Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ82DE-K Bridge Camera with 20-1200 mm
Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ82DE-K Bridge Camera with 20-1200 mm F2.8-5.9 Lens, 18.1MP, 4K Video & Photo, OLED Live View Finder, LCD Touch Screen, USB-C, Black
| Weight: | 640 Grams |
| Dimensions: | 18 x 18 x 13 centimetres |
| Brand: | Panasonic |
| Model: | DC-FZ82DE-K |
| Part: | DC-FZ82DE-K |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
| Dimensions: | 18 x 18 x 13 centimetres |
This is a great little bridge camera that has a serious amount of zoom capability indeed, it can even take good images of the moon, I’ve included one I took with this camera on a tripod and I think the results are amazing. It also has a picture mode call 4k where it basically shoots off I think 30 frames in a second and splits the images, really good for fast action, it’s easy to use, easy to hold, a perfect everyday or holiday camera for sure, really impressed with it.
So to say it came as a surprise when I was offered this to review via the Vine program would be an understatement so I accepted out of curiosity more than anything, not thinking it would be of interest to me.
How wrong can one be.!
Most of my work these days is videography or studio stills so this obviously isn’t suited or targeted at either use case being very much a consumer camera, so what to do with it.
When out and about I always have a small mirrorless camera with me, usually with a fast 35mm or 50mm prime attached, so for the last couple of days I have eschewed that in favour of the Lumix and been rather pleased as a result.
Sure it is a little bulkier than I’m used to, but with bulk comes that incredibly versatile zoom which has allowed me to grab shots that would have been impossible with a prime, such as fallow deer grazing in a field roadside, with my mirrorless I wouldn’t have bothered to stop, with the Lumix I can see the whites of their eyes.
I’m also letting the camera do its own thing fully auto, in for a penny, in for a pound as they say, and so far it hasn’t let me down though I have only been using it a few days.
Ease of use is another thing in its favour, with a menu system that is a breeze to navigate, something I wish my Fuji and Sony cameras had, though they are getting better.
I’m also fairly comfortable with the complete lack of wireless connectivity, as someone who still shoots with a lot of film cameras it is a refreshing change to find a digital body that also hasn’t got some kind of cloud connection and keeps everything in the hands of the user.
My only dislike is having to charge the battery in situ via USB C which is a fairly slow process though easily remedied as I am taking delivery later today of an external charger and a couple more batteries.
Panasonic is not a brand I’ve really used that much so but having spent time with this camera I can say that I’ll definitely be looking at their products more often especially in the camera category.
This is a bridge camera with an incredible zoom going from wide angle 20mm to 120mm – all built in and no need to buy expensive lenses or swap lenses over, it’s all built into this camera and you just use the room rocker to zoom in and out. It can zoom quickly too if you need to catch a shot of something far away in a hurry.
The zoom on this has to be used to be believed in al honesty. You can zoom in really close to things that are so far away that it will blow your mind after using other cameras or phones to take photos. This is a real winner and a great advantage that this camera has over other methods of taking photos.
And even better is it has superb stabilisation so you can zoom in as far as you want and then the stabilisation kicks in to keep your shot super steady as you take the photo. This is very welcome for me as I have shaky hands so this just takes away all worries that my photo will be blurred.
On the opposite end of things this camera has macro lens capability meaning you can move your camera incredibly close to a flower or a fly or something and get a macro photo to see all the incredible close up detail
The lens is great and handles all kinds of situations from taking family snapshots of groups of people, to portrait photos if you fancy a new profile photo or passport photos, to landscape shots of beautiful scenery or amazing places you visit. Also would be fantastic for holidays although I’ve yet to do this but will be doing soon.
The camera size is compact. It’s bigger than using an Iphone for photos obviously but not as big as the bulky awkward professional cameras and DSLR’s. This makes it really easy to hold no matter what size hands you have. It sits nicely and all the buttons and controls are within easy reach and easy to use.
It has a really good back screen for composing your shots if you want to use that or a little see through EVF you put your eye up to if you prefer the older traditional method of taking photos. The choice is yours
If you put it into intelligent auto mode you can literally turn the camera on, point and shoot and get straight into basic photography that way and the camera will handle all the settings for you which is great for beginners or people in a hurry that don’t want to bother with all the settings for ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speeds etc
The camera has built in flash for indoor shots or for using to fill in faces on a sunny day outside and you can either have that automatically work or you can use more advanced ways of using it.
The camera suits pretty much most levels of photographer from a first camera for total beginners, to more advanced photographers looking for an all in one bridge camera where you can just take it out of your bag, turn it on and not worry about additional lenses or flash guns etc
The menu system can get you to more advanced settings if you want to, although most of the features are just a press of a button!
It can also do 4k video which is a really great addition on top of the photography side of the camera, although I haven’t used the video feature much yet (but will be doing!)
It comes with a battery but you’ll need to get an SD card of your choice to use as a memory card (would recommend getting 128gb or higher) The battery charges very quickly too just by connecting a USB-C cable.
I would definitely consider this if you’re in for a no hassle, easy to use, easy to learn bridge camera where you don’t have to buy new lenses. It has an incredible zoom and takes great photos which is the most important thing!
I was particularly interested in the macro ability of this camera as this is an area where many cameras struggle, I took several close up photos and they came out perfectly without having to make any changes to any settings.
The build quality is excellent, weighs less than 700grams ,comes with a lens cap and strap and decent sized battery, recharges using USB C.
The camera has a min focal length of 12mm up to a whopping 1200mm so you can shoot things very far a away or very close up or anything in between.
This is an ideal camera for the home, to take on holidays ,would work well for content makers too.
With the release of the FZ82D, it seemed an opportune moment to go back to a wide zoom range bridge camera. I’ve now been using this camera for a couple of days, and while I was initially disappointed because they’ve taken away wifi connectivity, I’ve appreciated once more just what a great camera it is.
The good:
It’s still the best “point and shoot” camera that I’ve ever come across. If you leave it on iA setting, it takes care of exposure and all the other nerdy stuff and you can concentrate on using the 60 times zoom to frame the picture in a much better way than can be achieved with any phone camera
Superb zoom range – you can get good quality pictures from anywhere between 1cm and half a mile away, without having to resort to digital zoom, and the new improved OIS (optical image stabilisation) means that the zoomed images have a good chance of being free of blur
Excellent gateway to “grown up” photography. All the “nerdy stuff” is there and waiting for you to play with if you’re so inclined, and you are able to override any of the automated settings to get pictures that suit your artistic style
Post focus is really clever in allowing to get any elements of the picture (including ALL the elements in the picture!) into focus in a single shot
The view finder is now LOTS better. It now uses OLED technology with a much higher resolution than the old camera had – it’s now a pleasure to look through
The screen is also a lot better. Brighter, easier to read
It now uses USB C, so charging is more easily done using widely available adapters
The missed opportunities
They still haven’t put an articulating screen in, so it is difficult to use for vlogging
They still haven’t included a charger, so your camera is unavailable for photography while your battery is charging (I got a 3rd party charger and 2 spare batteries – they’re pretty cheap)
The bad
There is no remote shutter release on the FZ82, so I always used to rely on the Lumix Image app to allow me to link the camera to my tablet to take pictures without physically touching the camera – for example, when taking pictures at long zoom range, or long exposures of dimly lit subjects. Panasonic have seen fit to remove all of the wireless functionality with the release of the FZ82D, so none of that stuff works anymore. Maybe they’re going to do something with the new USB C connectivity, but I haven’t found anything yet.
The weight has gone up by about 20 grams. You would have thought that taking stuff away would make it lighter, but it hasn’t (probably the new screen is responsible for the weight)
I was really looking forward to getting back to using a long zoom bridge camera again, and it definitely lives up to most expectations. The photos show a macro shot of a local wild flower, a shot of the village charch near where I live, and then a zoomed in closeup on the cross on the top of the church to show what the zoom can do and how good OIS is when working at 1200mm focal length.
This is still an excellent camera, and for me it’s still the best bridge camera that you can ge