Panasonic FZ28 - are they any good?

[CobolMan]

The title says it all really. I'm looking to move on from my old Pentax Optio SVi and quite like the look of the FZ28. Does anyone on here have any experience of them? They do get a good write-up in the mags but there's nothing like first-hand experience from impartial users.

Cheers in advance.

[The_Jackal]

I have the FZ18 (basically the 8 megapixel version) and am more than happy. I am by no means an expert but read alot of reviews and comparisons. For this sector of the market it comes out very well especially in terms of image stabilisation and low amounts of chromatic abberation.
The zoom is very handy and has a lot of manual control as well as some actually useful presets. I havent bought any extra lenses but you will need to buy Panasonics adaptor ring as it uses an uncommon thread size. But then if you are looking to buy lots of Pro type lenses you would probably buy a full on SLR anyway.

[Hub]

As above, I have a preceding FZ18. It is great, and has increased my interest in photography. The one gripe is image noise in low light conditions if you don't have a tripod or something to keep it dead still. Any photo above ISO 400 tends to come out quite poor.

It is a good 'bridge' camera towards a DSLR. You can even source some (46mm) filters to screw on directly the end and stuff if you so wish, which you can't as far as I'm aware with equivalent Sonys or Fujis.

[CobolMan]

Cheers folks - looks like I'll be investing in the FZ28 in the near future.

[beano500]

Another vote - our cousin's got a DMC FZ18 and she has some stunningly crisp and lovely shots on Flickr from wildlife to landscape to close up Can't go wrong!

[The_Jackal]

Here are couple of pics I took on mine yesterday using the Intelligent Auto mode, albeit photoshopped.