shooters have noticed my camera, and ask plenty of questions. It does just about everything, including an option to create animated films with this camera. But it's not the ultimate dream camera because it isn't perfect.

I totally shame the digital noise on this unit; enough decent cameras in the same price range don't experience the higher levels of noise, even for ISO 100. But I work for a newspaper.... and there is some decent noise-reduction software to control it that doesn't compromise flirting with over-manipulation ethics questions. I can now shoot some concerts and can shoot golf differently b/c I turned off the shutter and beep noises the camera makes.

I wish the camera had a wider wide angle. The zoom and focus controls seem too close. And the rear thumb dial seemed a tiny bit out of position at times. It's quiet as a mouse. People don't even know you're shooting video, which makes people unaware of you, an important thing to have for candid news-gathering. I love the FZ30 as a 3rd camera in my arsenal. I just completed a stint, shooting the crew of Pride of Baltimore II, a tall ship. It worked wonders, save for some errant focusing every now and then.

I pack my Lumix and my Powerbook along with my passport when I go on vacation; in a pinch, I can travel worldwide and shoot virtually any assignment, including spot news, with the zoom range that the FZ30 has. That was the selling point for me. Any camera that has a decent image quality with a 12:1 zoom ratio and a lens that gathers more light is worth considering. And I love the true colors it can yield for white balance, one thing that my D2H bodies can sometimes find difficult to achieve.

This camera is better suited for daylight (sorry for anyone Alaska in the winter!), but you can get amazing shots if you respect a camera's limits. The better the light, the better the image. That goes for any photography. I can shoot 99 percent of my assignments with this camera.

Watch out when you have the LCD screen flipped out; once it breaks off from a hit, I would think you might have to consider replacement. Purchase a really big memory card, which are cheaper. A faster one (SD rated card) for those who want to shoot video, which you can opt between low definition and VGA, which is a good size image (it only shoots in standard TV size. You don't have any option to capture video in any other format, as you can with film.

You can also crop your images or even downsize them for web emails in the camera. The FZ30 feels solid enough. And I did drop my lens shade from 50 feet (it was mounted, but the mount is not very secure) and it bounced but didn't crack.

Make certain to also purchase at least one extra battery, because if your power drains, you either pop in a fresh one, or stop shooting and wait over an hour for your battery to recharge. The batteries from my FZ20 can fit and run the FZ30, but the reverse can't be done.

Please, read the manual. This camera was well-designed, and Panasonic seems to really work on their cameras based on feedback. You have menus in several different camera modes, besides the basic setup menu options. One thing very interesting is that you can set the camera to extend its optical zoom to 19.1, much greater than 12X (the camera actually begins to crop into the frame when you zoom past the full frame 12X maximum zoom, which is good if you want to save a step in image processing. ________________________________________________________________

          
Great Photos; Bad Fuse, April 28, 2006
Reviewer: Wine Lawyer
After several months of research, I bought my Panasonic FZ30 from Amazon in November of 2005. I am very pleased with the quality of the photos and the model's features set. I felt confident that I made the right decision, and the camera performed well when compared to an older 10x zoom Olympus that I had upgraded from.

But in April of 2006, I took the family to Japan, and while in Kyoto, the Panasonic simply went totally inoperative, even with fresh batteries, while the Olympus (thankfully) chugged along so I could at least get some lower resolution photos of our visit there.

Warranty repairs were performed and were done quickly. I disagree with the previous post that Panasonic warranty work is poor - the one vendor that I used was courteous and prompt - then again, I haven't had to send the camera back on repeated occasions, and I'm sure my patience would be somewhat shorter if that had happened to me. Warranty work is like insurance - you like to know you have it, but you don't ever want to have to use it.

From a description on the invoice, a fuse was replaced. This appears to be a disturbing common theme for this model, and I hope that Panasonic realizes this and makes some production changes to cure this issue. As with other reviews that I have read here, when something like this happens, it shakes your confidence in the camera and you can't help but remain anxious that it's going to happen again when you're on yet another once-in-a-lifetime trip.

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the shape of things to come, April 23, 2006
Reviewer: Graeme Eric Molyneux "gramol"

take any picture you like,pro or beginer just a brilliant camera to use!noise can be a problem but can be easily fixed check the menu settings.

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