The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30E-K Bridge Camera offers a great route into SLR & manual-control photography, with exceptional zoom & image quality properties.A lens that gets you closer A 25 mm wide-angle lens offers an amazing 35x optical zoom that extends to a powerful 78.8x Extra Optical Zoom (at a 3 MP resolution) using the centre portion of the image sensor, enabling you to take beautifully clear, defined images of distant or hard-to-reach subjects. Not only are images very close, but the angle of view is wider than that of a 3.5cm camera. The lens teams with the highly-responsive 16.1 MP sensor to render portraits, landscapes, group shots & more in the high quality & vivid colour they deserve. An expansive ISO range of 100 6400 facilitates image capture in a wide variety of conditions, giving you great results even in low light. Straightforward camera operation The DM-CLZ30-EK Bridge Camera features a manual exposure mode thats easy to use, making it great for beginners. It means that you can assume full control of your photography, developing your skills so that you can achieve exactly the results youre after. Choose the ISO, aperture & shutter speed settings that will achieve the exposure, motion or depth of field effects that best suit your subject. The camera also offers a Creative Control feature with 10 effects, & Creative Retouch, which has 11 effects to stimulate your imagination & enhance your photographs. With Creative Control, you can shoot with a filter effect whilst examining its effects on the picture using the screen. Creative Retouch lets you apply a filter effect to the picture in camera after youve taken it, enhancing standout features & removing elements you dont want, such as skin blemishes. Use Panorama shot to achieve a horizontal / vertical panoramic image comprised of consecutive shots taken when panning across a scene. Stable & intelligent photography With Intelligent Auto (i A) mode & an optical image stabiliser, the Panasonic DMCL-Z30EK Bridge Camera is able to select the best settings for your photography, getting rid of the blur that results from hand shake or other vibration-inducing events. These features combine to make the camera so much more usable, drastically reducing the number of shot youll miss. Fully combining the optical image stabilisation, Face Detection, Intelligent Scene Selector, Intelligent Exposure & AF Tracking, it does all the hard work for you so that you can concentrate on framing & capturing excellent shots. Dynamic high-definition video Since its capable of recording full sequences as well as high-grade photographs, you can use the Panasonic DM-CLZ-30EK Bridge Camera to capture exciting 1280 x 720p HD video in the ubiquitous Quick Time Motion JPEG format. Theres a dedicated video button on top of the camera thats especially convenient for you to instantly switch between photo & video shooting, capturing moments as & when you like to take advantage of spontaneous moments. Use the cameras powerful zoom capabilities when capturing video to pull in distant subjects, for truly all-encompassing video that will add loads to your recollections of memorable times. Handy software included The Panasonic DMCLZ30E-K Bridge Camera comes with PHOTOfun STUDIO version 9.0 LE software, which enables you to sort & archive your images for easy access & uploading to social networking services to share your creativity. Consider the benefits of more camera memory It is important to have the right memory card for your camera. The memory card will determine how fast an image is saved & how fast an image is uploaded. If youre shooting high definition videos along with high resolution images then its best to invest in a high performance memory card. A high performance memory card will get the best out of your photography, ensuring the best continuous shooting speed & high quality data capture. Get into manual photography & learn to handle a DSLR-style camera with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30E-K Bridge Camera.