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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Review

Author	Cliff Smith
Published	22nd Aug 2008
Manufacturer	Panasonic
Price	£252.17 (Exc VAT)
as reviewed	£290.00 (Inc VAT)
Latest Price

Build Quality
Features
Image Quality
Value
Overall

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In terms of features too the changes are only small, but there are a lot of them and the overall effect is a significant improvement on what was already an outstanding camera. Most of the changes are to the camera’s automatic systems, with improved Face Detection now capable of tracking 15 faces at once; Intelligent Exposure, which helps to reduce the occurrence of black shadows and burned-out highlights; Intelligent Scene Selector, which automatically selects the correct scene mode, and Intelligent ISO Control, which as the name suggests selects the best ISO setting for the situation.

As anyone who reads a lot of camera reviews will have spotted, none of those features are unique, and similar features exist (albeit with different names) in many other cameras, however Panasonic have combined them all into one Intelligent Auto setting that supposedly makes it much easier to take good shots quickly. It does work, and you can rely on it to cope with even quite unusual lighting situations, but I can’t honestly say it works any better than the automatic settings on any other high-spec cameras. It’s still sometimes fooled by high contrast scenes or bright backlighting, and needs to be over-ridden.

Like the FZ18 the FZ28 has a good range of manual controls, with shutter and aperture priority and full manual exposure, and these too have seen some improvement. Aperture settings from f/2.8 to f/8 and shutter speeds of 60 seconds to 1/2000th of a second, in increments of 1/3EV are available, as well as spot metering and a selectable focus point, which offers a lot of creative potential. The metering spot can be moved to match the AF point too, which is even better.

The white-balance options have also been improved, with dial-in colour temperature, two measured white balance settings and an option to manually adjust the colour balance within quite wide parameters. This means that the camera can be set up to cope with almost any lighting conditions. It’s an impressive system, and you’d have to buy a DSLR to find more adaptability.

Other improvements include the pop-up flash, which is significantly more powerful with an impressive 8.5m maximum range, and the video mode, which can now shoot in 1280x720p at 30fps, although the component video output is only in 1080i.

Latest 4 of 140 Comments

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KEITH BLACKWOOD said on 28th June 2009

Just got back from Canada where the camera performed brilliantly, did not get much of a chance to check it out before leaving so had to learn on the move.Only bad shot was in night... more

Milad said on 9th July 2009

Hi everyone,
Last week I bought a FZ28 for about 380 USD here in Iran. For me as a total beginner the camera is perfect. I'm actually just learning and that's whe... more

u.s.s.mitscher said on 17th August 2009

I have been using the FZ28 for almoat a year now. It does everything. Impressive is the movie mode (720P) and viewing on a 50 inch plasma. I take videos at jazz clubs and view t... more

TGS said on 28th August 2009

Many of the comments about the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 seem to be based on assumptions of what to expect from a compact camera because of the relatively small size of the sensor. The size of the sensor can be an issue, but you also need to consider lens quality and the processing software in the camera. These two factors can far outweigh the impact of a relatively small sensor. We bought this camera for our business several months ago after doing extensive research on DSLR and super zoom models. Based on our limited budget (i.e. $560 CDN maximum) we narrowed our selection down to the Nikon D60, Pentax KM and the Pansonic DMC-FZ28 (all are 10 mega pixel cameras). We took an SD chip into a number of retailers and did some test shots of identical subjects. The main use for this camera is to shoot still objects in our mini studio so image quality was our #1 priority. We took some shots of an outdoor brick wall (an ideal subject btw since you can check for barrel distortion and image softening in the corners very easily.) Since we have an HP Z3200 large format printer we were able to take 100% crops from of images from each camera, print them on a 17" x 22" format and compare the printed results. We found that the Panasonic outperformed both the Nikon D60 (with kit lens) and the Pentax KM (with kit lens) with less barrel distortion and almost no loss of image clarity in the corners of shots etc. The jpegs that came off the cameras varied tremendously in terms of size with the Panasonic doing less compression than the other two. The Nikon D60 produced jpegs about 2.4 to 2.6 MB in size, the Pentax KM produced 3.4 to 3.6 MB images and the Panasonic produced 4.8 to 5.1 MB images. The quality of the Leica lens on the Panasonic is simply superb and the macro feature is fantastic. We get excellent images, especially when using a macro tripod in our mini studio. The Venus IV processing engine does a wonderful job and produces excellent quality jpegs. We have shot in RAW and find it easy to use and modify with the provided software. Jpegs produced from RAW are about 11 to 12 MB in size. If you want to get the absolute best results from the Panasonic you will find it is superb when shooting at ISO 100 using the aperature priority setting and shooting at f5.6 to f8. Very crisp, detailed images. The biggest thing to determine before you buy a camera is to clearly identify your needs in terms of use. We bought this camera to shoot primarily close up work in our mini studio, using a tripod, with our objective being outstanding image quality. The Panasonic DMC FZ28 delivers this in spades! We ended purchasing the Panasonic DMC FZ28 on sale for only $370 - about $200 less than either the Nikon D60 or the Pentax KM. Suffice to say it has been an OUTSTANDING investment for our business.

Many of the comments about the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 seem to be based on assumptions of what to expect from a compact camera because of the relatively small size of the sensor. The si... more

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