me, it used to get put on the floor of the car, behind my seat, and over a period of 5 years, it starts to get a bit tatty,... and because of that, I decided it was time for another upgrade.... considered 3 cameras, but again, the Panasonic Lumix came out on top... Very Wide Angle 20mm and VERY BIG ZOOM...60X... topped the other two... combine them with the LEICA LENS.. unbeatable...

...I went to a local camera shop, and had a quick "handle" to see how it felt, and also to price it... (December 2013) £369.00 not including a memory card... so decided I would wait until after Christmas/New Year, for the sales to drop the price... NAH!.. could not wait that long... looked on the net, and Jessops had the camera for £320..00  + a 25% discount on a memory card... BUT.. they also had a price match offer... did some research and eventually paid £110.00 less than the orginal retail price... + got 25% off an 8 Gb Sandisk card giving me about 1500 pics !. So got on the phone, and ordered it.  Almost exactly 24 hours later, the camera was delivered to my door !.. Have only taken about 200 pics with it, but I am seriously impressed with it...

The 60X would probably scare some people, thinking that they MUST have a tripod to use that zoom.... Oh No... the stabilization is brilliant... I am amazed that it is so good hand held... Oh, yes.... I dropped the mpx count from 16 to 10 and my Optical ZoooOOOOM is not 60 x but 72X.... When going to "max" on the zoom lever, it now shows 379X zOoooOOOOM. !.. yeah, it is "grainy" or "noisy" at that zoom level, but it is really for fun, that I go to that extreme... I don`t intend to print anything bigger than A4... in fact, I can`t remember the last time I printed any photographs that I had taken... !.. so having a "noisy" pic of a plane in flight, is just that.. a pic of a plane".. or a ship... far out at sea... great fun to take....

My old FZ28, was not renowned for being good in low light... however, this FZ72 seems to cope quite well... Was out visiting family, and as usual, had my camera with me.... 12yr old daughter was in front of her laptop, with the window shades drawn, ( against the afternoon sun)   and no other lighting in a fairly dark room... spur of the moment, decided to zoom in on her eye.... no special settings, just the same as if I was taking an outdoor pic on my C settings... Was amazed at the sharpness, and clarity of the pic. 

You can see ZOOOM pics on my Flickr photostream.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/32369450@N02/11622156264/in/photostream  use the little arrow on the right hand side to progress through the series to see the final ZOOOM pic.... The zoom on the eye is called "Eye Test".. and you can see the results of "Low Light"... no photoshop, no tripod, etc... here..  http://www.flickr.com/photos/32369450@N02/11731184874/in/photostream

Well, There you are... still got loads of things to find out about this new camera.. but so far, cannot fault it... !.