It’s hard to find a city more photogenic than Paris, and it was no coincidence that Panasonic chose this city for the worldwide launch of its 2007 digital camera lineup. The company invited photo and tech magazines from around the world, among them HUB:DL, to attend a briefing called the Lumix Global Seminar here at the end of January. On the walkway – 11 new camera models to refresh the company’s point-and shoot stable from top to bottom, plus a couple of personal printers and an HD photo player. Panasonic entered the digital camera market only in 2002 with four models, but by 2006 managed to capture about 10 percent of the digital camera market in Europe, said Panasonic Europe’s marketing director T. Miyata during the briefing. The company’s goal is to have a 15 percent market share globally by 2009. Though something of a newcomer to digital cameras, Panasonic brings a broad range of core technologies to the table. Thus, many of the essential components that go into the company’s Lumix brand are home grown or developed with strong partners. With Leica, it develops lenses. It has a partnership with Toshiba to develop LCDs. The image processing engine and CCD imager are from other divisions within Panasonic. It makes its own batteries as well as SD memory cards. Intelligent blur reductionPulling this bag of technologies into a product doesn’t necessarily mean success, but Panasonic has managed to match technology to customer desire with a few innovations that have hit the mark. For example, the company found that image blurring from camera shake was a common error, so it developed an optical image stabilization system, which it brands as Mega O.I.S. This is now a feature across the entire line - even the entry level $200 LS70 has it. The 2007 models have a second form of blur reduction that the company calls Intelligent ISO control. Most digital cameras offer variable ISO, but Panasonic harnesses it specifically to address the blurring from fast moving subjects. The relationship is simple: higher ISO allows use of a faster shutter speed, which is better able to stop the action of a moving subject. Nothing is free of course, and one of the consequences of high ISO settings is increased digital noise, so in the Intelligent ISO settings is the ability to cap the maximum ISO that can be used. Together, the Mega O.I.S optical image stabilization and the Intelligent ISO control form what Panasonic calls Intelligent Image Stabilization. Intelligent because the camera figures out the source of the blurriness – camera shake or a fast moving subject – and applies the appropriate remedy. This is being implemented across the entire 2007 point and shoot line. Wide wide angle, long tele
A typical 3x zoom gives wide angle performance of a modest 35 mm (or that equivalent in the more familiar 35mm camera terms). Even 6x or 10x zooms tend to maximize the telephoto rather than the wide angle end of things. In polling purchasers of the company’s early 28 mm offering, the FX07, Panasonic found that the wide angle feature was the number-one reason they bought that model. So now, six of the 2007 models have 28 mm wide angles. Likewise, some Lumix models distinguished themselves early on with long telephoto lenses. In the 2007 lineup are a very tidy 7.2 megapixel TZ3 with a 10x lens (28-280 mm equiv.) and the SLR-style FZ8 (also 7.2 megapixels) with a 12x zoom (36-432 equiv.). Shooting session
After the morning’s briefing, Panasonic handed us a couple of pre-production samples – the TZ3 and FZ8 – and arranged tours to various attractions around the city, inviting us to shoot copiously but cautioning us that these were pre-production units so the image processing engine was not in final tune. Panasonic describes the TZ3 as the “travel-friendly” model, and I can see why. I immediately liked this camera, and would put it (or one like it) high on my short list of cameras to take with me if I wanted to play tourist. The 28 mm wide angle is a significant and very noticeable step up from the typical 35 mm wide angle on point and shoots. It was especially nice to have that extra wide angle coverage when shooting the cavernous interiors in places like the Palais Versailles. But this one has a 10x zoom, so the telephoto reach of a 280 mm lens is not too shabby either. I didn’t like the placement of the main control and was constantly backing out of some menu item I’d inadvertently accessed with my thumb. The look of the FZ8 inspires a more serious approach. It’s a very well proportioned design and from a photo it’s hard to figure out its size – it is actually smaller than it looks. The 12x zoom with a 432mm telephoto is its killer feature, and if that’s not enough, both wide and tele adapters will be available to extend the range to 25 mm wide and 700+ telephoto. At 430 mm, to handhold is to live dangerously, so optical image stabilization can really show some benefits here. I used the camera to take some night shots and the images were quite crisp – that image stabilization system seems to have been a real aid.
A typical 3x zoom gives wide angle performance of a modest 35 mm (or that equivalent in the more familiar 35mm camera terms). Even 6x or 10x zooms tend to maximize the telephoto rather than the wide angle end of things. In polling purchasers of the company’s early 28 mm offering, the FX07, Panasonic found that the wide angle feature was the number-one reason they bought that model. So now, six of the 2007 models have 28 mm wide angles. Likewise, some Lumix models distinguished themselves early on with long telephoto lenses. In the 2007 lineup are a very tidy 7.2 megapixel TZ3 with a 10x lens (28-280 mm equiv.) and the SLR-style FZ8 (also 7.2 megapixels) with a 12x zoom (36-432 equiv.). Shooting session
After the morning’s briefing, Panasonic handed us a couple of pre-production samples – the TZ3 and FZ8 – and arranged tours to various attractions around the city, inviting us to shoot copiously but cautioning us that these were pre-production units so the image processing engine was not in final tune. Panasonic describes the TZ3 as the “travel-friendly” model, and I can see why. I immediately liked this camera, and would put it (or one like it) high on my short list of cameras to take with me if I wanted to play tourist. The 28 mm wide angle is a significant and very noticeable step up from the typical 35 mm wide angle on point and shoots. It was especially nice to have that extra wide angle coverage when shooting the cavernous interiors in places like the Palais Versailles. But this one has a 10x zoom, so the telephoto reach of a 280 mm lens is not too shabby either. I didn’t like the placement of the main control and was constantly backing out of some menu item I’d inadvertently accessed with my thumb. The look of the FZ8 inspires a more serious approach. It’s a very well proportioned design and from a photo it’s hard to figure out its size – it is actually smaller than it looks. The 12x zoom with a 432mm telephoto is its killer feature, and if that’s not enough, both wide and tele adapters will be available to extend the range to 25 mm wide and 700+ telephoto. At 430 mm, to handhold is to live dangerously, so optical image stabilization can really show some benefits here. I used the camera to take some night shots and the images were quite crisp – that image stabilization system seems to have been a real aid.
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