Adam says:

The SX10 is the Family megazoom here, even Ma is using it instead of Pentax DSLRs, my brother uses it too on occasion (Sis in law has my old TZ5, I have a TX1) and IMO its the best Megazoom out there, beating the FZ28 on image quality though the FZ38 may be better again (but missing the build, swivelly screen and ergonomics of course).

Ian Burley takes us on a product tour of the Panasonic FZ35 / FZ38.

Click the first thumbnail in this gallery, and you'll be able to read the notes that accompany each image.

For instance, here is Ian's take on the new stereo mic:

Here is a close up view of the stereo microphones built into the pop-up flash. This is very reminiscent of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera that Panasonic introduced earlier in the year.The difference is that you could buy several FZ38s for the price of one GH1.

From ePHOTOzine's first look at the FZ35 / FZ38:

A new Venus engine HD has been added to help improve picture quality further and to accommodate the AVCHD Lite video capability. This HD video system is Viera compatible which means that you can either take the memory card straight out of the camera and slot it into the port on the TV or you can link up using the HDMI port on the camera. With AVCHD Lite, the video is compressed further than usual MPEG files which means you can record more. Panasonic says this is done without the loss of quality to the video.

I believe this is the first time I've seen Cliff Smith award a camera an overall rating score of 10/10, but that's exactly what he did in his Panasonic FZ35 / FZ38 review.

Cliff concludes:

I was concerned that the increase in sensor resolution would have a negative impact on image quality, but this has not proved to be the case; in fact image quality is noticeably improved. There are inevitably some black shadows and burned-out highlights, but only at the extremes of contrast. The FZ38 has an additional low-speed setting of 80 ISO, at which the image quality is as good as any 12MP compact on the market, and the performance of the noise reduction system at higher ISO settings is also better, with virtually noise-free images at 400 ISO. Like the FZ28 the FZ38 has a maximum of 1600 ISO, and even at this setting the results are far from useless.

My verdict on the FZ38 is pretty much the same as for its predecessor. If you've already got an FZ28 it's probably not enough of an improvement to justify an upgrade. However for anyone else looking for a new super-zoom camera they really don't come much better than this. Build quality, handling, features, performance, image quality and versatility are superior to any of its immediate rivals, and the excellent video quality is icing on the cake. To get anything better than this you'll have to move up to a DSLR.

Two small images, taken at the focal lengths of 27mm and 486mm, show very clearly the power of the zoom lens on the Lumix DMC-FZ35 / DMC-FZ38.

Mark Goldstein wrote the following conclusion in the review of the Panasonic FZ35 / FZ38:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 builds on the proven design of its predecessor, the FZ28, making few handling changes but adding a number of significant new features that comprise a better overall package. We're a little disappointed that Panasonic haven't extended the reach of the 18x zoom lens to match its main rivals, but the 27-486mm focal length is still a very versatile one, especially given the addition of the slightly more effective Power OIS anti-shake system that reduces the overall number of blurry shots.