The
Lumix FZ1 uses a Panasonic designed CCD that adds an extra layer of gapless
microlenses above those normally used over the photo receptors of a CCD,
as a way of boosting the quantity of light reaching the sensors.
The 1/3.2 inch CCD of the FZ1 provides 2.11 million pixels of which 2.0
are effective to capture the image.
The CCD is rated at a starting sensitivity of 50 ISO, but can be increased
to 100, 200, and 400 ISO. Furthermore, an Auto setting can be used allowing
the camera to automatically vary the sensitivity over the entire range.
The
Leica lens of the Lumix FZ1 is impressive, both because of the magnification
it provides and because of how well it is mated with Panasonic's image
stabilizing technology.
The zoom has a focal
length range of 4.6 to 55.2 mm, the equivalent
of a 35mm to 420mm in the 35mm film format; but even more significantly,
the Leica lens offers a bright f2.8
starting aperture throughout its focal range, closing down to f8.
Although
entirely controlled by the camera — the user isn't offered either
priority or Manual modes that would allow the selection of aperture and
shutter speed — the FZ1 also provides a shutter speed range of 1/2000
sec to 8 seconds.
As part of the camera kit, Panasonic includes a flower-shaped "perfect"
lens hood that can be mounted on the lens. A metallic lens trim needs
to be unscrewed first, and an adapter mounted to replace it, extending
the lens barrel by an extra 2.54 cm (1 inch), before the hood can be clipped
on and aligned correctly.
The hood is designed to avoid stray light from striking the front element
of the lens, and marring the image.
A clip-on lens cap is also provided, and it can be clipped to the adapter
used to attach the lens hood.
Panasonic also includes a 3X digital
zoom that captures the centre of the frame and then interpolates
the image to the pre-selected image size. As always, using the digital
zoom lowers the resolution that is provided by lens, and in this case
by the powerful Leica 12X optical zoom.
The Lumix FZ1 has only 2 JPEG
compressed formats, and no uncompressed
image format. Images can be recorded with either a Fine compression:
yielding the highest image quality; or Standard, which has a
much more lossy compression. Both settings can be used with any of 3
image resolutions:
1600
x 1200 pixels
1280 x 960 pixels
640 x 480 pixels
As with image
size and resolution, metering is selected in the camera menu. Exposure
metering uses an evaluative
system by default, but spot
metering is also available as an option in the menu.
As described in the Ergonomics section of the review, the
Lumix FZ1 is equipped with a number of recording modes that are selected
with the Mode Dial. The easiest to use is appropriately called "Simple
Mode", and its menu limits the settings available to the user to
just a handful.
The selection of image size is presented not as resolution, but as printed
sizes. The highest resolution, 1600 x 1200 Fine, is presented as Enlarge;1280 x 960 Fine is marked as 4" x 5" (10 x 15 cm);
and Internet captures a 640 x 480 image with a Standard compression.
Three other options are offered:
Auto
Review: decides whether a just captured image will be displayed
immediately post-capture.
Beep:
turns On or Off the camera's beeps.
Clock
Set: sets the calendar and clock.
It
is worth noting here that the pre-selection of 1280 x 960 (1.2 megapixel)
to produce 4 x 6 inch prints is unusual since such an image size yields
a relatively low image quality of around 200 dpi.
In the other modes however, the Panasonic Lumix FZ1 provides much greater
control over how the image is captured, and the recoding menu is divided
over 3 screens. At the top of the screen two tabs are shown, the
first for the Recording menu, the second an access to the Setup menu (See
the Interface and Software section of the review for an overview
of the options provided by the Setup menu):
White
Balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Halogen (similar to incandescent),
and White Set which allows setting the white balance for the ambient
light conditions.
Picture
Size: selects any one of the 3 image sizes available (see above).
Quality:
selects either Fine, or Standard, each identified as a graphic depicting
more or less pixels.
Spot
Mode: is to select the spot meter.
Sensitivity:
Auto, 50, 100, 200 and 400 ISO.
Audio
Rec.: On or Off. Allows recording a 5 second audio clip after
an image is captured.
Continuous
AF: On or Off. When On, the FZ1 continuously focuses, but the
battery gets depleted more quickly.
AF
Trigger: decides whether autofocus will be triggered by a half-press
of the shutter release (default), or the Focus button.
Digital
Zoom: On or Off.
Col.
Effect: alters the colour balance of the image. Cool, increases
blue tones, Warm augments red slightly. The last option is
to record a Black and White image.
Pict.
Adj.: alters the saturation of the image. Three settings are available,
Natural, Standard, Vivid.
Stabilizer:
On or Off.
The other recording mode of the FZ1 is the movie mode. The length of movies
recorded with the camera depends entirely on the memory card used. With
the 8MB card provided, the length is limited to approximately 35 seconds.
Using a 128MB SD card, this gets extended to 741 seconds (12.5 minutes)
approximately. The frame size of the movie mode is 320 x 240, and exposure,
white balance, and zoom position are locked at the first frame. The digital
zoom is not available. Sound is automatically recorded with the video
clip, and is quite audible on playback.
In Playback, the Lumix FZ1 provides
2 information overlays. The first is limited to the file number, resolution
and compression, and the date and time at which the photo was captured.
Pressing the Display button a second time adds a second line of information
above the date and time, which indicates the aperture and shutter speed
used, plus the ISO setting, the flash mode and the shooting mode.
The
FZ1 can also show 9 thumbnail images per screen when the zoom control
is pushed to the wide angle side, and magnify a photo up to 16X when pushed
to the telephoto side. Moreover, while thumbnails are displayed on the
screen, the delete button can be used to select specific images for deletion.
In Playback, the Menu button provides a different menu, this one over
2 screens, and also provides access to the Setup menu just like the Recording
menu:
Protect:
serves to select one or more photos for protection against erasure.
DPOF
Print: allows selecting images that will be printed with a DPOF
(Digital Print Order Format) compliant printer or service.
Slide
Show: provides an automatic playback of images. The duration each
image will be displayed can be set (1, 2, 3, or 5 seconds); Audio
can be set to On or Off; and only those photos selected for printing
can be set as the ones to be displayed.
Audio
Dub: allows adding a 10 second narration to an already recorded
image.
Resize:
allows resizing images down to store more on a card. Images with attached
audio cannot be re-sized.
Trimming:
is used to crop an image, and the cropped image can either be saved
as a new image, or be saved by overwriting the original. As with the
Resizing option, images that have attached audio cannot be trimmed.
Format:
formats the memory card.
The
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 is supplied with an 8MB SD (Secure Digital)
memory card. The card is inserted in a slot located beneath the camera,
in the same compartment as the battery. Equipped with an 8MB SD card
the FZ1 can store:
Resolution
Fine
Std
1600
x 1200
8
16
1280
x 960
10
20
640
x 480
34
68
Movie
(320 x 240)
35
seconds
The FZ1 is compatible with both SD and MMC memory, and with cards that
have capacities up to 512MB. SD cards are recommended as they have a faster
read/write than MMC, and a larger capacity card should be seriously considered
with the purchase of the FZ1 as the supplied card is too limiting.
The
external connections for the FZ1 are concealed behind a spring loaded,
hard plastic door on the left side of the camera.
At the top is the A/V (Audio/Video) jack. The AV out signal can be set
to either NTSC or PAL in the Setup menu of the camera.
The
Panasonic FZ1 is USB Direct-Print compliant, and the camera can be connected
directly to a similarly compliant printer to print photos.
Below
is the USB (1.1) port. With Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP,
or Mac OS 9.0, Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X, the installation of a USB driver
isn't required. With
Windows 98/98SE, a driver (supplied with the software) must be installed.
The
Lumix FZ1 is powered by a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery, and a charger/adapter
is supplied with the camera. The
battery is recharged by placing it in the charger and a full charge takes
approximately 90 minutes. When the charger is not used to recharge the
battery, it can be used as an AC adapter to power the FZ1 for long periods.
A connecting cable for the charger to the camera is supplied with the
FZ1.
The
battery is recharged by placing it in the charger and a full charge takes
approximately 90 minutes. When the charger is not used to recharge the
battery, it can be used as an AC adapter to power the FZ1 for long periods.
A connecting cable for the charger to the camera is supplied with the
FZ1.
