2 thoughts on “Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ70 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 60x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-Inch LCD (Black)”

1. 287 of 297 people found the following review helpful

   
   Lots of Zoom! Low Noise! So far I am happy!, September 4, 2013

   By 

   Rolla Gravett “Rolla Gravett” (Atlanta, Ga) –
   
     

   Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ70 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 60x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-Inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

   The is going to be a quick review on the camera and I will add more as time goes on. The FZ70 takes really good sharp photos, but hand held might be a problem in lower light levels. I went out yesterday evening and took some shots hand held and they all came out blurry. I should have paid more attention to the shutter speed.

   The camera works fantastically in iA, which is the auto mode. I mainly use Aperture but was impressed with the auto settings.

   It will go with a 60 second exposure in the Starry Sky Mode, which is under the SCN mode on the main dial.

   The lens thread is 55mm so if you plan on using your filters from any other Pany camera, you will need a 55 to 52mm Step Down Adapter. Amazon has them for cheap. I don’t think vignetting will be a problem using 52mm filters as the lens is way smaller than the filter threads on the camera. Here is the 55 to 52mm Step Down Adapter.

   Goja 55-52mm Step-Down Adapter Ring (55mm Lens to 52mm Accessory) + Bonus Ultra Fine Microfiber Lens Cleaning Cloth

   The camera has no shutter remote cord jack, so a shutter release cable will not work. My Yongnuo YN-560 flash will not work on the camera either. It physically hits the camera flash housing, which is raised a little. The answer to that is to use a wireless flash trigger with the Yongnuo Flash and that works fine.

   Addition: I looked at the Yongnuo flash again and it will fit on the camera, but it is a tight fit between the camera flash and the Yongnuo flash housing. I modified the Yongnuo flash by taking some of the plastic off the flash housing where the camera flash is hitting, with a pencil grinder. It doesn’t take much, and it is right in the middle of the housing. You could remove some of the plastic in the flash housing with sandpaper, but it would take longer, but will also give you more control of how much plastic you are taking off. Now my Yongnuo Flash works perfectly on the FZ70 camera!

   The video does not have a progressive setting. Interpolated is the best you are going to get with this camera.

   The FZ70 does not have a jack for a shutter release cable and does not have an infrared input either. The camera has to be set to a timer delay within the camera for 2 or 10 seconds. If it was a Sony or Canon, the timer is set and stays on till you shut it off. Unfortunately this camera requires you set the timer delay for each and every photo.

   The longest the camera will go on exposure under the Shutter or Manual Mode is 8 seconds. In the Starry Sky Mode it will go 15, 30, and 60 seconds.

   Like I said the lens thread is 55mm so your filters will have to be that size or use an adapter. The camera will use a teleconverter with the DMW-LA8 adapter, which is not available yet. Addition: Those LA8 adapters are available on Ebay now. They are being sold out of Japan though. I had that happen with the FZ200 camera as well and had no problem getting one from a Japanese Ebay member. There are several teleconverters that work well with this camera, but may not be needed as this lens rocks as far as zoom goes!

   It will take Raw pictures, but no one is supporting the FZ70 Raw files yet. It will come. Added: I found that FastStone will support the Raw files from the FZ70 and it is much better than Silkypix, in my opinion. Just Google FastStone and download and install the software. It is free.

   Start up time is very fast. I was able to take a picture in one second after turning the camera on.

   The focus button is on the top of the camera now. The AF/MF/Macro button is on the right side of the LCD instead of on the camera lens.

   One thing I have noticed with this camera is the noise, or should I say the lack of noise! The shots I took at ISO 800 and ISO 1600 still look pretty good, and at ISO 100 noise is hard to find.

   The camera will zoom to 60X (1200mm 35mm Equivalent) in the 16mp picture size. Setting the picture size to 10mp will give you 75X zoom, setting the size to 7mp will give you 90X, at 5mp you get 108X and at 3mp is 135X. This is Extended Optical Zoom. If you need more zoom than that, under IResolution, use I-Zoom for an additional 2X at all picture sizes and digital will give another 2X, but image quality will suffer. I took some shots at the 10mp picture size with I-Zoom on, and the photos in my photo software are showing 3030mm zoom and they look amazingly good! I will post a link to some shots in the first comment on the review.

   There are two FN buttons on the camera that can be set the way you want them to be. I set FN 1 button to Bracketing and FN 2 button to Flash Control. I may change them as time goes on, but I find it really great to be able to get Bracketing with the push of a button.

   I don’t care much for the lens cap, and ordered a better 55mm one on Amazon…

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2. 119 of 122 people found the following review helpful

   
   This camera is state of the art “overall” , in terms of price, versatility & quality, September 20, 2013

   By 

   David Marks “norcalidave” (Paradise, CA United States) –
   
     
   
     

   This review is from: Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ70 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 60x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-Inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

   Update on December 10, 2013: After having used this camera for an extended period of time, I like it even more! And the price is ridiculously low right now, I notice. Here’s a great recent review of the FZ70 by Adorama Camera :

   […]
   __________________

   My prior review(s):

   First of all, I am an Amazon customer and this camera was purchased for me, by another Amazon customer (my fiancee), so it IS an “Amazon verified purchase”.

   I’ve had the FZ70 for two days and I’ve taken quite a few pictures with it, but I will update this review once I’ve tried more of its many features. I’ve also followed and taken part in the users’ comments section on Amazon, regarding this camera, and I respect the opinions of all the other 19 reviewers, even though I disagree with some of them.

   In my opinion, if you have less than $600 to spend and you want only one bridge camera, then I believe this FZ70 is made for you. I’ve read all the comments about comparisons of this model with the Panasonic 150 and Panasonic 200, and I have no doubt that if you’re using your digital camera primarily for printing large photos of birds, taken with a long telephoto, then the FZ200 should perhaps be your choice.

   But for the rest of us, this FZ70 is an extraordinary camera, even though its long-telephoto lens speed is less than that of the FZ150 or 200. The FZ200, however, costs $150 more than the FZ70, and it has its own weaknesses. As I say in my title to this review, if you look at the overall picture, including the price of the camera, its telephoto and wide angle lens capabilities, its feature set, its ease of use, it’s fast and accurate focusing, etc., then I think this FZ70 represents the current “state of the art” in affordable bridge cameras.

   So why do I say this is an extraordinary camera and that if I ONLY could have one “under $600 bridge camera”, this FZ70 would be my choice? I say this for many reasons, but one of the first things about this camera that blew me away, was its 20 mm WIDE lens capability. I took some landscape photos yesterday of grassland/oak woodlands up here in the lower Sierra, looking down toward the Sacramento Valley, at the widest lens possible (20 mm), and when I looked at the photos on my iMac 24 inch monitor, I was astounded by the way the photos looked, and at first I didn’t realize why they were so different and so impressive.

   They were different and impressive because no other bridge camera (at least that I know of) has this optical lens RANGE, and the 20 mm wide angle photos I took yesterday, made it abundantly clear why it isn’t just the LONG TELE shots that are important, it’s also equally the WIDE angle lens capabilities that are so valuable. One of the reasons I was so impacted by the 20 mm photos I took, is that human peripheral vision is limited, and we use our central vision most of the time. But when we’re LOOKING at a beautiful photo taken with (for instance) this camera’s wide-angle lens, we’re using our central vision to view the photo. Again, when we view such a photo (on screen or otherwise) taken with a wide-angle lens, we don’t have to use our peripheral vision. So in a sense, we’re actually “seeing” more of the landscape scene than we see when we’re standing at the edge of the scene, “seeing it in real time”. Call it magic, or call it what you want, but it sure feels like magic…

   In other words, a good camera with a 20 mm wide-angle lens capability, lets us “virtually” see more than our own visual system normally sees (when we’re out looking at the ‘real’ landscape). In a sense, I suppose it’s fair to say that this FZ70, with its super-wide lens, is a “virtual reality” machine…smile….

   Also, I have tested this camera at longer telephoto settings and I haven’t had any trouble with sharpness, but I understand that the FZ150 and FZ200 (both of which I believe have an f2.8 lens speed all the way through the telephoto range) would probably provide a birder with sharper images of birds, at longer distances, especially in lower light situations. The FZ70’s compromise (given all its other amazing features) is that its lens range is F2.8-F5.9, so at the longest telephoto end of its range, the amount of light collected with the FZ200 is two to three times as much as it is with the FZ70. With normal lighting conditions, the lesser light-gathering power of the FZ70 at longer telephoto settings may not make much difference, but for birders who are taking photos of birds from far away, in lower light conditions, then of course the FZ70 will likely not take as sharp a photo(s) as the FZ150 or 200.

   Also, as Rolla Gravett has said many times, the FZ200 is NOISY! I think the reason it’s noisy, is that it has such a fast tele lens, that with all that light it gathers with an image, it also “gathers” noise. Of course it’s up to the JPEG design, to reduce much of that noise,…

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