Review

I am quite a Panasonic fan having had an FZ50 for several years. I was quite happy with the camera but the limitations were poor performance at the highest ISO settings, a rather small fold out screen, relatively heavy though nothing like as heavy as a digital SLR and a moderate resoluton video mode. In all other respects I found it an excellent camera with enormous versatility all in one package.

The FZ150, which I have now owned for 2 months, and during that time taken several thousand photos, is EXCELLENT with several notable improvements. It is lighter and more compact than the FZ50, which makes it even more attractive compared with digital SLRs. The focal length range is awesome - equivalent to 24-600mm. The fold out screen, which I find very useful for low level shots, pictures of church ceilings with the camera sitting on the floor, shots above people's heads is excellent with a large screen and full articulation. The HD video mode also works very well - I like to use this for panoramas from the top of mountains. The better high ISO performance is very satisfactory - better than my friend's Pentax digital SLR! The only complaint that I have is with the zoom, which is now motor driven. It works well but manual zoom, in my experience, is faster, more precise and means there is one less thing that can go wrong. This is undoubtedly the best camera that I have ever owned! To have so much versatility in one package with everything instantly available is wonderful.