Brain Fertilizer

I happily and unreservedly recommend the Panasonic Lumix FZ10 digital camera to anyone who wants to take great pictures, but doesn't want to spend the money it would take to buy a Digital SLR camera.

You can buy the camera for only about $400 these days. You can get barrel adapter tubes for $14 to let you add other lenses. Filters and such are also easily available.

It's not the newest camera on the block, so maybe recent upgrades are even better. But I won't be replacing the camera any time soon. I love it.

I originally decided to purchase it due the reviews and pictures at Steve's digicam reviews. In my opinion, it's one of the best resources if you are looking for a new camera.

Here's what I love about my camera:
It has a great lens. It does great in close-ups, and can zoom forever (or at least feels like it). I've never noticed any barrel distortion. In my amateur opinion, it captures colors perfectly, particularly skin tones. It does video with digital sound quite ably.

It uses proprietary lithium ion batteries, but I just purchased an extra one and keep it charged and in the camera case. I've never come close to running out of juice. It uses SD cards, and I have two 128MB cards. Again, I've never come close to running out of room, not even on my honeymoon when I took lots of video of waterfalls and such.

It has all sorts of different settings on a dial on the body for various uses. You can get into the menu and change some settings, too. But for the most part, I just point, adjust the zoom, and shoot. And I get great shots. I've been complimented on my photography several times. I have to tell them, truthfully, that I have good subjects living in Hawaii, and I have a good camera that makes normal shots look beautiful and luxurious.

There are a few drawbacks, but those are dependent on your desires, mostly. -There is a button that makes the camera shoot 3 rapid-fire exposures with one press of the shutter button. Unfortunately, the button is located right next to the shutter button; I've had some opportunities missed when I asked a stranger to take a picture of me, and their unfamililarity with the camera led to the rapid-fire shots, and none came out well due to movement.
-It is a near-SLR camera, so it can't fit in your shirt-pocket. You should use a case/bag to protect it, and its lens size means you just about have to use a small videocamera bag.
-Again, it is a near-SLR, so it takes a second to extend the lens before it is ready to use. This isn't a big deal, as it is far faster than most of the point/shoot cameras. I haven't yet missed a shot waiting for it to get ready, but I admit I have had to anticipate a good shot and turn on the camera a few seconds earlier to get the shot in time.

Here's some examples. Unfortunately, my blog wouldn't let me upload them full size. I hope it didn't lose too much impact/beauty in the conversion.

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You can see what the zoom function does. The first was on zero zoom, the 2nd was full zoom, if I recall correctly.

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This also shows some of the color brilliance and low-light performance. There is some "noise". I can live with that amount.