Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 Digital Camera Review

by Patrick Singleton
Published on October 21, 2005

Navigation
Intro	Testing / Performance
Physical Tour	Components
Design / Layout	Modes
Control Options	Image Parameters
Connectivity / Extras	Overall Impressions
Conclusion	Specs / Ratings

Picture Quality / Size Options (9.0)
The Panasonic DMC-FZ30 offers three aspect ratios, which are framing sizes that describe the shape of the image – whether it's a long rectangle, or closer to a square. The ratios are 16:9, which is long, 3:2, and 4:3, which is closer to square. In each ratio, the camera can record images at four quality settings. They are TIFF, RAW, Fine JPEG, and Normal JPEG. TIFFs are uncompressed files in a standard format. They are very high quality, but huge. RAW files aren't compressed either, but they require dedicated software on your computer. JPEGs are compressed, which decreases quality, but also makes the image files much smaller and easier to store. At 16:9, the FZ30 can take either 5.5 or 2 megapixel images. At 3:2, it can take 7, 4.5, or 2.5 megapixel images. At 4:3 it can take 8, 5, 3, 2, or 1 megapixel images. Each quality setting is available at each size.

Picture Effects Mode (8.5)
The Panasonic DMC-FZ30 offers two sets of controls that might be called effects. The Color Effects menu item offers four settings: Cool makes pictures bluish, Warm makes them reddish, B/W makes them black and white, and Sepia makes them brown. Picture Adjustment offers three-step settings for Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, and Noise Reduction.