Two 24x zoom bridge cameras unveiled

Panasonic has launched two new superzoom cameras which offer a 24x optical zoom from a wide angle lens. Both have a 25mm lens giving them the capacity to take landscape images along with long telephoto shots.

The FZ100 also offers the full quality 1080 HD movie mode, as opposed to the 720 mode of the FZ45, and a higher resolution 460k 3″ LCD. Otherwise the models are very similar, with virtually identical bodies and the ability to manually override the shutter speed and aperture. Other models in the FZ range, such as the FZ38, have been incredibly impressive overall so these new versions will have plenty to live up to.

At the very least the optics, which are hugely important on a bridge camera, look to be of the highest quality as the wide aperture of f2.8 should allow for some bright images. Although the 24x magnification will undoubtedly make it tricky to hold the camera steady when fully zoomed the optical image stabilizer should help out to an extent.

Check www.panasonic.co.uk or www.whatdigitalcamera.com/news.html for more details