We were in New York City for a couple of days with a Panasonic Lumix FS20, and took a lot of pictures. The camera is compact, pocketable and a good all-around performer.

 

The FS20 is straightforward to use, and performs very well outdoors, indoors, and also at night. The pictures that were made hand-held, without flash, inside the museums turned out nicely - image quality is maintained by optical image stabilization, which is really an essential feature. For the night shots, we put the camera on a small lightweight tripod, and used the NIGHT SCENERY and STARRY SKY modes.

 

Over all, we like this camera. The 30mm wide angle lens is good for cityscape and general photography, and it goes perfectly with our favorite 16:9 widescreen format. Image quality is typical for this type of camera: just slightly soft because of noise reduction processing, but it is only noticeable on very big prints. 8" x 10" prints are beautiful.

 

>> new york city photo gallery

HIGH

• easy to use
• useful-range 30-120mm zoom lens
• compact, pocketable, solid
• effective optical image stabilization
• nice 3.0" LCD
• video with 16:9 wide mode

 

MIND

• full resolution images slightly soft

WISE

• good all-around camera