An injection of color: Panasonic FZ1000 gallery updated with 24 new real-world samples

Earlier this month, the hotly-anticipated Panasonic FZ1000 landed at Imaging Resource headquarters, and we didn't waste any time posting a round of gallery photos. (Nor was there a shortage of takers: Labmaster Luke Smith and senior lens technician Rob Murray were quick to volunteer, taking Panasonic's long-zoom rival to the Sony RX10 first kayaking, and then to a civil war reenactment.) Last week it was my turn, as I finally got my hands on a camera I've been dying to try, and got to work on my first Shooter's Report. (Watch this space: It's coming soon!)

I loved Rob and Luke's shots, but let's be honest: War and the summertime great outdoors have one thing in common -- lots of greens and browns, but not a lot besides. I wanted to see how the FZ1000 handled something a bit more vivid, so over the weekend, I took it along with me to the Grainger County Tomato Festival in search of some color.

And vivid color is precisely what I found. I must admit, I had no idea what to expect as I'd never been to the festival before. While the food vendors were a bit more commercial than I'd hoped, otherwise there was a veritable kaleidoscope of the bright, the vibrant and the multicolored in every direction.

Local farmers showing off their just-plucked fruits and vegetables. Arts and crafts of all kinds. A wide variety of seriously awesome classic tractors and trucks. Tiny little lawn tractors that had been lovingly restored -- or in some cases, turned into miniature hot rods! There was even a blacksmith and his assistant making decorative metal tripods, surrounded by tools, anvil, and a coal forge fed by a hand-cranked blower.

You name it, I saw it and took photos for our gallery -- and I've just selected my favorite 24 shots for addition to our Panasonic FZ1000 gallery! (I've chosen a few to accompany this news item, but you'll want to look in the gallery for the full-resolution originals straight out of the camera, with every JPEG file accompanied by a raw original as well.)

Be on the lookout for the first section of my Shooter's Report in the next couple of days, and in the meantime, check out the gallery to see all 24 of my photos from the Grainger County Tomato Festival!