Pete's Ultra-Zoom Shoot-Out Comparing the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 with the Olympus C-720   Added comments on the more recent Panasonic DMC-FZ15 and FZ20 Comments, suggestions and corrections are welcome.

Need software to resize batches of images for email attachments, web pages or Office documents? Try JpegSizer here.

Topics

• Introduction
• Packaging
• Image Quality
• Focal Range
• Depth of Field
• Macro Mode
• File Formats
• Responsiveness
• Display Features
• Batteries and Charger
• Other Things I Like
• Things I Miss
• Conclusions
•   Panasonic DMC-FZ15 and FZ20 models
• Useful Links

Introduction

I recently replaced my 2-year-old Olympus C-720 with Panasonic's newer DMC-FZ10 offering. Both are ultra-zoom cameras introduced at US$599. The C-720 is a 3 megapixel camera with 8X optical zoom; the FZ10 offers 4 megapixels and 12X.

By upgrading, I was looking for better performance in several areas:

• Higher quality photos when shooting small objects at large distances, such as wild birds.
• Faster start-up, auto-focus and cycle times, so that I don't miss so many transient shots.
• More dependable auto-focus, or a manual focus override.
• This may sound silly, but a more professional looking camera, to reflect my growing interest in photography.

After comparing the two cameras for a couple of weeks, I am ready to share my findings.

You might think it unfair to compare a new camera with one a few years old, but my goal is not to show that one camera is better than the other. I use the C-720 as a baseline because that's what I have. But I also thought it would be interesting to show how rapidly technology is changing, and how an older camera can still have some advantages that are missing in the newer models. The shortcomings of the C-720 also remind me of things to watch out for in any new purchase.

Note: The C-720 has much in common with later models in the C-7XX series, although some improvements have been made over time.

Packaging

I bought the black version of the FZ10. This color and its large size -- especially with the lens hood installed -- immediately suggest a more professional camera. It would be even better if the Leica name was displayed more prominently! 

The camera is about 50% heavier than the C-720, but it didn't feel as heavy as I expected, and it's not an issue. The FZ10's case is plastic, but it feels really solid and doesn't suffer from the rattling noises of the C-720's lens. I like having two attachment points for the strap. The controls and doors have good positive action. 

I think the C-720 fits in my hand somewhat better, and I prefer the bigger nub on its zoom adjuster, but I'm already used to the differences.

Olympus C-720	Panasonic FZ10 (without lens hood)

The FZ10 lens hood is plastic, which makes it rather easy to cross threads when attaching filters and lenses to it. This problem is easily solved by permanently installing a protective UV filter -- which you should do anyway -- and screwing anything else into that. Or you can buy one of the available metal lens adapters.

The user interface of the FZ10 is really intuitive, and quite similar to the C-720. After scanning the manual quickly, I was ready to roll. I've heard grumbling about the manual, but it's quite usable, and I've seen a lot worse.

Image Quality

With its Leica lens, built-in image stabilization, manual focus, and f/2.8 aperture over the full zoom range, I expected a significant improvement in image quality with the FZ10, especially in low-light or extreme telephoto situations. The C-720 does a fine job in reasonable light, as long as you avoid full 8X tele. I do a lot of wild bird photography, and images are often taken with full optical and digital zoom, then cropped severely in the computer. With the C-720, these shots were helpful for bird identification, but I would never show them to anyone as an example of my photographic skills.

The FZ10's image quality didn't disappoint. The samples that follow are unmodified, except for cropping where needed, and resizing for use on this web page. 

Here are photos of a hummingbird picture in a printed calendar, taken with each camera in daylight shade from 12 ft (4m) away:

Olympus C-720	Panasonic FZ10

It's hard to see here, but the C-720 image is quite a bit softer. The differences are really striking when you examine the detail in the feathers:

Olympus C-720	Panasonic FZ10

Next is a face cropped from photos of a printed test chart, also taken from 12 ft (4m) away. Here the C-720 image is quite noisy, is less sharp, and has artifacts that look like over-sharpening in the camera (see her teeth and behind her ear). The FZ10 has remarkably smooth skin tones. Both images have hints of chromatic aberration ("purple fringing"), but more on that later. (Bear in mind that these faces were only about 5% of the full frame.)

Olympus C-720	Panasonic FZ10

Optical Image Stabilizer

Like most cameras, the C-720 doesn't have an image stabilizer. The FZ10's optical image stabilizer (OIS) works really well for shutter speeds as slow as 1/4 sec. I was impressed when I took low-light pictures of my alarm clock with OIS off and on (using mode 2). These examples were taken at f/2.8 and 1/4 sec, using 12X zoom from about 6 ft (2m) away.

Normal shake with OIS off	Best I can do with OIS off	OIS on

There are limits to how much shaking the IS can deal with, and the manual warns you that "the stabilizer function may not work sufficiently ... in digital zoom range." At full 36X zoom, I found that the IS works best if you steady yourself against a convenient solid object, such as a door frame, tree or spouse. Holding any camera steady takes practice.

OIS operates in either of 2 modes. In "mode 1" it is on continuously and can be used during composition. In "mode 2" it only operates while the shutter is open. Mode 2 is said to offer a greater degree of stabilization, but mode 1 can be valuable if camera shake is preventing you from holding the desired composition in view.

Without doubt, OIS will do more to improve the quality of your photos than anything else.

Chromatic Aberrations

Like many cameras, the C-720 suffers from chromatic aberrations known as "purple fringing" around very contrasty edges. For example, when shooting dark tree limbs against a bright sky. Most images don't run into these problems, and they are easily fixed in a photo editing program. The FZ10 has the same issue, although somewhat diminished. Its purple fringes are noticeably redder than the C-720. Here are greatly magnified examples from a test card:

Olympus C-720	Panasonic FZ10

Resolution Tests

I tested each camera with a resolution test chart. The chart was photographed in daylight shade, so the shots have a bluish cast. I used a tripod with self-timer, the smallest possible aperture (f/7-8), the slowest ISO speed (50), and image stabilization where available. Exposure was 1/40 sec at 6X zoom. The only change made to the images  was to stretch the histogram of the originals to use the full range from black to white. Below are the results for each camera showing, from left to right: (a) about 15% of the test chart cropped from the "tough" end of the chart; (b) a magnified 18x44 pixel crop from the left side of (a); and the gray-scale histogram of (b).

Olympus C-720

Panasonic FZ10

Obviously the FZ10 shines here. Even at these high line densities, the camera manages to get full blacks and whites. The C-720 only yields rather muddy mid-tones, and also suffers from purple fringing.

Based on measurements of the line density where each camera just starts to lose full blacks and whites, I estimate that the FZ10's resolution is about 2.5 times that of the C-720. An excellent result considering the modest increase in megapixels and smaller file sizes (discussed later).

Focal Range

One thing I noticed right away with the FZ10 was the difficulty zooming in and focusing on small objects a few feet away. I didn't have this problem with the C-720. Turns out that at full optical zoom, the FZ10 will only focus down to about 6 ft (2m), whereas the C-720 is good to about 3 ft (1m). This makes it impossible, for example, to fill the FZ10 frame with a 2" (5 cm) diameter flower from 3 ft (1m) away. I run into this problem frequently, so I took the time to measure the smallest square object that can fill the frame of each camera, for various subject distances. The results were surprising, as you can see in the graph below.

With a subject distance of 6 ft (2m) or more, the FZ10 can fill the frame with smaller objects than the C-720, because you can take advantage of its better zoom range (right half of graph). Closer in it does quite poorly, because you're forced to use less zoom in order to shorten the focal length down to the subject distance. At a distance of 3 ft (1m), the C-720 will fill the frame with a 1 sq in (6 cm²) object, but the FZ10 can't fill the frame with anything less than 30 sq in (185 cm²). That's a big difference, and my only serious complaint about the FZ10. It effectively has a "dead zone" that prevents you taking decent photos of small objects between 1 and 6 feet (0.3m and 2m) away .

Using macro mode is not always a solution, because it may not be physically possible to get up close and personal with your subject. Sometimes backing up to 6 ft (2m) away isn't possible either. Your camera shouldn't needlessly force you to climb a barbed-wire fence or jump into a swamp. In these situations, your only solution is to crank down the zoom and use your computer to crop out most of your image. And you know what that does to image quality.

Depth of Field

Like all non-SLR digital cameras, the FZ10 has limited selective focus ability for blurring the background in a shot. This is due to the sensors in digital cameras being a lot smaller than a 35mm frame. A wide open f/2.8 digital lens is roughly equivalent to f/11 on a 35mm camera.

The FZ10 does have a "program shift" feature where you can adjust the trade-off between shutter speed and aperture size. This is rather like having a depth-of-field slider, which strikes me as a great idea. The diagram below (modified from the FZ10 manual) shows: the camera's default P-mode behavior for different exposure levels (black line); the limits of the program shift range (gray lines); and an example of the effect of adjusting the program shift (arrows).

Macro Mode

The FZ10's macro mode will fill the frame with considerably smaller objects than C-720. The FZ10 will fill the frame with a 1.5 sq in (10 cm²) square, compared to the C-720's 4 sq in (26 cm²). This should reduce the need for close-up lens attachments, with their loss of image quality and depth-of-field. (The FZ10's "sweet spot" for highest macro magnification is at 2-3X zoom.)

Macro image quality is excellent. Here's an example of a pea crab, which is about the size of... ummm... a pea:

The FZ10's macro mode is accessed from the main mode wheel instead of a separate button. I've seen complaints elsewhere that this prevents you from using mode combinations such as macro with aperture priority. I'm glad to report that this is not the case. Macro mode is turned on whenever you use the A/S/M modes. It is also turned on whenever you use manual focus.

File Formats

I always use a camera's highest available pixel resolution and store images with the highest available JPEG quality (least compression). I figure memory cards and hard drives are cheap enough, and you never know when you might want to make a large print from one of your winning images. On the other hand, I didn't use the C-720's lossless TIFF format, because file sizes are really gigantic, and any improvements in image quality are hard to discern. From this perspective, I don't mind that the FZ10 offers only the JPEG format, with only 2 settings for quality. 

The FZ10's high-quality setting produces significantly smaller files than the C-720, in spite of the increase from 3 to 4 megapixels. The file sizes average about 1.2 MB, compared to 1.8 MB for the C-720. This effectively cuts the bytes per pixel in half, from 0.6 to 0.3. How much better would the images be if the file sizes were twice as large? The FZ10 wouldn't be the first camera criticized for over-compressing its images.

In the end, of course, it's the image quality that counts, and the FZ10 performed admirably in this respect.

Responsiveness

Without fancy timing equipment, I estimate that the FZ10's start-up time is about a second less than the C-720. Auto-focus also seems faster, and memory writes are a lot faster.  (Getting the fastest memory writes requires using high-speed memory cards, such as the SanDisk Ultra II series.) The FZ10 certainly feels a lot more responsive, and I'm missing far fewer shots.

When real-time auto-focus is still too slow, the FZ10 offers two ways to pre-focus: manual focus and a nicely implemented "auto focus hold". Manual focus has a real adjustment ring around the lens barrel, and a zoomed area in the middle of the display for precise focusing. Very nice.

The FZ10's power-saving standby feature actually turns the camera off, so it forgets your zoom setting. Coming out of standby, the camera insists on zooming to the wide setting, which adds about 2 seconds to the process. On top of that, you will often need to spend time restoring the zoom setting you were using before. These time delays will probably cause you to miss shots and will tempt you to increase the standby time-out from 2 to 10 minutes, which will reduce battery life. These issues do not arise with the C-720, because its standby mode remembers the zoom setting.

Tip: If you remember, you can stop the FZ10 from going to full wide angle on start-up by holding the zoom lever in the tele position until the lens starts to zoom out. This shortens the start-up time by a second or two. (This does not restore the last used zoom setting.)

Display Features

Like the C-720, the FZ10 has both an electronic viewfinder (EVF) and an LCD display. You can use either when composing a photo or when playing back images in the memory card. The FZ10's LCD display size is a larger-than-average 2" (5 cm), compared to the C-720's smaller-than-average 1.5" (3.8 cm). This is a big improvement.

In record mode, both cameras give you the option to display the captured image for a short time so that you can check for composition, focus, etc. The FZ10 takes this one step further with its option to show the image normally, then zoomed for a detailed focus check. This makes it much easier to catch out-of-focus shots.

The FZ10 does have one annoying and inexplicable behavior in record mode. In low-light situations, after pressing the shutter half way to pre-focus, the display darks so that it is hard to see. This makes it difficult to re-compose the shot before taking it. The C-720 does not suffer from this problem.

In playback mode, the FZ10 benefits greatly from its larger 2" (5 cm) LCD display. It is also loads images a lot faster.

Both the FZ10 and C-720 have zoom and pan features for checking image quality during playback, but I like the C-720's implementation better. For me, the FZ10 zooms using steps that are too big, and pans in steps that are too small. As a result, you end up using the pan buttons way too much. 

Batteries and Charger

The C-720 uses 4 AA or 2 CR-V3 batteries, and is sold without a charger. I bought a charger and two sets of rechargeable NiMH AA's, and this worked fine for me. I also bought an AC powerpack so that the camera could be used continuously for studio work.

The FZ10 uses a small proprietary lithium-ion battery pack, and comes with a charger. The charger has a conventional power cord, so it takes up more space than most AA chargers. The charger can also be used to run the camera indefinitely from AC power, a nice feature.

The FZ10 battery provides about half the energy per charge of 4 AA's (4.9 Wh vs 10.6 Wh typ.), but what really counts is how many photos you can shoot on a full charge. On my regular botanical shoots, I find the FZ10 batteries are good for about 100 shots (20% less than C-720). 

The FZ10 battery only weighs about 1.5 oz (43 g), and I would willingly have accepted a doubling of this so that I could shoot twice as many photos per charge.

The advantage of AA's is that in an emergency you can drop in a set of alkaline batteries. On the other hand, 4 AA's means 8 electrical contacts, and I did have occasional trouble with these on the C-720. (Rechargeable CR-V3's are now available, which cuts the number of electrical contacts in half.) 

With a proprietary battery pack, carrying a fully charged spare is essential. But if they both become discharged on the top of a mountain, you're really stuck. On the other hand, the manufacturer has an opportunity to use really reliable contacts to avoid problems with intermittent connections.

In the end, it's a trade-off between the flexibility of the AA/CR-V3 approach, and the potentially higher reliability of a proprietary battery pack. 

Other Things I Like

Here are some other things I like about the FZ10 that you won't find in the C-720:

• The self-timer can be set for a delay of 2 or 10 seconds (the C-720 doesn't have the 2 second option). The 2 second setting is perfect when you're simply avoiding camera movement caused by pressing the shutter. You only need the longer setting if you want to be in the picture yourself.
• In black-and-white mode, the FZ10 actually takes black-and-white shots. The C-720 does a gray scale conversion on color images you've already captured. With the FZ10 approach, the viewfinder shows the contrast levels you will actually get, so you can avoid disappointments when contrasting colors turn out to have the same grayscale values (luminescence).
• The sound effects do a much better job of letting you know what is going on inside the camera. They can be turned off if you want silent operation. The mechanics of the camera operate smoothly and are relatively quiet.
• I've yet to use a camera for taking movies, but the FZ10 captures audio as well as video, and will run continuously at 10 or 30 fps until your memory card is full. This is a great improvement over the C-720, which has no audio and is limited to 15 seconds of recording at 10 fps.
• The FZ10 has a small LED lamp that tells you when the camera is on. With the C-720, it's hard to distinguish between the off and standby modes.

Things I Miss

Here are a few features that I used on the C-720, but are missing on the FZ10:

• The "My Mode" position on the scene selector, for storing the settings you use for specific types of shots 
• Activating the spot focus feature with a button, instead of digging into the menus
• User-configurable menus and "hot" button.
• The scene mode for landscape shots (i.e. smallest possible aperture for greatest depth of field) 
• The preset white balance setting for fluorescent lighting (but the FZ10 does allow manual WB adjustments)

Conclusions

Obviously I can't cover every single feature of these powerful cameras. Things that aren't discussed here are either similar in both cameras, are not particularly important to me, or were simply overlooked.

The Panasonic FZ10 is a fabulous camera, and is an excellent fit to my requirements. In fact, no other camera comes close for the same price. The FZ10 is a fine example of recent technological advances in the digital camera field.

Of course no camera is perfect, as you can see from my FZ10 Hot and Cold lists below. On balance, the FZ10 represents great value for the serious amateur photographer. I highly recommend it.

Panasonic DMC-FZ15 and 20 Models

Since this review was first written, Panasonic has introduced these two new models. The FZ10 is no longer shown on Panasonic's web site, but as of this writing it can be found for about $100 less than the FZ20. I don't have any first-hand experience with the new models, but looking over the specifications leads to some comments. The new models have these features relative to the FZ10:

• An auto-focus assist lamp has been added, which will help solve the FZ10 problem of focusing in very low ambient light. Two new focus area modes have been added.

• The range of the internal flash has been increased significantly.

• The internal image processing chip has been upgraded and promises higher image quality, faster response times and better image stabilizer performance.

• More scene modes have been added. 

• The option to store photos in TIFF format will yield slightly higher image quality, at the expense of rapidly filling memory cards and hard drives.

• The FZ-15 drops the hot shoe for external flash and audio annotations for still pictures. It also drops the included memory card size from 16MB to 8MB, but either size is a joke.

• The increase from 4MP to 5MP (FZ20 only) is attractive, but there are more important things that should drive a buying decision.

I got the specs from Panasonic's web site and from dpreview.com.

For me, the choice would be an easy one. Spend the extra $100 for the FZ20.

Useful Links

Need software to resize batches of images for email attachments, web pages or Office documents? Try JpegSizer here.

To see some FZ10 images from my early morning shoot at the Seattle Fishermen's Terminal, click here.

For an in-depth review of the FZ10 at Steve's Digicams, click here.  dpreview.com does the same for the FZ20 here.

For useful background info and tips for using lens adapters and flash with the FZ10, click here.

To join the Yahoo Group for FZ10-15-20 enthusiasts, click here.

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Thanks to Klaas Bloem and Lawrence Wilkes for valuable feedback on this page.

(C) Copyright 2004 by Peter Martin. All rights reserved.