The Gadgets Page

I’m considering a new digital camera, and my current favorite is the Panasonic DMC-FZ30, which just started shipping in the US. It has a 12X Leica zoom lens, 8 MP sensor, and an anti-shake system—my compact Panasonic has the same system, and I can take great pictures despite shaky hands.

From the early indications, this looks like a great camera. The only potential concern is noise—this review at DCResource includes some examples of noisy photographs, but they don’t look unacceptable to me. More importantly, there are some much better photos out there.

The noise issue comes down to the difference between consumer (or “prosumer”) digital cameras and digital SLRs. Since the SLRs are getting cheaper, cameras like the FZ-30—which costs about the same as a bottom-end SLR—are being scrutinized more closely. I’ll write more about these issues soon.

Since this camera is my current obsession, I’ll be posting more details and links as I continue researching it. (Last week I called that “wasting time”, but now that I’m writing here I get to call it “research”.)