Panasonic FZ38 withdrawn from Product Face-Off

Is the new Panasonic DMC-FZ38 digital camera less good than its predecessor, the venerable DMC-FZ18?  It's a question that a lot of our readers have been asking after we found a problem with the lens of the model we tested. 

We've decided to act decisively: the FZ38 will no longer appear in our Product Face-Off for Digital Cameras until we've had a chance to test a new model.

Here's an example of what we've heard from you:

Hello, As an owner of the Panasonic FZ18 (partly thanks to your advice) and a regular reader of your site, I tried to compare it with the new FZ38.  I was stunned to find that the FZ18 takes better photos than its successor?  This was true generally, but also for some specific details, like the hair in your portrait test. Am I wrong?  Does the FZ18 suffer from its use of a lower sensitivity? Please let me know!

Hello,

As we explained in the test of the FZ38, the model that we tested suffered from a small defect to the right of the frame at short focal lengths.  It was unlucky, as that's exactly the part of the image where we find taxing details like Barbie's hair in our Product Face-Off portrait test.

However, when we tried a prototype of the FZ38 during its press launch, the model we examined there didn't have this weakness.  That's perfectly logical, as the FZ38 has the same lens as the FZ18.  And on the camera that we were testing, it disappeared at distances of around two metres or more, and we didn't find it in any of the photos we took in real life.   That's one of the reasons we don't just rely on our lab tests.

We have concluded that what we're looking at here is an isolated problem with this particular unit, which happens every now and again on models lent to the press for testing.  It can be because the first few cameras to roll off the production line are a little less precisely finished, and manufacturers' quality control procedures aren't yet tuned up for the new model.  Another explanation is that hardware used for press testing often suffers treatment that's a lot more rough than how the 'average' user would handle it.

When that happens, we try to get a second unit to test again--this was the case with the lens in the Pentax K-m, for instance.

Because we were amongst the first to test the FZ38, though, we're not likely to receive a second version any time soon.   That's why published in the Face-Off as it was, with a warning in the test itself.  It seems, though, that some readers who went straight to the Face-Off without seeing this paragraph in the test were alarmed to see these differences.

That's why we've withdrawn the FX38 from the Face-Off while we wait for a second version to test.

Best wishes,

Franck