It's a camera that makes me want to find an excuse to play with a camera. :)Pros
- The build feels solid.
- It snaps shots off pretty fast.
- Impressive focal length range (25mm-600mm equiv), even if the competition fairs a bit better this is still quite good.
- Image stabilization works well. (I can snap shots off freehand at 24x zoom, and at least most of them will come out sharp. Not bad considering I have shaky hands.)
- Has a pop-up flash, and also a hot-shoe for external flashes.
- Can use a remote shutter with it (the $5 cheapos (such as the one made by Pixel) you find on amazon work fine too!), or an external mic.
- It does 1920x1080@60p video, which is good. I got this for taking pictures though, not video.
- Has 52mm filter threads. No adapter required. I can play with filters now! Telephoto/Close-up/wide-angle/fish-eye lenses are also an option available to this compact. I picked up a Raynox DCR-2025 telephoto lens to extend my reach. I also picked up a polarizer and some ND filters both for creative effect and to help with challenging lighting conditions.
- The grip is good overall, and the controls seem to be in palatable places.
- Intelligent Auto mode is intelligent (judges the scene, knows if you're shooting free-hand, etc). In most situations it makes good decisions.
- Good manual controls.
- Battery life is good.
- Takes pretty pictures!! Colors seem accurate. Sharpness out-of-the-box seems about right. Noise doesn't become apparent until you really up the ISO. I've got some that I've taken at ISO 800 on a rainy day that aren't noisy.
- RAW. This is one of the main reasons I went with this camera. The included RAW processing software (SilkyPix) is good, easy to use, and runs fine in Wine.
- Fully articulated, hi-res, anti-glare LCD. Electronic viewfinder is a nice plus.
- Very good low light performance for a compact.
- Dedicated ISO button, function button (as in, you choose what you want the button to do.)
Cons
- Intelligent Auto mode will only record in JPEG.
- idynamic only works if you're recording in JPEG.
- Competition gives a bigger zoom for the $.
- It doesn't make me breakfast. All cameras should make me breakfast.
- Price. If I didn't need the zoom I probably would have went with a cheap DSLR instead. I may still do that and keep this for those situations where I need to zoom in, seeing as an equivalent telephoto lens would BE extraordinarily expensive (search for 600mm lens on Amazon, go on , I dare you! (Do be prepared to cringe if you do.))
Other thoughts
- If you've owned/used another Lumix in recent years, you'll be right at home with this camera as the menus/layout/etc are very similar.
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