Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 Review – Image Quality

Colour and white balance

As well as having a range of white balance presets, the FZ1000 features a custom white balance setting in which you can store four presets. There are also a range of different shooting modes should you wish to add a more creative colour finish on your images.

In terms of colour, the FZ1000 produces a good balance between the various hues, while colours also appear pleasingly natural. If you wish to add a bit more punch or saturation then the Photo Style Menu allows for fine tweaking.

Exposure

There are a range of different metering modes present on the FZ1000, with the main ‘Intelligent Multiple Area’ metering setting delivering a pleasing balance between highlights and shadows.

Even in difficult conditions the FZ1000 works hard to retain detail in shadows, and the presence of an ‘i.Dynamic’ shooting mode ensures that you can get more detail in shadows and highlights should you require it.

The FZ1000 also delivers a pleasing dynamic range – at its base ISO setting it manages a level comparable to many APS-C DSLRs, and it maintains this higher up the range.

Resolution

As you might expect for a bridge camera with a large sensor and a high megapixel count, the FZ1000 resolves an impressive amount of detail.

At the base ISO setting the camera resolves around 30 lines per mm (lpmm), and even when the ISO setting is higher, at around 1600, the model still manages to resolve around 24lpmm

Noise

The FZ1000 handles noise well, capturing clean and good quality images in both Raw and JPEG formats up to ISO 1600. Above this setting JPEG files begin to deteriorate due to noise reduction, while luminance noise remains present.

Although ISO 12800 and 25600 aren’t completely unusable, it’s sensible to reserve them only in the case of emergencies.