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The Panasonic FZ150 is a super-zoom bridge camera with a 12MP sensor and an integral 24x zoom lens. The design of the body is similar to classic SLR systems, but the camera has no interchangeable lens system. It offers a zoom lens that ranges from a wide-angle setting (25mm) to an extreme tele setting (600mm, 35mm film equivalent). The FZ150 utilizes Panasonic’s newest version of the O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), dubbed “Power O.I.S.” It works very well and allows users to shoot images with long shutter speed settings as slow as 1/20 sec when using the maximum tele setting of 600mm.

DxO Optics Pro Version 7 is a Raw converter for Mac and Microsoft Windows with some nifty tricks up its sleeve. It offers its own brand of nondestructive image editing, with tonal, exposure, geometric, and optical corrections that make it stand apart from the crowd. As was true of Version 6.6, Optics Pro 7 supports the company’s new FilmPack 3 film emulator plug-in (see sidebar below). We will have a more complete review of the film emulator in a future issue.

Optics Pro Version 7 is a dramatic departure from earlier releases. The Select pane is gone, so you no longer have to deal with tedious Projects (unless you want to). Now you go straight to work after opening a folder. Double-click on an image and that takes you right to the nondestructive editing phase, in Customize. Beyond this point the Mac and Windows versions part ways in one key respect: the Windows version runs faster than the Mac version, which continues to be laborious.

Wacom recently introduced their new line of Bamboo tablets, and we thought we’d revisit the use of stylus and tablet tools to give it a try. For our test we worked with the Bamboo Capture, described by the company as most apt for enthusiast digital photographers, although there are three intros in this new line.