High Rated Digital Cameras

Panasonic DMC-FH20 Digital Camera Features

The DMC-FH20 sports a powerful 8x optical zoom lens (35mm camera equivalent: 28-224mm). This gives you highly natural expressions from people and animals that you can't get close to. And its slim, compact, pocket-sized body can easily go wherever you do for both everyday snapshots and traveling.

28mm Wide-angle Lens
The 28mm wide-angle lens* lets you easily capture large groups of people indoors or expansive architectural structures and scenes with dynamic width and rich perspective, even from short distances.
* Converted to standard 35mm camera equivalent, at the maximum wide position.

Powerful 8x Optical Zoom
The DMC-FH20 sports a powerful 8x optical zoom lens (35mm camera equivalent: 28-224mm). This gives you highly natural expressions from people and animals that you can't get close to. And its slim, compact, pocket-sized body can easily go wherever you do for both everyday snapshots and traveling.

iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode
When you don't know which mode will give you the best shooting results, or when a sudden photo opportunity pops up and you don't have time to make any settings, simply choose iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode by simply pressing the dedicated button and let the camera do it all for you. You just choose iA Mode, aim at your subject, and shoot. 4 detection and correction functions are simultaneously activated to optimize the settings, so you get stunning photos every time.

HD Movie Recording (1,280 x 720 pixels at 30 fps in Motion JPEG Format)
The DMC-FH20) can record motion images in high-definition (1,280 x 720 pixels at 30 fps in Motion JPEG format). The pixel mixed readout method enables bright motion-image recording even in low-light settings. The DMC-FH20 can also record full-size motion images in WVGA (848 x 480 pixels at 30 fps) or standard motion images in VGA (640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps) and QVGA (320 x 240 pixels at 30 fps)

User Reviews about Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 8x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Blue)

This is a very nice camera. It has great zoom, the pictures are crystal-clear,and there are lots of cool shooting modes to try out. You can also push the Iauto button and that will take care of everything for you. I love how the battery takes only an hour and a half to charge, compared to my previous camera taking 12 hours!! Is an amazing deal, regularly being 200bucks. I am very pleased with it. -- an a-plus camera

wonderful camera. great zoom and movie quality. used to how easy a canon is to switch from different modes, so it will take some getting used to, but for the most part it's not difficult, just more "time-consuming". -- great camera

Have had the camera for over a month. Can't say anything bad about it. Pictures have been great. Just be sure not to cover up the sensor with your finger. Might buy an other one soon. Great price !!!! -- Great camera

I got this to replace a 3 MP Kodak bought 8 years ago.

You need at least a class 6 card to take HD video, so I also bought a 16 GB Class 6 SDHC card made by Sandisk. (I don't think there's any additional benefit to buying Class 10 or SDXC with this camera, but it may speed up "Burst Mode" continuous shooting.)

I added a Panasonic-branded high capacity second battery, and a suitable hard case. Got these through Amazon partners. There may be issues with non-Panasonic batteries. Read the reviews!

I went for a Panasonic camera because they're the only company using optical image stabilizing (OIS). I've used this previously in a camcorder and it's nicer than digital image stabilizing. It's a correction in the lens itself, not a cheap fudge. Given that it's an optical correction, a shaky had doesn't mean blurry images. I've used this camera handheld on full zoom with artificial light, and the image was still incredibly sharp right down to the pixel level.

This camera takes great pictures. I love the speed it powers up. Taking multiple shots, if you press, release, press, & so on, the camera has to reanalyse, refocus, etc. between shots. By holding down the shutter release button, you activate "Burst Mode", where the scene analysis is done only once, and the camera stores pictures every 1.5 s or so. This may be where a Class 10 SDHC or SDXC card comes in, but I don't have the funds to test this theory!

The battery lasts several sessions between charges. Before I used it, I was concerned that I'd have to have three or four batteries with me on vacation, but it turns out two will be more than enough; plus, as others have pointed out, they charge relatively quickly. (I was using high capacity NiMH AAs in the Kodak, and found I had to charge almost daily, and take alkaline backups with me.)

I like the picture taking modes with automatic tagging. Quick access to flash and macro.

Downsides:

1. The decidedly stupid toggling between movie and photo mode -- seriously, put another switch on there guys.
2. The now ubiquitous nonstandard USB cable, so when (not "if") you misplace the cable among all your other USB cables, you have to use a card reader to get pictures and movies off. Okay, so it doubles as an AV cable. So... seriously, who uses AV out from a camera? Drop the gimmick, or put MiniDP on there as well.
-- Great little camera