Panasonic DMC-FZ50

Reviewed November 2006

Interface & Software

Interface

In comparison to the FZ30, the DMC-FZ50's interface is an update that uses a similar look and feel as the interface of the latest Panasonic cameras. Camera settings are shown superimposed in white letters with black outlines, which makes them clearly visible over the image coming from the lens.

Menus are similarly well laid out, and easy to read thanks to the use of solid background colours, which make the monitor legible even under direct light. Moreover, with its high resolution, the menus are just as clear and sharp when displayed there.

Irrespective of the mode of the camera, capture or playback, the menus provide an access to the Setup options, which take up most of 5 screens:

• Clock Set: serves to set the time and date on the camera (a similar option is also available in the REC. menu).
• World Time: allows setting a destination time zone and a home time zone so that the camera can keep track of a trip and the correct local time.
• Custom Settings Memory: this option serves to record sets of preferences into any of three (C1, C2 or C3) custom settings, so the settings can be accessed later by turning the mode dial to the CUSTOM position.
• Monitor: to adjust the brightness of the monitor over ± 3 increments.

• Guide Line: determines the type of information presented on the screen, and allows selecting one of two types of composition grids.
• Travel Date: allows setting the start date of a trip, which lets the camera calculate the day of the trip on which photos were captured.
• Auto Review: decides whether or not an image is shown immediately post-capture (Off, 1 or 3 seconds or Zoom). Zoom displays the image for 1 second then zooms in to 4X for one more second so its sharpness can be evaluated. This option is not available for images captured in burst mode or using auto bracketing, or those that have an associated sound clip.

• Play on LCD: decides whether an image under review is only shown on the monitor, or on the EVF, depending on which is active.
• Power Save: serves to set the time delay after which the camera automatically shuts down when it is not used (1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes or Off).
• MF Assist decides the assistance offered to manually focus:
  • MF1: magnifies the centre of the screen only
  • MF2 enlarges the centre of the image so it fills the whole screen while the focus is adjusted.
  • Off: does not magnify the image.
• Beep: controls the beep sound produced by the camera in use (Soft, Loud or Off).
• AF Beep: controls the sound produced by the camera when it has focused (Soft, Loud or Off).
• Shutter: controls the shutter sound produced when the shutter is released (Soft, Loud or Off).
• Volume: controls the playback volume over 7 steps.
• No. Reset: to decide if image file numbers are incremented continuously, or reset to 1 when a new memory card is used, or when the memory card is formatted.
• Reset: returns all menu options to their defaults, with the exception of the date and time, the folder name, settings for Baby modes 1 and 2, World Time, and Travel Date.

• USB Mode serves to choose the communication protocol:
  • Select on Connection: lets the camera decide the most appropriate protocol to use automatically.
  • PC: to have the camera's memory recognized as removable hard disk by a computer (Mass Storage).
  • PictBridge: to print images directly to a PictBridge compatible printer without using a computer.

• Highlight: makes it possible to see potentially overexposed parts of an image as blinking when the camera is in review or playback mode.
• Video Out (only shown when the FZ50 is in playback mode): selects the AV out signal , NTSC or PAL.
• TV Aspect (only shown when the FZ50 is in playback mode): serves to select if the camera is connected to a 4:3 aspect ratio television, or an HDTV with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
• Scene Menu: selects whether the Scene menu is shown automatically when the Mode Dial is turned to the Scene position or if the Menu button has to be pressed.
• Language selects the interface language: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Traditional Chinese or Japanese.

The DMC-FZ50 is supplied with a short but well-written printed manual. The manual covers all aspects of the camera and its operations, and is clearly organized, making it possible to find information about any camera function quickly.

Software

In North America, only a single CD accompanies the DMC-FZ50, containing software for both Windows and Macintosh:

• Lumix Simple Viewer 1.1E
• PHOTOfunSTUDIO Viewer 1.1E
• QuickTime
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5
• Panorama Maker 3
• SilkyPix Developer Studio 2.0 SE

In addition, USB drivers are included for computers running older versions of Microsoft Windows.

As its name indicates, Lumix Simple Viewer, is primarily an image viewer but it also serves to import, e-mail or print photos, or even direct them towards another application for editing.

PHOTOfunSTUDIO Viewer (shown at left) is a somewhat more advanced version of the Lumix Simple Viewer.

Still, this is a program that does not allow for editing — aside from resizing, format conversion, batch renaming, and changing the recording date — and which is unable to show Lumix RAW files, leaving the thumbnail areas blank in its display.

SilkyPix's Developer Studio 2.0 SE is the program supplied to process RAW images. SilkyPix, a product of Ichikawa Soft Laboratories, is completely dedicated to processing RAW images, and is ideal to discover and take full advantage of the DMC-FZ50's RAW format.

The tools can be arranged around the work window and moved around as necessary. These tools include controls over exposure, white balance (including a tool to manually select the white or grey point), sharpness, tone, colour, noise reduction, and even correct optical flaws such as vignetting, distortion and chromatic aberration.

Any change or modification made to the image is immediately visible, and a particular set of corrections can be saved so it can be re-applied later. Processed images can then be saved as JPEG with a variable compression level which produces much higher quality JPEG images than the camera can, or as 8 or 16-bit uncompressed TIFF files.

ArcSoft supplies the other program included with the camera: PhotoImpression 5 and PanoramaMaker 3.

PhotoImpression 5 allows retouching photos using tools to sharpen, brighten images, or change their contrast, saturation, or colour tone. The program can also be used to resize images, or add frames and text, and is capable of performing automatic red-eye correction. Finally it can also be used to create photo albums, and offers a wide range of templates.

PanoramaMaker 3 is designed to stitch together a series of contiguous photos so they can be assembled into a single large image horizontally, vertically, or as a mosaic.