Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 - Flagship Super-Zoom Digital Camera

Fast, elegant and excels for photo and video quality alike.

The FZ200’s 24x zoom is modest by today’s standards, but while other cameras’ lenses become increasingly dark as they zoom in, the FZ200 maintains an f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range. This means there’s four times as much light entering the lens for telephoto shots, compared to a typical f/5.6 aperture.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200

The FZ200 is smart and compact, and there are lots of buttons, dials and switches for quick access to settings. Various functions are available via the Q. Menu button, and the main menu is well organized.

The EVF has a 1,312,000-dot resolution and is as sharp as our eyes can see. It’s a shame the view isn’t bigger, though.

Performance is excellent, taking just 0.6 seconds between shots in normal use and 0.9 seconds in Raw mode. The various continuous modes include 10fps shooting for 12 frames, or 5fps for 18 with updating autofocus. Fast shooting is useful in an ultrazoom camera for sports and wildlife, and the FZ200 competes with SLRs for continuous shooting with autofocus.

The FZ200 is smart and compact

The video mode is well specified, with 1080p shooting at up to 50fps, 30-minute clip lengths, a microphone input and priority and manual exposure options. Picture and sound quality are excellent, and autofocus responds decisively and silently. It also captures 720p video at 100fps, playing back at 25fps for quarter-speed slow motion. Most slow-motion modes capture at lower resolutions, but this one is ready for serious use.

This is a camera that has been designed to maximize image quality rather than dazzle with big numbers. The 12-megapixel resolution is modest by today’s standards, but it helped the FZ200 achieve impressively low noise levels. Meanwhile, focus was significantly sharper throughout the 24x zoom range than rivals managed from their bigger zooms.

The video mode is well specified

Then there’s the constant f/2.8 aperture. It made a huge difference when taking telephoto shots in shady conditions or overcast weather. While rival cameras succumbed to noise, the FZ200’s output was clean and detailed. This - and the sharp focus - more than compensated for the modest 600mm maximum focal length, capturing more detail in subjects than other cameras’ 1000mm and 1200mm lenses.

It’s not cheap, but $720 is a price worth paying for such consistently high quality.

It’s not cheap, but $720 is a price worth paying for such consistently high quality