Panasonic FZ-28

Starting with a bridge camera

By PF Staff in Influential Photo Gear on Jan 22, 2013

I've always liked photography but never really got hooked until about 8 years ago. I decided to sell my compact camera and bought a Panasonic FZ-28 bridge camera. It opened my eyes to photography and got me hooked line and sinker.

Why did this camera make such abig impact? Simple- it's a jack-of-all-trades camera. It fits in a jacket pocket, has a viewfinder, a ridiculously long built in zoom, good macro/close-up capabilities, good video recording.

It has 18x optical zoom, optical image stabilizer, decent LCD, full manual controls, good battery life amongst other features. Simple to use and with a 100% view electronic viewfinder.

Impact (what a Bang!)

When someone is getting started seriously with photography ease is the most important thing; having a camera that you can bring most places with you, take multiple types of shots without having to lug around a bag, change lenses, deciding what lenses you want & having to buy them individually. This allowed me to keep it with me and snap it out whenever I spotted something to snap. This allowed me to takes a massive amount of photographs, something I wouldn’t have managed if I had a ‘large’ DSLR camera with 1 lens on it. I took photos of everything- insets, floral, people, architecture, sport, cityscapes, candid photos and many more.

It’s not a master camera, has multiple shortcomings compared to a DSLR but when you’re finding your feet and deciding if you really love photography and less intimidating than a DSLR. And it’s subtle enough to take into sports stadiums without being stopped, whereas a Dslr attracts attention from stewards.

After about a year I was really sure that I was sure that I loved photography so sold it and bought a Pentax K-x. Why? For better low light capabilities, quicker response shutter time, quicker aperture, more blurred background portrait photos and the other benefits that go with a DSLR.

I still miss its versatility and might get a 2nd hand one for Christmas, it’d be ideal to keep in my car as my ‘always-on-hand’ camera. For anyone who is getting started I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.