The DMC-FZ20's advanced zoom lens takes you all the way from 36mm* wide angle to 432mm* telephoto. Shoot open landscapes, zoom in on a room interior, or pull a distant object right up close - all with instant zooming ease. With the FZ20, you get the same capabilities as a single-lens reflex camera equipped with a full set of interchangeable lenses. Use it to explore a new level of photographic expressivity. For example, use normal magnification for most ordinary shots, medium telephoto for portraits, and super telephoto for special long-range shots. The FZ20 even gives you the same capabilities as a super-telephoto lens in the 400mm, F2.8 class - something every serious photographer should have. Remarkably, the FZ20 offers the kind of specifications you get with a big, heavy lens, but in an extremely compact, lightweight package.
F2.8 Brightness across the Entire Zoom Range with a Large-Aperture Lens
With most compact zoom lenses, the brightness tends to be lower in the telephoto range. Not the FZ20. Its 12x optical zoom lens delivers F2.8 brightness all the way to full telephoto. This gives you more expressivity and greater ease of use because the exposure value doesn't change even when you zoom out to shoot long-range telephoto shots.

LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT Lens with ED Lens Achieves Stunning Image Quality
The Elmarit lens made by Leica Camera AG of Germany has earned the acclaim of top photographers everywhere. Now some of the same cutting-edge technologies that make this lens so exceptional have been adapted to the digital camera. Presenting the LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens that inherits the traits that make Leica a legend in the camera world. Small in size yet featuring a large, bright aperture, this lens meets Leica's stringent quality standards. In fact, the FZ20 goes a step further by using ED (extra-low dispersion) glass in its lens, which helps minimize the refraction differences among light of different wavelengths. This helps to suppress the color bleeding that often occurs in telephoto shots, giving you crisp, vivid images no matter how far you've zoomed in on your subject.

432mm**, F2.8 Shots with a Beautiful Soft Focus
The CCDs used in most digital cameras have much smaller light-receiving areas than film does, so photos tend to have a high depth of field. This means that everything in the photo - including objects in the foreground and background - is in focus. The FZ20, however, takes advantage of its 12x zoom and large F2.8 aperture to offer the kind of expressivity you cannot get with conventional digital cameras. You can snap photos that capture the subject in a clear, sharp focus while giving the background a beautiful soft focus.
**Converted to 35mm camera equivalent.

Wide Screen 16:9 Format

You can shoot images in the wide-screen 16:9 format (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). Then insert the recorded SD Memory Card into a TV equipped with an SD card slot to view them in perfect, large-screen size.

Moving-Image Mode (at 30/10 frames per second)

The FZ20 lets you take moving images* at either 30 or 10 fps. The 30-fps speed produces smoothly flowing motion. An audio track*1 is recorded at the same time. * 320x240 pixels (QuickTime Motion JPEG). The length of recording time depends on the capacity of the SD Memory Card. *1 The FZ15 cannot record the audio track.

Flip Animation

Using up to 100 of your photos, you can create a "flip animation" clip up to 20 seconds long.

MEGA BURST Consecutive Shooting

Just keep the shutter button pressed to fire off consecutive shots** of a moving subject or a person's changing facial expression. Then save only the best ones. With the FZ20, you can just delete any shots you don't want. In addition, the new Unlimited*** Consecutive Shooting function lets you continue shooting until the SD Memory Card is full.

** Shoot at 3 frames per second. Max. 7 images in Standard mode/Max. 4 images in Fine mode. The focus and exposure are fixed at the first frame. The FZ15 takes consecutive shots at 4 frames per second. *** Depending on Memory Card size, battery power, picture size, and compression. The consecutive shooting speed varies depending on the MemoryCard.

Audio Recording (DMC-FZ20 only)

Add 5 seconds of sound to pictures, as you shoot. Or, if you prefer, add up to 10 seconds of sound after shooting.

Trimming & Resizing

Let you trim the image, or reduce the amount of image data.

TIFF format compatible

Saves image data without compressing it, so there's no quality degradation.

PictBridge compatible

The PictBridge standard lets you print directly on a compatible digital printer.Print size, layout, date and other settings can be made with the camera.