First FZ30 shots

[HarjTT]

My brother-in-law came back from Japan with an FZ30, and I thought I'd test it out for him. Here's some shots taken with the '30 this morning - weather was very cold today so managed only 20 shots in total. All 8M High Quality Jpegs, ISO 80, -1/3 ev on some shots Low NR, Low stat, contrast and sharpness. Slight USM and contrast in pshop. Don't have ACR at the moment so didn;t take any shots in RAW. All pics just resized for the forum.

First Impressions:
a. Ergonomics are excellent. Wish they had kept the on/off switch in the same place as the FZ10, etc.
b. EVF and LCD are just excellent. Huge improvment over the FZ10. Also they fitted a rubber eye cup !
c. Mechanical zoom ring really nice. Much better than the FZ10's lever. Not sure on the shutter and aperture dials though - am apertue ring + shutter speed dial would have been better but hey its way better then the exposure button on the 10!
d. White balance seems to be just spot on in Auto. Did not even have to fix any WB issues which I have to do with the FZ10 often.
e. Noise at ISO 80 its there but not a problem for me as I couldnt really notice it. Yet to try the other ISO modes.
f. Only negative so far, the lens does not have the same presence as the FZ10's. I think they should have gone with a larger diameter lens it would make the cam even better to hold in my opinion, improve noise levels an bring back F2.8 across the range.

1. just a test shot

f3.2 1/100sec

[HarjTT]

2. Not sure what birds but they were walking on ice. Just cropped.

f3.6 1/125 sec

[HarjTT]

3. Some ducks @ f3.6 1/125 sec

[HarjTT]

Pic 4. Tree bark @ f3.6 1/25 sec

[HarjTT]

Pic 5 . Canadian Geese @ f3.7 1/40sec

[HarjTT]

Pic 6. A branch in the frozen pond @ f4 1/80

[HarjTT]

Pic 7. Lone branch breaking through the ice @ f3.6 1/100 sec

[HarjTT]

Pic 8. Last shot - More Canadian Geese

f3.6 1/80 sec

[boyzo]

Dull weather Harj but the Pics ain't dull

[Narmer]

Thank you HarjTT

the impressions of a non-owner are very important and they confirm what FZ30 owners have pointed out (though theirs might be more biased by the enthusiasm).

I remain of the opinion that, having bought my FZ20 exactly one year ago, I would never take FZ30 even if I have money.
I can only hope 40 will be a big advance, but I know it will be something like the passage from FZ10 to 20.

Very pleased by the color response, since I saw the first reviews.

No doubt that FZ30 is way better than 10-20, for its larger res, better ergonomics and less image issues to fix.

Let's hope FZ40 will have larger optics to allow a larger min aperture at tele than FZ30 and that it remains a 8Mp with slightly larger CCD

Fraf