Panasonic Lumix Camera Review

Looking for a voyage camera? One that does not want a sidecar to carry all the extra gear needed to get the photograph you want? The Panasonic Lumix Dmc-Fx40 deserves a hard look.

Panasonic seems to be able to furnish perfect ageement cameras. They do pretty well in the Dslr market, too, but their forte is compacts.

The engineers at Panasonic have been working hard on enhancing the technology needed to pair zoom with perfect image quality. It's not easy to get both.

So when you see the user ratings for the newest "travel camera", you kind of do a double-take. The camera only came out in July, so the technology is the newest possible, but so far there is not one negative rating. Usually there will be one or two who either had a faulty camera or just had a bad day when they first tested it, but in this case... Nada... Nothing negative.

So what makes this camera a voyage camera?

Basically, what you want in a camera on vacation is the capability to take roughly any type of photo. From house portraits to road scenes, to nature shots where a super zoom is necessary. You name it, and you want to be able to take it.

With a wide angle equivalent of 25mm and a telephoto equivalent of 600mm (if you do the math, that is 24X), the Lumix Fz40 qualifies on all counts.

Then you add in the new technology that is being called "intelligent resolution technology" for sharp images, and you have a winner in the voyage camera category.

Another plus is the lens which is manufactured by Leica, a trusted name in camera and lens quality.

Having used Dslr cameras for quite some time, the benefits I like best are the choice in the middle of viewing your image in a view finder or on the live view Lcd panel. Plus the choice to use the jpeg creative settings for image yield or capturing in Raw for a higher resolution photograph that can be edited later on your computer.

The high capability Lcd screen is perfect for use with the Hd video feature. And, speaking of video, the 24X zoom means getting close up video of distant places and activities.