ePHOTOzine has published the first review of the new Panasonic Lumix FMC-FZ330, aka DMC-FZ300, the camera features a 24x optical zoom lens, with a bright f/2.8 constant aperture, and zooms to 600mm equivalent, from a wide-angle 25mm equivalent. High speed shooting, and 4K video recording is included.
Aldi UK has another budget digital camera, the Maginon SZ350, with a 35x optical zoom lens, 20 megapixel CCD sensor, 720p video, 3inch screen, optical image stabilisation, pop up flash, and blink detection. It’s priced at around £99. If you have one, feel free to post your thoughts, comments, reviews and photos below.
Full details on the Maginon website.
Alternative budget bridge cameras to look at include:
Panasonic Lumix LZ40, 42x optical zoom, £139 at Amazon UK.
Sony Cyber-shot H300, 35x optical zoom, £99 at Amazon UK (this one offers panoramic shooting).
Panasonic has announced the Panasonic Lumix FZ72 (aka FZ70) with a huge 60x optical zoom lens, starting at an ultra-wide 20mm equivalent, zooming to 1200mm equivalent. It features a 16 megapixel sensor, 3 inch screen, optical image stabilisation, full HD video, stereo sound, flash hot-shoe, high speed shooting, manual controls, RAW, an electronic viewfinder and more. You can even add a 1.7x tele conversion lens to push the optical zoom all the way to 102x! Links below, as well as more videos after the jump (click continue reading).
Press release: here.
Panasonic Lumix FZ72 Review: ePHOTOzine,
Panasonic Lumix FZ72 Sample Photos: ePHOTOzine, PhotographyBLOG, LetsGoDigital
Here’s a roundup of some of the latest digital camera reviews from around the web
Ultra Zoom – aka the “Bridge” camera
Sony Cybershot DSC-HX300 Review – 50x optical zoom lens, 20mp
Nikon Coolpix P520 Review – 42x optical zoom lens, 18mp
Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR Review – 42x optical zoom lens, 16mp
Travel Zoom – compact with lots of zoom
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ40 Review – 20x optical zoom lens, GPS, 18mp (do megapixels still matter?)
Nikon Coolpix S9500 Review – 22x optical zoom lens, GPS, 18mp
Serious Compact – designed for strong image quality and controls
Olympus Stylus XZ-10 Review – 5x optical zoom lens, RAW, manual controls, 12mp etc
Nikon Coolpix A at NeoCamera – APS-C 16 megapixel sensor, 28mm wide-angle
Waterproof – tough, rugged, outdoor cameras
Olympus Tough TG-830 Review – waterproof, 16mp, 5x optical zoom lens
Compact – Stylish, compact etc.
Sony Cyber-shot WX200 Review – 10x optical zoom lens, 18mp sensor
Reviews:
Nikon D7100 vs D7000 DSLR Review at ePHOTOzine.
Nikon Coolpix A Review at ePHOTOzine.
Fujifilm X100s Review at ePHOTOzine.
Fujifilm X20 Compact Review at PhotographyBLOG.
Fujifilm X-E1 Mirrorless Review at Cameralabs.
Olympus Tough TG-2 at NeoCamera. (Waterproof)
Sample Photos:
Olympus Stylus XZ-10 Sample Photos at ePHOTOzine.
Olympus Tough TG-830 Waterproof Sample Photos at ePHOTOzine.
Nikon Coolpix S9500 Travel Zoom Sample Photos at ePHOTOzine.
Nikon Coolpix P520 Bridge Sample Photos at ePHOTOzine.
Smartphones:The HTC One screen at RR.
Here’s a quick round-up of the latest digital cameras to be announced in the last week or so…
Fujifilm FinePix XP200 Rugged Camera – 5x zoom, Waterproof, Tough
Fujifilm FinePix S8400W Ultra-Zoom Bridge Camera – 44x ultra-zoom with Wi-Fi
Olympus VH-520 Compact – 10x zoom, designed to be good in low-light, but affordable, RRP £129
Canon PowerShot SX270 SX280 Travel-Zooms – 20x optical zoom, GPS and Wi-Fi on SX280
Canon EOS 700D DSLR Announced – 18mp, Update to the Canon EOS 650D
Canon EOS 100D DSLR Announced – 18mp, New “baby” Digital SLR, World’s smallest DSLR
Samsung Galaxy S4 with 13 megapixel camera – no zoom, latest Samsung Android phone
Minox DCC 14.0 Classic Camera Announced – 14mp, no zoom, retro miniature compact camera
Ultra Zoom / Bridge:
Fujifilm FinePix SL1000 Review – 50x optical zoom lens
Compacts:
Nikon Coolpix S2700 Review – budget, 6x optical
Nikon Coolpix S6500 Review – 12x optical zoom, Wi-Fi
Sigma DP3 Merrill Sample Photos – 50mm f/2.8 Macro lens (75mm equivalent), Foveon sensor
Pentax MX-1 Review – Serious compact with manual controls
Waterproof:
Panasonic Lumix FT5 Review – Tough compact
Mobile Phone:
Sony Xperia Z Preview – 13 megapixel waterproof smartphone.
Mirrorless:
Nikon 1 S1 Review – Compact mirrorless, with high speed shooting.
DSLR:
Nikon D7100 Sample Photos – 24 megapixel APS-C sensor camera
Nikon D600 vs Canon EOS 6D Comparison Review – Full frame Digital SLR cameras compared
Canon 5D, Mark 2, Mark 3 DSLR Comparison Review – full-frame cameras compared
Hasselblad H5D-50 Medium Format Digital SLR Preview – 50 megapixel DSLR
ePHOTOzine has reviewed the budget Nikon Coolpix L310 bridge camera, with 21x optical zoom lens, 14 megapixel sensor, 720p video recording, and 3 inch screen. The Nikon Coolpix L310 is available for £113 from Amazon UK. Here’s what they have to say about it:
“It’s unusual to see a budget super-zoom camera with such good rubber grip, there is also a lens cap and a metal tripod socket, thumbs up to Nikon there.”
Read more Nikon Coolpix L310 Reviews: On Amazon UK
This week I thought I’d try something different and post some links to reviews that are particularly interesting, starting with the Fujifilm FinePix S3200 – a budget 24x optical zoom lens ultra zoom camera, available for £140 from Amazon UK, it features a 14 megapixel sensor, a 3 inch screen, 720p video and manual controls. You can read several reviews, from ePHOTOzine, Photography BLOG, as well as view sample videos on YouTube. It’s also the little brother to the Fujifilm FinePix S4000 (you can find a review here) – a very similar ultra zoom bridge camera, except the S4000 has a 30x optical zoom lens and is available for £175 from Amazon UK.
Another ultra-zoom that’s popped up on the radar this week, is the Panasonic Lumix TZ20 and TZ18 – the TZ18 is available for only £140 from Amazon UK, you can read a TZ18 review here, both pocket-zoom cameras feature a 16x optical zoom lens, 14 megapixel sensor, 3inch screen, with the TZ20 featuring built in GPS and touch screen – you can read a TZ20 review here. Both cameras have been replaced by newer models, which means these are available for noticeably reduced prices – the higher spec TZ20 is available for £190 from Amazon UK.
A 2.4 Megapixel Super CCD sensor – produced 4.3 megapixel images, back when Fuji used to interpolate the images to a higher resolution than the sensor for a little bit extra detail. This camera has a whopping 6x optical zoom lens and SLR styling, with manual controls, and the ill-fated SmartMedia card. This was thin, fragile and limited to a maximum of 128mb. (That’s right, there was something worse than XD cards). It was one of the first, if not the first digital camera with an electronic viewfinder, it features a 2 inch normal screen on the back as well as manual focus. This camera was announced and released in 2000 – which goes to show that Fujifilm’s “bridge camera” / “ultra zoom” heritage goes back a LONG way. Rather impressively the 4900 Zoom shoots at 5fps for 5 shots at full resolution! You can still find working models on ebay, and the camera uses a rechargeable NP-80 battery shared with a couple of other cameras (some other Fuji and Kodak cameras). Click below for more pictures, as well as a sample photo from the camera…