Panasonic FZ38 (FZ35) superzoom keeps RAW, adds PowerOIS

The Panasonic FZ28 [reviews] was a popular superzoom digital camera (with RAW) that was announced exactly one year ago during the annual Panasonic July revelations. Fast-forward to today, and Panasonic has revealed its replacement, the FZ38 (aka FZ35). The FZ38 is the organic name - FZ28, FZ18, etc, so we will be using that one primarily. Panasonic please pick one camera-name and use it everywhere.

The 12mp 1/2.33" sensor completes the quartet, as it is available on all four new Panasonic digital cameras announced today. This is matched to an 18X Leica-branded zoom lens that starts at 27mm wide (equivalent of course) and uses the brand new PowerOIS stabilization system, which Panasonic claims is better than MegaOIS. And the FZ38 is where the battle-lines will be drawn, where one could test to see how much practical benefit one can get from this new PowerOIS over the MegaOIS of the FZ28. Reviewers, keep this in mind!

RAW and RAW+JPEG are available, continuing the "RAWsumer" tradition of the FZ-series and setting Panasonic apart from most of other superzooms. It took Canon forever to put RAW again in a superzoom (from PS-Pro1 to SX1is).

The parade of features continues, and in-line with the other three, with a 2.7-inch LCD, AVCHD Lite 30fps 720p HD-video, face-recognition, Viera-link, intelligent-Auto (or may be "entellegent auto"), and things like that.

One difference however is that this camera, unlike the other three of today, it has a "dual-core" Venus HD engine, which allegedly speeds things up. Which perhaps may explain the 2.3 fps burst-mode, with either 3 FINE or 5 STD images. And if you don't mind having 2-3mp size images, you can get up to 10fps in the speed-priority mode.

Panasonic has a very respectable CIPA 470 for the LiIon battery/camera combo and it is certainly nice to see nearly 500 shots taken with any camera.

We could go on for hours, but you can read the rest at the "Further Reading" section, or check the two (!) reviews right below.

If you have already fallen for camera, you can pre-order it at Amazon for $400.

Panasonic FZ35/FZ38 reviews
Yes, there's already not one full-review published, but TWO - out of the gate. We already mentioned the one by Photography Blog, but that's not all, there's also one by Trusted Reviews.

Panasonic FZ35/FZ38 sample images
+ Six full-size JPEGs at Let's Go Digital
+ Panasonic herself has posted four full-size samples, all JPEGs, available for download and pixel-peeping
+ Nearly 40 tiny thumbnails (?) at dpnow

Gearhead fan club
You can download wallpapers of the camera body, not just the FZ38/FZ35, but also some of the other Lumix models, from the Panasoanic Wallpapers website.

Further Reading
+ Six-minute hands-on with the camera video at Quesabesde (the video starts with a 24-second commercial for the Fuji F200)
+ Brief hands-on at T3
+ Panasonic
+ Panasonic specs
+ dpreview
+ Imaging Insider
+ Menus at Le Monde de la Photo
+ Initial production output is a mere 10,000 units per month (Panasonic Japan)