Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30By: Dave EtchellsPanasonic's latest in the Lumix lineup, with an eight-megapixel sensor and high quality long-zoom Leica optics. <<Design :(Previous) | (Next): Optics>> Page 5:ViewfinderReview First Posted: 01/18/2006 |
Viewfinder
The Panasonic Lumix FZ30 features both an eye-level electronic optical viewfinder (EVF) and a 2.0-inch, swiveling LCD monitor on the back panel for image composition. The EVF is essentially a miniaturized version of the larger LCD monitor, complete with all of the image and information displays. A button on the rear panel switches the view between the two monitors. A dioptric adjustment tucked on the left side of the eyepiece adapts the viewfinder optics to your vision, with a diopter range from -4 to +4 (an unusually wide range). The eyepiece has a high eyepoint, making it well-suited to eyeglass wearers.
The 2.0-inch, low-temperature, polycrystalline, TFT, color LCD monitor has a 235,000-pixel display that's bright and clear. (LCD brightness can be adjusted in seven steps via the Setup menu.) The LCD monitor can be "closed" for its protection, by pulling it out from the rear panel and swiveling it 180 degrees to face the camera before closing it. The swiveling LCD monitor also makes it possible to frame pictures at low or high angles, as you can open the monitor and swivel it to face upward or downward. The Display button on the right side of the monitor controls the image and information displays, accessing five display modes in Record mode, and three modes in Review mode. The Panasonic FZ30's main display shows the image area, center AF brackets, camera modes and settings, battery level, image resolution and quality, and the remaining image capacity of the memory card. Pressing the Display button enables the same display but with the addition of a small histogram. A third press enables the "Out of Frame" display, which puts the image area into the top left corner, and displays the camera stats in the right and bottom borders (useful if you're having trouble framing with the information overlay, but still need to refer to it). The remaining two displays are a framing guideline (which divides the image area into thirds horizontally and vertically), and the image area only (with just the central AF brackets).
In Review mode, the LCD monitor provides a full-frame display of captured images, which you can view individually by scrolling left or right with the arrow buttons on the Panasonic FZ30's arrow pad. Turning the front control dial toward the left brings up a thumbnail index display of nine, 16, or 25 images at a time, which you can also scroll through with the arrow buttons. Turning the dial toward the right allows you to enlarge an image up to 8x its normal size on the screen. This degree of enlargement is very handy, as it's sufficient to check focus accuracy and depth of field, something that's difficult to do on cameras with lower playback magnification. The arrow keys permit you to move around the enlarged image and check fine details and framing.
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