The DMC-FZ38 can record HD movie of 720P in AVCHD Lite. And a stereo microphone, featuring Dolby Digital Stereo Creator, records high quality audio. Just press the Motion Picture Button, and shooting begins. In the Creative Movie Mode, the shutter speed and aperture can be adjusted. The iA Mode can also be activated in motion picture recording. When the DMC-FZ38 is connected to a Panasonic VIERA via an optional mini HDMI cable, the TV's remote control unit can be used to enjoy playing back with greater convenience.

The DMC-FZ38 features a 27mm wide-angle 18x optical zoom f/2.8-4.4 LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens in a compact body (35mm equivalent: 27-486mm). The lens unit comprises 11 elements in 8 groups, with 2 ED lenses and 3 aspherical lenses, including a dual-sided aspherical meniscus lens. The powerful 18x zoom can also be used in motion picture recording. Furthermore, in 3-megapixel resolution, the Extra Optical Zoom function provides additional magnification, extending the zoom power to 35.2x (35mm film camera equivalent: 950mm).

POWER O.I.S. is about twice as effective as MEGA O.I.S. at reducing low-frequency vibration-caused blur when pressing the shutter button or shooting with a slow shutter speed. So you can take beautiful night shots without blurring. Activating POWER O.I.S., Intelligent ISO Control, Face Detection AF/AE with Face Recognition, Intelligent Scene Selector, Intelligent Exposure and AF Tracking, the camera does all the work in the iA Mode. Face Recognition function recognizes registered persons' faces and optimizes the focus and exposure settings.

To realize the ultra high-speed AF, a number of re-engineering and improvements are made including the adaptation of higher-speed actuator, the optimization of algorism and the parallelization of software processing element. The result is ultra high speed yet accurate AF performance for users to enjoy the airy shooting that has experienced never before. The DMC-FZ38 also replaced its linear program processing with parallel processing to achieve an ultra high-speed start-up of 1.2 seconds, a remarkable 20% decrease from previous model (FZ28).

The joystick gives the DMC-FZ38 its precise, full manual operation. Simply move the joystick vertically or horizontally to adjust the shutter speed, aperture or focus during manual focus. In addition, easy manual operation is possible with the DMC-FZ38. My Color Mode makes it easy to customize color effects to match your favor. The Advanced Scene Mode lets you quickly set the frequently used Portrait, Scenery, Sports, Night Portrait, or Close-up Modes with the mode dial. And you can adjust the aperture or shutter speed in each Creative Mode.