PANASONIC FZ 20 DIGITAL STILL CAMERA.

Panasonic DMC-FZ 20 is latest digital still camera from Matsushita Corporation.

It is a 5 Mega-Pixel camera, it is a D-SLR [Single Line Reflector].

It comes with the fantastic LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens. With 13 Elements in 8 Groups. Of which 3 are Aspherical Lenses / Aspherical Surfaces & 1 ED Lens.

It also boasts a newly-improved optical image stabilisation system [MEGA O.I.S.] and the Venus II engine, (which, according to Panasonic is now equivalent to shooting at 3 or 4 shutter speed steps faster].

It's resolution varies from 2560 x 1920, 2048 x 1536, 1920 x 1080, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480. The image ratio is 4:3 & 16:9. The sensor type is CCD, its size is 1/2.5 ". The Colour filter array "RGB". The ISO Rating 80,100,200,400 & it has Auto option also.

The camera has 12X optical zoom & 48X [12 X 4 ] digital zoom, [35mm equivalent = 36mm - 432mm].

It has an image stabaliziation option called "MEGA O.I.S." Its Aperture is F2.8 to F8.0. It has a constant F2.8 aperture throughout the range of the zoom. Its White balance override is 4 positions, plus manual. The shutter speed is from 1/8 sec to 1/2000 sec.

Its has a in-built flash [pop-up], & it has a hot shoe for connecting an external flash. The flash supports upto 7 m (22.9 ft). The Flash modes are "Auto, Red-Eye Auto, On, Red-Eye On, Red-Eye Slow Sync, Off, Slow Sync (1&2)".

It Stores all pics in SD/MMC card's. It comes with a 16 MB SD card included with the camera. There is no in-built memory. It stores pics in 2 formats:

1.TIFF [Uncompressed format] &
2.JPEG (EXIF 2.2) [Compressed format].

The quality levelof the pics can be set to TIFF, Fine & Standard.

It comes with a 2.0" LCD.

Pics taken can be played back on the camera, it has 'Playback zoom' of 4X, 8X & 16X.
It has a 'Video out' & 'USB' Port, it is one port with both options, the cables are supplied along with it to connect to PC & TV.

It Weighs 556 g (19.6 oz) including batteries, the dimensions are 87 x 128 x 106 mm (3.4 x 5 x 4.2 in). The battery is part of the standard accessories [Lithium-Ion battery].

Panasonic supplies a 'flower' lens hood for use with the FZ20, which attaches via an adapter collar, which also accepts optional MC (multi-coated) and ND (neutral density) filters. The hood reduces flare in bright light, (especially at the wide end of the zoom).