Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 hands on preview and image samples

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Panasonic Lumix has today announced a batch of new conmpact and superzoom camera models today. I was able to...

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[kelsci]

Re: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 hands on preview and image samples

I wish I was younger or even better had a camera like this in the 1960s when I was young and attented Expo '67 in Montreal. I think this camera shoots splendid pics. I hate cameras that cannot take good color but this one takes color like one sees on professional movie film. On top of this, it is high-def video capabable with stereo sound recording.

I want to discuss "stereo sound recording" and its significance. In the mid-1980s, I bought vhs linear stereo and vhs hi-fi portable units that I could go out in the field and make videos that would have stereo sound. I equipped my camera with a stereo microphone that I picked up from Radio Shack that worked very well; a mic. that records music works very well indeed. I had been experimenting with a passive surround decoding system playing the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK when I said to myself, let me try one of my recordings that I made out in the field with the stereo mike. I began to hear sound all around me just like EMPIRE. The truth hit me that surround sound was not a voo-doo-hoo-doo secret of Hollywood or Dolby but some inherent property of sound and phasing that microphones pick up if they are designed a certain way with what is called their "polar field" and you have two channel recording. So depending on the mike, if you are out in the field you might get more than you bargained for on a recording which might be a great thing if you can play it back on a surround sound system. Today we have that in our 5.1 receivers. One setting can be the two channel "virtual mode". The other setting can be the Dolby Pro-Logic-2 Movie Mode. I do not know what this particular Panasonic camera does with its stereo recording and whether it picks up ambient/and or multi-directional sounds but if somebody transfers to video to a dvd and tries what I mentioned above with their 5.1 receiver, they will certainly find out one way or the other.

[Ian]

Re: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 hands on preview and image samples

I'm quite outspoken about audio on still cameras that record good quality video - what IS the point of mono sound when you have HD-quality video recording? It's bizarre! It's a fundamental deal-breaker for me.

ian