I purchased this camera specifically for a vacation to Rio de Janeiro. I also have a Nikon DSLR that I adore, but didn't want to risk carrying it around Rio. I wanted something I can easily put in my pocket and pull out to quickly take pics.
I investigated several different point-and-shoot cameras, and they all suffer that is pretty much standard issues with Point and Shoots - not dealing well with low light, blurry when compensating for low light, lag time, etc. These things are pretty much a fact with point and shoots.
After playing with a few different camera's, I opted for the Lumix DMC-FH20. The main reasons where the zoom - 8x optical, and then up to 32X digital with the right settings.
On my trip, this camera did not disappoint. Sure I had to play with the settings a little bit to get the desired effect, but I pretty much only used the Auto, Landscape, Nighttime landscape and Macro settings. All of these worked perfectly.
In low light, I had to stabilize the camera on a bench or fence, but that's expected, and not a downfall of the camera.
Overall, I love this camera and considered it well worth the price I paid (about $180us). I feel it far exceeds any other camera I have played with (around the same price point).
I would buy this same camera again - without question. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20K 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 8x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)
This is not a review of the camera itself. Other folks have done that quite well. It's a good little camera for the money. I own one and use it as a supplement to a high end SLR that I also own.
What I'm commenting on here concerns the MEMORY CARD used with this camera. I thought it appropriate to post this review here, because without the right camera card, and without properly maintaining that card, the camera will not function correctly. All of which is explained below.
Special note: my initial reason in deciding to write this review was because Amazon was doing a disservice to its customers by listing a Kingston "Class 4" card in its "Frequently Bought Together" section of this camera. Kingston makes good cards. But a Class 4 card will only be good for shooting still photos with this camera. If you want to shoot video (which this camera does excellently), then you must absolutely use a Class 6 card or higher (better). Since I first posted the review, to Amazon's credit, I've noticed that they have since creased offering the Class 4 card with this camera. That's good news to folks buying the camera who are not sure which kind of camera card to buy. After thinking about it, I decided to leave the review as is, because of all the other helpful camera card and related information presented.
Although most of the information given here concerns the camera's card (there's some very important info about keeping your card healthy by reformatting it often), I've also included some insights into how the camera works as well. (Note: if you're willing to read through some personal chatter, you can find a few additional camera tips in the "comments" section at the end of this review.) The info presented in this review is based mostly on fact with some personal observations and opinion thrown in. All of which should help you out when buying a card. And you definitely have to buy a card, you don't have an option not to.
______________________________________________________________________________________
DO YOU HAVE TO BUY A MEMORY CARD?
Here's a question you might ask yourself: do I even have to buy a memory card? And the answer is absolutely yes. That's because the camera doesn't come with a card. It does come with a battery and battery charger, and it has a USB connection cable to your computer. But no memory card! There is an emergency 40 MB (that's MB not GB) of "built-in" storage capacity (not a card, but built into the camera) that comes with the camera. It's there to use if your card becomes full and you want to shoot a few extra shots. But with a measly 40MB, you can only shoot about 15 to 20 extra shots. So you really don't have a choice in the matter and definitely have to purchase some kind of memory card.
______________________________________________________________________________________
CLASS (card speed)
So now that you know that you have to buy a card, let's talk about the "speed" of the card. It's called "CLASS" and it's important when recording video. Camera models vary on the type of card and class (speed) of the card they require. This camera takes "SD" (Secure Digital) type memory cards, so of course, you have to buy that type of card. But beyond that, you also must purchase the correct "Class" of card if you want to shoot movies (video).
Memory cards are available in different "Classes": Class 2, Class 4, Class 6, Class 10.
Not to get too technical, but the "class" is the "speed rating" of the card. That speed is measured in "write speed" and "transfer speed." The higher the class number, the faster (better) the write and transfer speed. A camera designed to record to Class 6 media (this Lumix camera) may suffer dropouts or corrupted video on slower media like Class 4. Besides the ability to record video correctly, there are also other advantages to higher speed cards: for write speed, the photo that was just taken will be recorded quicker in your camera, which means less waiting time to view it and/or to go on and take the next shot; for transfer speed, the data (the photos and/or movies) on the card will transfer much quicker to your computer, which means less waiting time there too.
PANASONIC RECOMMENDS "CLASS 6" TYPE CARDS FOR THIS CAMERA. This is from Panasonic's website concerning the specs of this camera: "Use a card with SD SPEED CLASS 6 or higher (higher meaning Class 10) when recording motion pictures." I don't recommend this, but you can use Class 4 cards if you only plan to shoot still shots and no video. But of course, when that stray UFO comes flying over the backyard, you may not be able to make a movie of it in all its glory with your Class 4 card. Yes, a Class 4 card will record the video, but there could be some problems, like skips and jumps in it. Makes it hard when you're trying to convince the government that your UFO movie isn't a fake.
Note: the class number will usually be included in the name of the card. Most cards will also have the class number printed on the actual card itself and it looks like a large "@" symbol, but the "a" inside the circle is replaced by a number. It represents the letter C (for class) and the number inside it is the class speed.
Bottom line on Class/Speed:
Class 2 and Class 4 cards:
stay away from them, the cards are too slow, and the price difference between these cards and Class 6 cards isn't really that different.
Class 6 card:
my recommended choice for this camera, low price, will record video and still photos really well.
Class 10 card:
faster card than a Class 6, and more expensive, will also record video and still photos really well. But I honestly don't think it's necessary to spend the extra money and I'm not even sure this low end Lumix camera will benefit from the Class 10's extra "writing" and "transfer" speed that much. But... Panasonic does state you can use this class when it says "Class 6 or higher," the higher meaning Class 10. So you can absolutely use it, but my feeling is it's probably better suited for higher end cameras where you will notice the speed difference. That's why I use a Class 6 card with this camera (I mention this elsewhere in the review). Note: I do use Class 10 cards, but only on one of the higher end cameras that I also own.
______________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT CARD SIZE SHOULD YOU BUY
Here's another question: what card size should you buy? As you probably know, card size (storage capacity) is the space on the card that stores your shots or videos. It's usually measured in GB (spelled: gigabytes; pronounced: gig-a-bites). The more storage the better: 8 GBs is better than 4 GBs, 16 GBs is better than 8 GBs, etc. You pick the card's storage capacity depending on how many still shots you want to take, or on how much video you want to shoot, before the card fills up. You have to do some simple math to figure that out. The actual number of still shots or video that can be stored on any card depend on 2 things: the "size of the storage capacity of the card" and the "size of the jpg's shot or the length of the movie shot." Here are 2 guides (one for "still photos" and one for "video/movies") to help you out in choosing the right card size for your needs.
______________________________________________________________________________________
CARD SIZE/STORAGE CAPACITY (Still Photos)
All photos taken with this camera are shot as jpg files. The jpg size of a photo is measured in Megapixels (pronounced: meg-a-pix-els). You have the option with this camera to shoot in 7 different jpg Megapixel sizes: 14 M, 12.5 M, 10.5 M, 10 M, 5 M, 3 M, and 0.3 M shots. The largest Megapixel size this camera can shoot is 14, thus the camera is called a 14.1 Megapixel camera.
Here's a rule to remember: the higher the size in Megapixels, the sharper the image, and the better the quality of the photo, and thus the better the quality of the print. So when you want to print larger size prints (say 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 inches), shoot your jpg photos in the high Megapixel size range (10 M to 14 M). You'll get better quality prints. For instance: let's say you shot a 3 M photo (which is low in Megapixel file size) and made a 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 print (which is large in print size). The final print is not going to come out as good as it could have. For those larger print sizes, you'd get a much better print if you had shot in a higher Megapixel size of 10 M to 14 M, not 3 M. The formula is simple: shoot high file sizes to get large prints; shoot low file sizes when you only want small size prints. The 3 examples below show you the connection between megapixel file size and the final paper printed size.
For me, here's the rule I shoot by that's easy to remember:
without even debating what size print I will eventually make, or how I will use the shot, I routinely shoot at the higher megapixel sizes that I can (with this camera, that's 10 M to 14 M). If I want to make a smaller print from that file, no problem. The smaller print will be sharp. And if I want to make a larger good quality print, I have that option too! And you never know when you may want to do that. So the most sensible thing to do in my mind is to shoot all your photos at a high Megapixel size and give yourself all the best possible options for printing your photos. In time, if you find that the higher megapixel sizes are too high for your print needs, you can always adjust and down size accordingly.
Here's the only downside to this idea of shooting everything at a high file size, a very minor downside to my thinking: shooting larger sized files will fill up your card more quickly. But honestly, I don't care about that. I just want to have the best quality print options on all the photos I shoot. So the fact of getting fewer total shots on my card before it fills up doesn't concern me. A card of 4 or 8 GB's gives you a tremendous amount of file capacity, even shooting at the high Megapixel sizes.
Using the 3 examples below as a general guide, you can figure out the best card size for your "still photo" needs. For the reasons I just explained, when figuring out what card size capacity you need to buy, my personal choice would be to use the "10 Megapixels" example below as a guide to doing the math. For instance, if you bought a 4 GB card and shot everything at 10 Megapixels, using the "10 Megapixels" example below, you'd get at least 1,080 photos on that card (4 GB x 270 photos = 1,080). But that of course is up to you. Because measuring exact pixels is a very inaccurate deal, these numbers are approximate, but good enough for the purposes here. The examples below have been taken from the Panasonic manual, with my additional comments about print size enclosed by brackets ().
1 GB of card storage, shooting all photos at 10 Megapixels (which gives you a good 11 x 14 inch print) = about 270 pictures
1 GB of card storage, shooting all photos at 5 Megapixels (which gives you a good 8 x 10 inch print) = about 440 pictures
1 GB of card storage, shooting all photos at 3 Megapixels (which gives you a good 5 x 7 inch print) = about 600 pictures
By the way, in the settings mode, the camera has a nice handy guide that lists each of the 7 Megapixel sizes, and next to each, gives you the largest best quality print that can be made from that jpg size. So you have all kinds of options and an easy way to figure out what size jpg to shoot. By the way, as you shoot, there's a number that is clearly displayed in the upper right hand corner of the LCD display, that factors in the size jpg you have the camera presently set at, and tells you the total number of photos you can still shoot before your card fills up. Really handy info to know.
______________________________________________________________________________________
CARD SIZE/STORAGE CAPACITY (Video/Movies)
Using the 7 examples below as a general guide, you can figure out the best card size for your "video" needs.
Motion pictures can only be recorded "continuously" for up to a maximum of 2 GB. "Continuously" is the key word here. That means that the camera will stop recording the movie at the max 2 GB. But... you can start again with a 2nd 2 GB segment movie (part 2 of your grand epic) without having to load the already recorded video on your computer before continuing. You can keep on going like that, recording as many 2 GB segments as can fit on the card, one right after the next. The length of time that 2 GBs equals depends on the quality setting of the video recording. 2 GBs of HD quality video will give you a movie 8 minutes 20 seconds long. HD is the highest quality (sharpest looking images) the camera can shoot. There are 3 other lower quality video recording settings that you can make that will create even longer time length movies. Although I don't know why you'd choose them, since I would think you'd want to record the best quality movie that you can. If you plan on shooting lots of video, obviously get the card that fits your needs. The examples below have been taken from the Panasonic manual and represent video shot in HD quality.
1 GB of card storage = 4 minutes of total video
2 GB of card storage = 8 minutes 20 seconds of total video
4 GB of card storage = 16 minutes, 30 seconds of total video (shot in segments of 2 GB)
8 GB of card storage = 33 minutes, 40 seconds of total video (shot in segments of 2 GB)
16 GB of card storage = 1 hour 8 minutes of total video (shot in segments of 2 GB)
32 GB of card storage = 2 hours 16 minutes of total video (shot in segments of 2 GB)
64 GB of card storage = 4 hours 29 minutes of total video (shot in segments of 2 GB)
Bottom line on card size/storage:
A few years ago, a 4 GB size memory card was considered a big deal. Now it's on the low end of card capacity. Yet that 4 GB card will store lots and lots of "still shots" and, in my opinion, is fine for most folks shooting regular still photos. If you want to shoot extended video, then that's another deal and you will probably want to think about a larger sized card. I personally use a Lexar Professional 8 GB (Class 6, 133x) card and at 10.5 M a shot, I get approximately 2200 still photos on my card. And I never ever get close to that number before I load the card's files to my computer. If I shot smaller sized jpg's, I'd get a lot more photos than that. By the way, you can load the camera's photos to your computer 2 ways: directly from the camera using the supplied cable or by using a separately bought card reader. Your choice.
______________________________________________________________________________________
SD CARD TYPES
Here's another thing I want to mention that may help you out when buying a card. This camera accepts 3 types of SD memory cards. Each type has a different level of storage capacity. Of course, the greater the storage capacity, the higher the price of the card. Here are the 3 cards:
* SD Memory Card (storage up to 2 GB)
* SDHC Memory Card (HC = High Capacity, storage from 4 GB to 32 GB)
* SDXC Memory Card (XC = Extended Capacity, storage from 32 GB to 2 TB)
Panasonic states that any one of these cards will work with this camera.
______________________________________________________________________________________
MEMORY CARD RELIABILITY
Something else you should be aware of: memory cards sometimes fail. Even with the best cards, errors do still occur. They drop (miss recording) a shot(s) or just stop working altogether. Not often, but sometimes. My feeling (I'm a professional art director working in an advertising agency) is that the very best memory cards are made by Hoodman. An American company by the way... all their cards are made here in the USA. Many pro photographers use these cards because they're considered the very best, claim a zero-failure rate, and carry a lifetime warranty. These cards are intended for professional use where card failure is not an option. And they are very expensive (probably the most expensive of any memory card) and are really overkill for this rather inexpensive camera. Most Lumix cameras will never use a Hoodman card and things will be just fine. Two other really good brands are Lexar and SanDisk. Lexar is the brand of card I use with this camera (the Lexar "Professional" line is the best they make, followed by their very good "Platinum" card line). But even Laxar cards don't come cheap (my Lexar Pro card cost about 50 bucks). I'm not trying to scare you away from other card brands. It's just a good thing to know which brands are considered a safe bet. There are other good companies out there, especially if you're on a budget.
By the way, the higher end cards from both Lexar and SanDisk come with their respective data recovery software packages on CD. Lexar's is called Image Rescue and SanDisk's is called RescuePro. Both are very effective in retrieving lost memory card shots (although not 100% all the time). A third party company has a program called PhotoRescue (about $30) which is also widely used and claims to be even better than both SanDisk's and Lexar's software. So if your card is damaged, corrupted for some reason, or has been mistakenly formatted, just be aware that data recovery software could be your answer to retrieving the lost shots.
______________________________________________________________________________________
A MUST DO: FORMAT THE MEMORY CARD OFTEN!
The last thing I want to talk about is one of the most important things to know about your camera. And that concerns formatting the memory card. (By the way, formatting and reformatting are essentially the same thing and I use those words interchangeably here.)
You don't actually format the camera itself, but you format the memory. There are 2 kinds of memory that can be formatted on this camera: (1) the built-in memory on the camera and (2) the separate memory card. The card is the important one to remember about.
Deleting memory card files is not the same as formatting the card. Formatting (reformatting) the memory card erases every bit of data on your card and that's good for it and can help in 2 main ways:
* Reformatting your card will keep it healthy. It ensures that the file structure of the memory stays clear of any corruption, which helps avoid error messages or missing images. If the card starts to act funny or appears to malfunction, try to reformat. This can often fix the problem. The longer you go without reformatting memory, the better the chances that the card will become corrupted down the line.
* Another reason to reformat is, over time, your card will hold fewer images if you never reformat. If your card held 1,000 shots when you first bought it, without reformatting, it will hold less and less over time.
It's also extremely important to reformat your card in the camera itself. Don't reformat the card on your computer. That's because the camera will format a card better than a computer will, in a way that is optimal for that particular camera/card combination. Note: if you do format your card accidentally (it happens sometimes to the best of us), say when you still had files on the card that were not saved to your computer yet, you have a chance to recover them using data recovery software (as I explain in the Memory Card Reliability section above).
So how often should you format? A memory card should be formatted at least several times a year. My view is to do this every time after you download your photos to your computer. There are no side effects or downsides to formatting often, so don't worry about it. Yet there is an absolutely very big upside. It's just a good habit to get in to and ensures you start with a clean card, without any old data floating around that can mess things up. Note: format/reformat your card OLNY after you loaded/saved the shots/video to your computer, not before. Otherwise you could loose those shots or video.
So always remember, reformat your card often, it's one of the best things you can ever do for your camera!!!
______________________________________________________________________________________
BOTTOM LINE/FINAL THOUGHT
After reading all this (I know, I probably wrote way too much!), and you're still uncertain as to the type of card to buy, then here's a really can't go wrong recommendation: buy a 4 GB or 8 GB capacity card, with a Class 6 (or higher) speed rating. It's that simple.
No need to go overboard on storage capacity you don't need. You can always purchase another card later on. Many people have more than one card. Of course, you can get a card with more capacity if you really know you need it, but honestly, it isn't necessary unless you want to shoot lots and lots of video. Just remember, whatever storage capacity card you do buy, make sure it's a Class 6 (or greater) card if you want to shoot video!
On a personal note:
I know this "review" was much longer than the normal Amazon post, but I thought it important to include everything I have, so you'd get a good idea of what your camera's memory card is all about. It will make the time you spend shooting a lot more enjoyable.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Update: May 2011
At the time I first wrote this review, this Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 camera was $100 cheaper than Panasonic's Lumix DMC-ZR3. Now 8 months later (May 2011), the price is almost the same for both cameras. Not sure why, but for now, there it is. So I felt I should add these 2 paragraphs comparing the two cameras. Note: much of what I've written in this review about the FH20 can also be applied to the ZR3.
Reason to consider the FH20: (1) less shutter lag, which means 30% less delay when taking photos, but when measured in milliseconds (290 ms vs 420 ms), it's not that big a deal; (2) shoots faster, 4.6 fps vs 1.8 fps (frames per seconds), which translates to being more than 2 1/2 times faster continuous shooting, again not that important to most people.
Now on the other side, here are the reasons to consider the ZR3: (1) it has a better wide angle lens, ZR3/25 mm (millimeters) vs FH20/28 mm (millimeters), which is more than 10% degrees wider and that gives you a slightly wider area that will be included in your shots; (2) it has better macro capability (close up shots), 1.2 inches vs 2 inches, which means you can focus subjects 40% closer to the lens; (3) the camera's body is slightly smaller and lighter in weight, both by about 10%. All-in-all, I have to say the ZR3 has a few features that are slightly better that this FH-20. The differences aren't that big, and for many people, it won't matter. I just want you to be aware of it.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Another update (probably of interest only to me), May 2011
I guess that old saying "Imitation is the best form of flattery" applies to this. I was randomly playing around on Google and noticed that someone on the internet (a bogus "wedding photography" website), has stolen this review and put it, verbatim, the whole long article, on their website, as if they wrote it. The only word they didn't use (they messed up on their copying) was the last word in the headline: "one." So the headline makes no sense. I don't mind really, but if they're going to steal my stuff, I think they should at least get the headline right!!! Funny.'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
