Panasonic Lumix FZ35 - The Best Ultrazoom Camera on the Market

I have owned several digital cameras before and this one is easily the best. As a novice, I was initially intrigued by compact cameras that would fit in my pocket until I realized that they take sub-par pictures beyond 10 feet. I really like the high end DSLR cameras but they are very expensive and out of my price range. This camera was affordable and I got it for my girlfriend as a Christmas present.

She loves to take pictures and we were going on a Caribbean cruise in a couple weeks, so I got her this to replace her outdated compact. Since then, we've taken over 2,000 pictures that were all great quality. The video quality is surprisingly remarkable and really impressed us.

The Panasonic FZ-35 is also renowned for its ease of use. It has an intelligent auto mode that allows a novice user to easily take good pictures without having to worry about lighting conditions and other factors.

For amateurs like myself, it has several modes for things like sports, candlelight, indoors, outdoors, beach, etc. I understand lighting, but have no clue when it comes to exposure levels, timing, and color so it helps to be able to select a mode that you can count on to give you great shots.

For advanced users, I can confirm that the camera has an in-depth menu selection to modify most every possible setting a camera could have.

My favorite feature of this camera is the 18x optical zoom. At a sporting event, I can take a picture from the nosebleeds that makes it look like we were sitting court side.On a trip to the zoo, one can take close up pictures of any animal to really see how beautiful they are.

On vacation, I found it quite handy to be able to take a close-up picture of amazing scenery from long distance. Another great asset of the camera is the processor chip inside it. It can take almost any picture in under a second and can take up to 10 pictures a second in the high speed burst mode.

The camera measures 4.6 x 2.9 x 3.5 inches. It's not what you would consider a compact camera, but I wouldn't say it's large and bulky either. My girlfriend is easily able to fit it inside medium size purses and it is more compact than all of the DSLRs on the market. Considering the zooming capability of this camera, it's quite compact.

We spend plenty of money on the camera itself, so you shouldn't have to overpay on accessories. You can save a lot of money buying accessories like batteries and chargers from third party retailers. I got my girlfriend an extra battery and charger and a memory card.

I got the battery and charger from a store named eForcity on Amazon.com I got a 8GB SD card made by Transcend. They are just as reputable as the name brands and charge about half as much for their products. Good luck!