Panasonic DMC-FZ5

Reviewed April 2005

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Since the FZ5 has the capability, all the photos presented here are captured using the TIFF format so as to avoid any possibility of the compression having a negative impact on the image quality.

The pop-up flash of the DMC-FZ5 produces very even light and there is no noticeable light falloff in the corners of the frame. The camera is set to Auto white balance, and the image shows accurate and life-like colours.

Also notable, noise is minimal in the image, even in the darker areas.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

The power of the 12X zoom is well-illustrated by this shot. With the camera at the same distance as with the wide angle shot, it is unable to focus on a subject this close at the maximum telephoto setting when set to the Program mode. To be able to capture the subject, the camera must be set to either Macro, Aperture or Shutter priority, or the Manual mode, which allow access to the complete focus range.

The level of detail and the sharpness of the image are excellent, and the colours are consistent with those in the wide angle shot.

In Macro mode, or when set to S, A, M modes, the FZ5 is capable of focusing on a subject 5 cm (2 inches) from the front lens element when the zoom is set to the wide angle end. At the telephoto end however, the minimum distance is is 1 m (3 feet).

At the wide angle end of the zoom the field of view measures 4 cm (1.56 inch) if measured horizontally from one edge of the frame to the other. When set to telephoto, the field of view expands to 9.5 cm (3.7 inches).

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

The building is photographed during a bright and sunny day and the Multiple metering mode, an averaging pattern, yields an excellent exposure.

With this wide angle shot the image reveals no barrel distortion and no chromatic aberration. Likewise, colours are accurate and, with the sensitivity set to 80 ISO, the deeper shadows do not show any noise.

ZOOM PHOTO

With the zoom set to the maximum telephoto setting, the DMC-FZ5 is capable of framing a small section of the entrance doors of the building. The area framed by the camera contains the highly reflective chrome door handles which are directly lit by the sun, and the building's entrance area which is behind the green-tinted glass doors and in shadow.

The metering does a remarkable job of capturing a lot of detail in the entrance, and yet avoids overexposing the sun-lit areas too much, thereby minimizing the chromatic aberration that can occur with objects that fall on the edge of very high contrast areas.

NIGHT PHOTO

This camera is capable of long exposures, and two images captured late at night are presented to give an idea of its capabilities.

The Panasonic DMC-FZ5 is able to capture exposures up to 8 seconds long.

This exposure time, in combination with the Manual mode which allows selecting the widest — brightest — aperture and the camera set to a sensitivity of 80 ISO, the level that is the least prone to noise, allows the FZ5 to yield a very bright image that contains a lot details that cannot be seen at night with the naked eye.

As noted earlier, the DMC-FZ5 is equipped with a dark frame noise reduction system, and uses the noise gathered by a second exposure of the same duration as the first to eliminate noise.

While the noise reduction process tends to lessen image sharpness slightly, the detail the camera records remains excellent. Seen at 100%, the image is detailed enough that the restaurant's tables, already set for next business day, are clearly visible including the glasses and folded napkins.

Worth noting, to capture long exposures the camera is mounted on a tripod, and the image stabilizer is turned off.

Interestingly, when the camera is stable, as is the case with a tripod, a better image results when the stabilizer is turned off than when it is active.