Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35

Color (10.10)

The FZ35 scored poorly in our color accuracy tests, undoubtedly due in large part to the limited color mode selection provided. Most cameras offer a few color modes to fit different needs and situations, often including standard, portrait, landscape, and vivid options. The FZ35 has only one standard color mode. There ares a few Color Effects (B&W, Sepia, Cool and Warm), but these are highly exaggerated settings not intended for day to day shooting.

The standard color mode reproduces skin tones, flower blue, orange, green and magenta with reasonable accuracy. However, some of nature’s favorite colors (foliage green, blue, purplish blue and red) have been shifted off their natural hue significantly, presumably favoring pleasing aesthetics over accurate color reproduction. The saturation has also been boosted by nearly 10%. One saving grace here if color accuracy is dear to you: there is a Picture Adjustment section of the Record menu that allows manual tweaking of contrast, sharpness and saturation, though each offers only five settings. More on how we test color.

The following chart includes samples of all the color patches from the X-Rite ColorChecker chart as shot with the Panasonic FZ35 and three comparable ultrazooms, each in its most accurate color mode.

The Panasonic received the lowest color accuracy scores in our ultrazoom comparison group, no doubt due to the fact that there is no color mode dedicated to producing realistic, as opposed to pleasing, colors.

Camera Color Comparisons
	Ideal	Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35	Canon PowerShot SX1 IS	Nikon Coolpix P90	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35	Canon PowerShot SX1 IS	Nikon Coolpix P90	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35	Canon PowerShot SX1 IS	Nikon Coolpix P90	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

Color Modes (4.00)

The FZ35 has no color mode shooting options. There are Picture Effect settings (black & white, sepia, cool (bluish) and warm (reddish), but these are special effects that would only be used in unusual situations.

There is also My Color mode, accessible via the mode dial, that lets you manually adjust color, brightness and saturation, each in 11 steps. These settings are used in both still and video modes. They are retained when you turn the camera off and power it up again, and can be stored as part of a Custom Settings configuration in one of three available slots. You see the effects of color adjustments on-screen as you make them, though the screen is fairly small and low-res, and the range of changes is somewhat limited.