I bought my Panasonic Lumix FZ5 camera back in August in preparation for a trip to Tibet. My wife had been there for a few months teaching spoken English at a monastery school in Ganzi and I was heading off to meet up with her.
My previous digital camera (which she now had) was a Nikon Coolpix 3700. It is a great camera — small and full of features that I liked and used but the Coolpix lacked one thing — a BIG zoom.
I did miss the small size of the Coolpix on this trip — I detest carrying a camera case and the Coolpix used to sit nicely in my trouser pocket waiting to be used. I also missed not being able to record audio. That may sound strange, but I’d started using the Coolpix in temples and other places to record chants and other sounds I liked.
Still, however much I missed the Nikon, the FZ5 made up for it in spades. What an incredible camera the Panasonic is. It really rocks — it is small enough to sit in the palm of your hand, yet it has a 36-432mm Leica DC Vario-Elmarit zoom lens plus some incredible anti-shake technology. That technology allowed me to take handheld shots in conditions I never thought would have been possible: handheld, full zoom in low light, and even a few handheld time exposure shot. I found the Lumix FZ5 a fast, excellent, no fuss cameras that for me, really cut the mustard big time — I even got used to carrying it in a bum-bag.
Some of my FZ5 happy-snaps | Link.