Hi Fluzis and Fuxis and Lacies ;-)

I just got my FZ3 a few minutes ago. In expectance of this delivery, I took a fully charged battery with me for a first test. Here are my very first impressions:

Unpacking the camera revealed a somewhat cheap looking silver plastic camera body. It somehow doesn't feel as sturdy as my FZ2, but I might be prejudiced ;-) The camera is definitely better to hold than the FZ2! The camera strap has changed to a somewhat cheaper solution, which is, however, probably quite effective. you can see a pic (taken with a Panasonic FX1) of the camera with the adapter and the lens hood attached here:

http://www.gabis-galleries.com/fz3/fx1_fz3.jpg

The mechanism by which the battery compartment is opened is IMHO worse than with the FZ2, although the compartment door is not flimsy. It opens to the "outside" of the camera and might be more exposed to damage, and to me it also looks a little less stable. Now to the adapter: In some respect, it is better than that for the FZ2. You don't have to unscrew a ring to attach the new lens hood/filter adapter, which is nice, since you have one part less that you might loose accidentally. Now for the good and bad news: The lens adapter is attached via a bajonet mounting. Hence, the Yoshida and other adapters won't work, and probably there will never be another adapter for it, since bajonets are so much more difficult to produce than screw adapters. What is also bad is that the adapter is fully made of plastic. I hope they will sell replacements in case it should break! Also (to my big disappointment) the filter thread is plastic :-( What I liked about the new adapter is that it can be attached smoothly and very quickly. Also, to attach the lens hood takes some less time than with the FZ2.

The EVF is better than that of the FZ2. It looks bigger, however, it is still somewhat difficult to judge the pic (also with the LCD) when the lighting environment is extreme (low light or high contrasts etc.).

For all pics below, I set the autofocus to the (presumably fast) 3 point metering. I did not do ANY post-processing except resizing and compressing to 82% with Ulead SmartSaver Pro. I also did not compensate for the exposure. The weather was overcast, sometimes a little bit sunny. First I took two pictures in a row focussing (12-fold zoom) to a quite close object (bikes) and then immediately to almost infinity (church) without pre-focussing. I just pressed the shutter completely and immediately. The camera did quite a good focussing job here and was also pretty fast!

Bikes:
http://www.gabis-galleries.com/fz3/bikes.jpg

Church:
http://www.gabis-galleries.com/fz3/church.jpg

What you can see from the latter shot, the camera underexposes in backlighting. I could see this already on the screen. Since the FZ2 tended to overexpose, Panasonic obviously has done some work on it.

The following shot was taken in my office. The flashlight with the AF assist lamp was used (although it was probably not dark enough to require the AF assist). The focal length was corresponding to 35 mm. What you can see from the pic with the shelves, there is a noticeable barrel distortion at wideangle. Also, what I find quite annoying, there is significant vignetting visible.

http://www.gabis-galleries.com/fz3/office.jpg

BTW: What I really like about the FZ3 is that you can set the camera to show the shot after taking it in zoom mode. You can easily judge the sharpness of the shot immediately. That is very nice!

Greetings from Germany!

--
Gabi

Olympus C-40 (D-40), Olympus C-2100UZ, Toshiba PDR-M70, Panasonic DMC-FZ2, Pentax Optio S4, Canon Powershot S50, Olympus C-5060WZ, Panasonic DMC-FX1

http://www.gabis-galleries.com/