Best Panasonic Lumix FZ72 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

“Towards infinity and beyond”, that is the motto of the gargantuan zoom bridges that these last two years have seen flourish. Panasonic has known about making bridges for a long time, it’s no secret to anyone. Leader in this sector – in France at least – it has in its ranks two extreme visions of this somewhat atypical product, halfway between the compacts – from which it takes up electronics – and the SLRs – from which it monkey l ‘look and grip. 

On the one hand, the FZ200shines with its zoom (24x) at constant aperture (f / 2.8!). On the other the FZ72 puts everything on a dantesque focal range. Starting at the very large and exclusive 20 mm to climb up to 1200 mm. If the first bet on image quality, the second will flourish in versatility. We must keep in mind these different purposes.

Best Panasonic Lumix FZ72 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. Panasonic DMC-FZ72 Camera Black 16.1MP 60xZoom 3.0LCD FHD 20mm Lumix DC Vario

2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ72 Digital Camera – Black. Case and 8GB Memory Card (16.1MP, 60x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inc LCD

Others

3. PANASONIC LUMIX DC-ZS70S, 20.3 Megapixel, 4K Digital Camera, Touch Enabled 3-inch. 180 Degree Flip-front Display, 30X LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR Lens, WiFi (Silver)

4. Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ80 Digital Camera (DC-FZ80K) – Bundle – with 64GB Memory Card. LED Video Light + DMW-BMB9 Battery + Digital Flash + Soft Bag + 12 Inch Flexible Tripod + Cleaning Set + More

5. Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ70 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 60x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. 3-Inch LCD (Black) – International Version (No Warranty)

Reactivity

On the chronometer side, the Panasonic Lumix FZ72 practices the splits. Its start in just over a second is exceptional, especially with regard to the magnitude of its zoom. For comparison, a Fujifilm HS50 EXR , whose zoom is not electrically controlled, requires half an second longer to wake up, when a Sony HX300 with its 50x electric zoom takes a second longer!

Autofocus, in general, is in the current average as long as the light conditions are good. A “normality” which only underlines the excellent maneuverability of the 60x zoom, which was not won in advance. In poor light conditions, the FZ72 hardly a little more than its colleagues from Fujifilm and Sony, but remains as fast as a compact Sony HX50 . In all circumstances, switching to ” AF Flexible ” focusing mode allows you to gain slightly in responsiveness and flexibility.

This speed is however spoiled by the necessary wait between two photos. Two and a half seconds at best is excessive. With RAW + JPEG recording, the wait increases to five seconds, it’s unforgivable! To go a little faster, it would be tempting to switch in bursts. Alas, in JPEG, the FZ72 struggles to maintain the frame rate of 1. 4 frames per second on 9 frames, before the score collapses. And in RAW? Even if it is capable of a peak at 17 frames / second, it will only be on 3 shots maximum. So close to each other that the maneuver proves to be of limited interest. These misconducts prevent the FZ72 from claiming better than three stars.

Image quality

If it should be remembered, photography is an area that only works on balance. What is gained on one side is necessarily lost elsewhere. By betting everything on the versatility of its lens. The parents of the FZ72 necessarily took the risk of a slightly degraded image quality. In fact, the 14 lenses (including 6 aspherical and 3 ED) divided into 12 groups of the impressive 20-1200 mm f / 2.8-5.9 do not do so badly. Admittedly, magenta, yellow and green chromatic aberrations are present, the 20 mm position is very sensitive to flare and it will not be necessary to count on making prints larger than 20 x 30 cm. It is still enough for an A4 size holiday album.

Incidentally, it appears that the weakest link is above all the small MOS sensor “High Sensitivity” of 16.3 million pixels and 1 / 2.3 “diagonal. Whether physical or software, it must be admitted that this electronic part is reminiscent of a small soldier who is struggling to accomplish a mission that is too large for him.

Whether in RAW or in JPEG, at a time when most manufacturers are raising their bridges at least up to ISO 12800 – with more or less success – it is surprising that the Panasonic Lumix FZ72 is confined to ISO 3200. At Panasonic, the dilemma between grain and smoothing is often resolved in favor of the latter. This time, however, it would seem that the cursor was pushed on the grain side, with a marked accentuation, to compensate for the softness of the lens.

Video

Panasonic particularly insisted on the work carried out on the micro – stereo and in solidarity with the flash – of its bridge. With its battery of filters and windbreakers and miniature shock absorbers, it effectively produces an excellent quality sound, capable of brilliantly distinguishing the different sound frequencies and offering very good spatialization.

The image quality is not to be outdone: well balanced, sufficiently detailed, correctly exposed. Recording in Full HD at 25 fps will satisfy the greatest number. The autofocus hangs well at the wide angle, but it is a pity that the point is lost when zooming – it takes 13 seconds to go from the 20 mm position to the 1200 mm position. However, in real conditions, it is rare to want to brutally zoom in on a subject far away, but you never know.

Finally, from the perspective of a family device that is easy to use by everyone, it is a pity that Panasonic continues to offer such an improbable tree structure for storing video files on the memory card. Even after several years of practice, the path Removable Disc> Private> AVCHD> BDMV> SREAM> Video file is absolutely not obvious.

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