Panasonic DMW-FL28 External Flash for Panasonic DSLR, FZ30 and FZ50

List Price: $229.95

Features:

• Extends flash power capability
• Clips onto camera hot shoe
• Reduces red eye
• 1-year warranty
• For Panasonic Lumix digital cameras with flash sync capability

Customer Reviews:

DMW-FL28 [Posted on 2006-11-02]
quite pricey for a unit this underpowered, but it work well on the FZ30

Better than the built in flash [Posted on 2007-01-11]
I was very pleased with the improvement with my indoor flash pics. The colors are better, there hasn't been any red-eye so far and most don't look washed out. The only one that did was apparently because the camera metered for the length of the room (which it lit correctly) instead of the people closer but off center. The instructions are pretty poor which is why I only gave it 4 stars.

Poor instructions [Posted on 2007-03-09]
I am a novice when it comes to digital cameras and I found the manual that comes with the camera(Panasonic FZ-50) for the flash attachment and the manual for the flash itself to be very hard to understand. I had better results with the built in flash so I returned the flash attachment. I even called Panasonic's help[ desk and they just read from the manual which did not help me. The flash attachment may be very good for someone that knows how to set it.

Just too automatic [Posted on 2007-05-15]
The flashgun is well engineered and looks rugged. It works well on the camera as an automatic flash, but it gives little scope for creative photography. When used with a FZ30 camera, it sets the aperture at f4.0 and the shutter speed at 1/30 sec, and this cannot be varied. The built in flash allows the flash exposure to be varied by +/- two stops, but the addition of the DMW-FL28 takes away this adjustment. The only adjustments are three stages of flash strength. There is also a auto-macro setting, a manual setting that uses the same three stages of adjustment and a manual setting, again using the same three stages. There is a slave setting, which flashed when I used the weakest setting for the built-in flash, but I did not get any flash in the picture - perhaps a timing problem. Had I known this, I would have tried an independent flash as an alternative.

Also compatible with the Lumix DMC-FZ10 [Posted on 2008-03-20]
I have a DMC-FZ10 and have found that the built in flash is OK at close range provided there is not too much reflection but poor for larger group shots where you are further back. This flash is much more powerfull (up to 10m range) and fully automatic setting itself to the default apperture and shutter speed that the camera does, as soon as it detects the flash is mounted on the camera. It can also be used as a slave flash, when not mounted on the camera itself, triggered by the camera's integral flash. It also has a macro mode for close-ups. It seems to work well based on a few test shots I have done.

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