What Photo Gear

Panasonic today announced a new ultra-zoom camera - the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50. Specs wise, it boasts of a 10x moderate wide angle lens (28-280mm in 35mm terms) with Panasonic’s OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) system and the big news is of course its Wi-Fi capabilities. (You even get the word “Wireless” emblazoned on the camera’s grip) :p

With the TZ 50 you are able to wirelessly upload your photo’s to Google’s Picasa Web Albums straight from the camera. You also get 12 months worth of free access to T-Mobile’s Hotspot services (T-Mobile US Only)

Pretty useful I’d say, though I almost always run my photographs through a bit of post-processing in Photoshop or Lightroom before publishing them, there are times when I’d definitely want the ability to just wirelessly upload them straight from the camera.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50:

• 9.1 Megapixels
• 10x optical zoom with image stabilization (28-280mm equivalence)
• 3 inch LCD
• 720p HD Video Capture
• SD and SDHC support
• Allow automatic uploading of images to Google’s Picasa Web Service via 802.11 b/g Wireless

I’m still not clear on this - but from what I understand the wireless uploading option is limited only to Google’s Picasa Web Albums, so no direct wireless uploading to any other services such as Flickr. The Panasonic TZ-50 will be available in May with an MSRP of $ 449.

Full Panasonic Press Release after the jump!

Read more »

While most will probably take notice of the 3 inch touch screen LCD that Panasonic is touting on their latest offering, the spec that has me most excited (and should excite you too!) is the 5x image stabilized zoom lens starting at a wide 25mm!

Not only will that wide angle lens open up a lot of shooting opportunities, it’s also extremely rare in compact camera’s nowadays. We’ll be lucky if we get a lens starting at 28mm or even 35mm (in 35mm terms) in compact camera’s - so this is definitely a welcome surprise from Panasonic.

Not only that, but you get full manual controls as well, including Tv (Shutter priority) and Av (Aperture priority) modes. And the much hyped 3 inch touch screen LCD as well, and of course, as standard on pretty much all Panasonic digital compacts - their lens-based Image Stabilization system (OIS).

ISO tops out at ISO 1600 (with a High Sensitivity Mode using ISO 1600-6400) - which pretty much means that those setting are just for emergency use only. (High ISO performance has always been the Achilles heel of Panasonic digital compacts) One feature that compacts can do that DSLRs can’t is shoot video’s and the FX500 does one better by letting you shoot HD video (1280×720p at 30 or 15fps) as well as take photo’s in a 16:9 aspect ratio.

So far this looks to be promising and pretty competitively priced and full featured camera from Panasonic. If image quality can compete with or do better than other compacts in the same price range, this just might become a “photographers compact.” I wouldn’t mind having a 5x 25-125mm compact with me while traveling too.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500:

• 10 megapixels (1/2.3″ CCD)
• 5x f/2.8-f/5.9 stabilized zoom lens (25-125mm in 35mm terms)
• 3 inch touch screen LCD
• 1024×720p Video Recording
• Uses SD and SDHC cards
• ISO 100-1600 (with High Sensitivity Auto ISO at ISO 1600-6400
• Adjustable noise reduction in ±2 steps.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500 is available in May, with an MSRP of $399. Click here to download the full spec sheet from Panasonic.