Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Review

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 nightime mode when shooting a Harley but this was due to the fact that the shutter is open for a long time in this mode , and this was not realised until i got home.
i would recommend this camera and the optical zoom of 18x or 36x in lower setting is brilliant. The zoom in digital mode captured shipping @ 3 miles with reasonable results for digital settings.
There are a wide range of settings to this camera and will take some time to investigate them all so i say at this price go 'for it'

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 where all the features of this sweetie really come in handy.
I'm a mountain climber. It's funny that before buying it I didn't really know I was interested wildlife photography! Now I do ;)

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 them at home. Just like being there all over again. I had many cameras, I can say this is the best. I would put it up against any $500. camera on the market.

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.