New Panasonic FZ40 (FZ45) jumps to 24X lens, 580 CIPA (but 14mp 1/2.33" CCD)

The superzoom wars continue, and this time Panasonic has not one but two replacements for the RAWzoomer FZ35/FZ38. And just like the FZ35/FZ38, the new FZ40/FZ45 has two names too. This is a bad habit by Panasonic and other manufacturers that creates unnecessary global confusion. Just pick a name for the whole world already! How hard is that?

We start with the bad news - the desperate megapixel march continues, and this camera is a victim too - it jumps to the 14mp 1/2.33" sensor! The CIPA estimate for battery life is great at 580 but it comes with ID-Security (remember this number because we will revisit it in the FZ100 post).

If you like more zoom-ratio, the lens "grows" from 18X to 24x, with a wild 25-600mm f2.8-5.2 equivalent. The lens is obviously stabilized (PowerOIS), and is "blessed" by Leica (Leica branded). This model continues the tradition of RAW in the mid-size FZ-series superzooms, along with manual exposure.

Other features include Venus Engine HD II, jog-dial full manual operation, Variable AF area, 3-inch (230K) fixed LCD, AVCHD Lite, and things like that.

Because it uses a standard CCD sensor, the full-resolution burst mode is turtle-fast, 1.8fps with a buffer depth of 5. Yikes! As some of you old-timers of digital cameras may recall, that is very slow, when you compare to the speeds some of the 5mp-8mp cameras had way back then. That's one of the many prices you pay when you have 14 megapixels!

The camera is available for pre-order at Amazon for $400.

Further Reading
+ Panasonic.net