Panasonic FZ2500 Flash

Coverage, Exposure and Range
A reasonably powerful flash, with narrow coverage.

Coverage. Flash coverage was very narrow and uneven at wide angle, leaving dim corners and edges as well as uneven vertical illumination in our flash coverage test image, though that's fairly typical of the type. We no longer test flash coverage at telephoto, as it is invariably better, making wide angle the worst case scenario.

Exposure. Our standard Indoor Portrait test scene came out well-exposed at f/4 with +0.7 EV of flash exposure compensation and ISO didn't need to be boosted above 200 as it often is for smaller cameras. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/60s, which is good and should help avoid subject motion blur for typical portraits.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Range Test. The Panasonic FZ2500's flash range is rated at 13.2m or 43.3 feet at wide angle, and 7.9m or 25.9 feet at telephoto, with ISO sensitivity set to Auto. As you can see from the test shot at full telephoto above, the Panasonic FZ2500 produced a fairly well-exposed flash target at the rated 25.9 feet, though it boosted ISO sensitivity to 800 to achieve that result. We shoot this test shot using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.