4eyesphoto.co.uk

We’ve recently purchased a Panasonic Lumix FZ38 (aka FZ35 in the USA) to replace a much-abused Panasonic TZ5, which was mainly used for insect macros in combination with a Raynox DCR-250 close-up lens attached with a homemade adapter (aka an empty vitamin c tube + insulating tape!).

Here are some FZ38 example images, straight out of the camera, unprocessed in other words. I’ve included a resized 1000px wide shot as well as a 100% crop for each of the images. All EXIF data should be intact. Hope this is of some interest to some of you thinking of buying one of the FZ cameras.

I can say that we are very pleased with the results, considering the cost of the camera and the large zoom range in a relatively small, lightweight body.

August 2010 Update – More Sample Images here with Raynox close-up lenses

Sample 1 – Common Blue Damselfly – ISO80, F4.4, 1/200, AP mode

Common Blue Damselfly, Full Frame (1000px resized)

This first sample of a Common Blue Damselfly was taken using the FZ38′s built in macro capabilities (i.e. no extra macro lenses were used). The shot was taken at full 18x zoom, from roughly the innermost limit of the telemacro zoom range.

Common Blue Damselfly, 100% Crop

Sample 2 – Elephant Parade Indoor Shot – ISO80, F3.4, 1/60, AP mode

Indoor Elephant, Full Frame (1000px resized)

This photo was taken in Westfield Shopping Centre, London, where some of the elephants from the Elephant Parade were moved towards the end of the exhibition. It was taken from the 1st floor of the centre looking down onto the ground floor where the elephants were displayed. The camera was on full auto mode.

Indoor Elephant, 100% Crop

Sample 3 – Mallard Duck – ISO200, F4.4, 1/50, AP mode

Mallard Duck, Full Frame (1000px resized)

This image was taken in fading light on a Summer’s evening in the local park. It was taken at full 18x zoom, and gives a taste of blurry background at that magnification (I’m not going to use that ugly b word some folks use). I was quite impressed to get a sharp shot at all in the poor-ish light, and pleasantly surprised with the amount of feather detail.

Mallard Duck, 100% Crop

Sample 4 – Union Jack Elephant – ISO80, F8, 1/200, AP mode

Outdoor Elephants, Full Frame (1000px resized)

Here is another sample taken from the Elephant Parade, this time a shot of several of the outdoor “herd”, taken in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners. This was a good test of how the new camera performed in bright sunny conditions (quite rare in these parts!). We were both very impressed at both the accurate colours and also the exposure, which didn’t need any compensation added.

Outdoor Elephants, 100% Crop

Sample 5 – Insect (with Raynox 250) – ISO200, F8, 1/60, Manual mode, Flash

Unknown Insect, Full Frame (1000px resized)

This final sample image is a test of one of my main reasons for buying the FZ38. It’s an image of an insect (I’ve yet to ID it so if any of you insect lovers out there know what it is, please leave a comment ) taken with a Raynox DCR-250 close-up lens attached directly to the FZ38 lens by means of a 46-43mm step-down ring. I want to use the FZ38 as my main macro setup, in combination with Raynox close-up lenses (both the DCR-150 & DCR-250) so this was a trial run. For this image I was also trialling a home-made diffuser for the pop-up flash on the fz38.

Unknown Insect, 100% Crop

Conclusions

So there you have it. A few samples from our new Panasonic Lumix FZ38. All in all, we’re very pleased. We didn’t expect to achieve SLR quality naturally. As you can see from the samples, there is noise, even at ISO80 and it’s more considerable at ISO200. However, the examples show 100% crops and I’d be more than happy to use ISO 80-400 in the field and then use some post-processing tools to minimise the resulting noise.

The amount of detail captured is excellent, especially with the additional Raynox lens attached.

I hope some of you in the market for this type of camera find this information useful, and do please leave a comment if you have anything you want to say or have any questions.

All the best from Emi & Clarke at 4eyesphoto.co.uk