Panasonic’s New Camera Potential Eyefi Killer?

Panasonic LUMIX SZ5

One of Panasonic‘s latest cameras, the Lumix SZ5, offers a number of features that are making my mouth water.

But the one that really sprang out at me was its wi-fi options. At the moment the only way to get wi-fi on your camera is to use a special memory card with extra software from Eyefi. Having a camera with its own built-in wi-fi would be really cool, especially if it also had GPS, which the Panasonic SZ25 does.

It’s a new model camera, so I haven’t had a chance to see one “in the flesh”, but the features sound pretty good:

•  Remote smartphone operation: With advanced smartphone compatibility, you can access the LUMIX SZ5’s Live View and control the zoom and shutter, directly from your Android or iOS device. You can also use your smartphone to edit images directly and use its GPS functionality to tag the location of your images – I’ve no idea how that will work in reality, but it sounds like you’d be able to add the camera to your phone as an external drive or something? It sounds very cool
• Wi-Fi connectivity allows easy sharing: Through the Wireless Protected Setup (WPS) – which is active even when using a smartphone – you can securely transmit data to preferred devices quickly and easily – this could be the Eyefi killer. While I really like Eyefi it’s a little bit fiddly to setup and work with especially when you have more than one computer
• Boost the quality of your everyday photography: With a 14-megapixel sensor; a 10x optical zoom; a 25mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMER lens; and 720p MP4 movie recording, the LUMIX SZ5 allows detailed image and video capture wherever you are – this is pretty much standard these days

So how much will this retail for? Looks like it’ll be available from around €229

If we can get our hands on one we’ll do a more comprehensive review

Related articles

• Panasonic Lumix SZ5 wifi camera brings on the cloud (slashgear.com)
• Panasonic reveals four additions to Lumix camera range (electronista.com)