Panasonic Lumix FZ200 Digital Camera Review

Motion

The FZ200 captures gorgeous video in 1080/60p AVCHD, and is dual compatible with MP4 as well. Moving subjects are as smooth as can be at this frame rate, and devoid of trailing too. Only the slightest bit of compression artifacting can be noticed in dark areas, however some frequency interference is produced in certain areas, such as the moving pinwheels seen below. More on how CamcorderInfo tests motion.

Video Sharpness

Video clips are generally very sharp. Under studio illumination, the sensor resolved a respectable 600 lw/ph, both vertically and horizontally, before details began to run together. This puts the FZ200 in contention with the best fixed-lens performers in this category. More on how CamcorderInfo tests video sharpness.

When we reduced ambient light down to only 60 lux, results were nearly the same, due in large part to the FZ200's wide aperture. This time, the sensor achieved 500 lw/ph horizontally and 550 vertically, which are still impressive figures.

Low Light Sensitivity

The FZ200 requires only 16 lux of ambient illumination to gather 50 IRE of image data, according to our sensitivity test. That's impressive, and should make videos captured under twilight totally usable. Of late we've seen a few compacts score even better, but those cameras each boasted maximum apertures at or below f/2.0.