Last night my son was in his school class musical program. In previous years, I recorded them with quality camcorders, but this time I took my PANASONIC FZ-28. Now I must expalain I always sit in the very back, or go to the balcony, which either way is about 150 feet from the stage. With the camcorders and 10x-12x zooms, I always took a 3x converter lens to add on and get up in the kids faces from that far distance, and I used a tripod. Last night, with the FZ-28 and its 18x zoom, totally, totally awesome Leica lens, and fantastic opitcal image stabilization, I can attest to the fact that my video clips are not only HD, but look as good, if not better, than previous programs with a dedicated quality camcorders!! At 18x zoom, I am right in there, in their faces if need be, and there is no chromatic distortions like you get with the 2x and 3x add-on lenses. Plus, I did NOT have a tripod, but handheld the FZ28 above my head the whole time, and its amazingly steady for not using a tripod. My whole family is pleased as punch with the video capability of the FZ28. The sound is good, while not as good as a dedicated camcorder, its still good. (Note, the speaker on the FZ28 is not great, and playback on the camera is iffy, but the clips played on your PC are good.) And of course the autofocus is not near as quick as that of a camcorder, but its not bad. When you consider the immeasurable benefit of being able to switch back and forth and also take wonderful hi-res still photos as well (not while recording video at the same time), the FZ28 just keeps getting better and better, and I can just hardly wait until their next model comes with hopefully 1080 HD and a hotshoe.
Above: My view with no telephoto applied.
Above: Wow! Same location, but with 18x zoom. 
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