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FIELD TESTED: PANASONIC LUMIX FT2-A COMPACT CAMERA
  |  First Published: May 2010



One of the great advances of the digital age of photography is the quality of the photos we routinely experience.

I was a fairly rapid graduate of the school of digital photography having purchased a Nikon digital SLR pretty soon after they were released. A couple of smaller digitals followed and I must say I was pretty happy with the results given the lesser cash outlay. But there were limitations. One camera gave great results but it was near impossible to see the rear screen in daylight conditions. That aside, I like camera technology and testing new gear.

Having recently field-tested the new Panasonic Lumix FT2 on a trip to Ebor's trout waters, where the camera had a trip around the paddocks in the pocket, I was more than just pleased with the results. Extremely impressed might be more like it.

Take a look at the images nearby. On the left is the shot I took with the Nikon SLR, on the right is the one taken with the little Lumix. There's some difference in overall composition, but the Lumix holds its own so far as picture quality is concerned.

With 14.1 mega pixel resolution and great shooting versatility courtesy of a Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens offering 28 mm wide angle plus 4.6 optical zoom, which equates to 28 - 128 mm, this camera can do a lot.

What I really liked about the little Lumix, along with the sheer compactness of the unit and the quality of results, was the absolute ease of use. One touch buttons activated all systems including video (which features a zoom capability), plus there's a 2.7" high resolution colour LCD screen at the rear of the camera which will adjust to really bright light situations to make things easy for the user.

Other main features of the Lumix FT2 include Intelligent Auto mode (point and shoot), HDMI output and Viera Link (which offers slide shows on the TV via a link cable). There's an Optical Zoom in movie mode, Panorama Assist to make perfect landscapes, a decent Macro Zoom plus Photo Frame Mode that allows the user to compose shots while displaying one of the frames within the camera.

If you’re in the market for a very compact but powerful camera for those all important fish photography shots, the new Lumix FT2 certainly has a lot to offer. It's water proof to 10m, 2m drop proof, dust and frost proof, and pretty well fool proof to use as well.

For around $550 from Photo Continental of Mt Gravatt, that Lumix FT2 is going to be hard to beat from what I've seen of it.

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