Panasonic Câmera Digital Lumix DMC-FX07 (Preta)

Comments about Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 Digital Camera (Black):

There's not much I can add to the review above. I, to, tookthe risk and am happy that I did. The noise reduction lookskind of funky on the screen, and the review sites arealready up in arms about the supposed loss of detail. Butthe images print up beautifully--I can even get usable ifnoisy prints at 4 x 5 or more from the 3200 shots, and the800 and 1250 can go larger. For a pocket camera that'ssuperb, and anything slower of course can be pushed muchmuch farther--especially considering that handholding isperfectly possible at 1/8 second or even more thanks to the OIS.And the detail and resolution of the images at ISO 100 and200 are stunning. Even more so is the tonal range--beautifulsubtle light and excellent shadow detail and tonal separation.How good is this camera? My wife, a professionalphotographer who teaches at a major photo school, saw itsfirst output and ordered one herself for a pocketable,always-at-hand additional camera.

Previous Equivalent Items Owned: Casio Exilim Z40

Comments about Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 Digital Camera (Black):

Most people associate O.I.S. with action and hand-held long telephoto shots but my experience is that O.I.S. has much greater value by giving an extra 2 to 3 stops of exposure latitude to play with under anything but ideal lighting conditions. Sub-compacts, with necessarily tiny CCD sensors have much to gain from O.I.S.. Small, high-resolution sensors are inherently noisy due to the correspondingly small amount of light reaching each pixel. An extra 3 stops of exposure effectively means 8 times as much light can reach the sensor without blur spoiling the shot - or put another way, a small sensor with O.I.S. can have the same noise performance as a sensor up to 8 times as big. Does such a camera yet exist? Enter the Panasonic DMC-FX01 and DMC-FX07. At the time of writing, there are no reviews whatsoever of the FX07 to be found on the net. I therefore took a calculated risk to buy the unproven FX07. Why and was I right?1. The value of a 28mm wide angle compared to the regular 35-39mm wide cannot be overstated. 2. For any given feature set and quality, the practical value of a camera is inversely proportional to its size.3. The Leica lens is at the top of its class in terms of quality for a sub compact, despite that wide-angle [as reported in the reviews of the FX01]4. Optical image stabilisation on a sub-compact! Noise performance comparable to sensors up to 8 times the size and it can also save a shot that would have been lost through motion-blur. 'Mode 2' (active for exposure only) works practically without fault, 'Mode 1' (continuous) is less effective. 5. 848x480, 30 fps movies! Currently limited to 2GB, regardless of card size (about 33 mins max size/frame-rate). The results show just noticeable M-JPEG artefacts but the data rate is a good compromise for quality vs. storage. A tiny camera producing big movies! 6. One of the very first cameras to support the next generation SDHC cards. With a movie mode like that, at some point you are going to benefit from the 32GB limit of this new standard. 7. Fantastic night photography with long shutter settings up to 60 seconds combined with the blank-shot noise cancellation.8. Exemplary ergonomics with all the most common controls being accessed through button presses rather than buried in menus. It has the feel and design of a photographer's camera.9. There are super imposable patterns for aligning and centring subjects and a live histogram to assist with exposure compensation. 10. Large (2.5) and high-resolution LCD (207k pixels) with gain-up and extra mode for viewing off-angle. I am already conditioned to using electronic viewfinders from two super-zooms and do not miss an optical viewfinder at all. I have found it excellent in all conditions except when catching the sun's reflection directly on the LCD - solution move your head.11. 'Intelligent ISO' mode automatically alters the ISO up to 800 to obtain a higher shutter speed when there is a fast-moving object near the centre of the fame. There are two classic scenarios where this is of great value: when you know that you may need fast shutter speeds to stop motion, e.g. sports, and two when you want to capture an unexpected moment at zero notice in less than ideal lighting conditions. In the first case, you get the minimum ISO rating required to stop-the motion, and therefore the best possible noise performance continuously adjusted to the live scene the camera is pointing at. Rather than make all shots suffer just in case you need to freeze the action in one or two, you get the best possible quality for each individual shot. In the second case, you don't have to rely on the limits of O.I.S but rather you give a license to the camera to increase the ISO as necessary so as not to lose the shot.

Problems Encountered: 1. A little too easy to scratch the chrome banding around the sides of the camera - get a case if looks are important.2. I don't like proprietary batteries (but a look on Ebay reveals they are available for around $7 each, shipped).3. No exposure lock for taking a grid of photos to stitch together later. This is the biggest negative for me. Second only to...4. Poor quality mono sound during movie recording - I would prefer stereo 44.1Khz/16 bit mp3 or AAC to make a truly awesome pocket camcorder. 5. In a similar vein, I would prefer more control over the movie mode - quality, frame rate and aspect ratio combinations (how about a World's first 2.35:1, 24 fps 'Cinamascope' mode? After all 30fps is a US/Japenese TV standard, not a movie standard) AE lock, sound level auto/manual level control, 'film effect' filter, use of zoom during a movie etc.. Now with support for 32GB SD cards, these features are the natural evolutionary path for digicams. 6. Hopefully a firmware fix will remove the 2GB movie file size limit at some point just for neatness. I accept that very few single shots last 33 minutes.7. Take away the mode 1 and 2 O.I.S. selection for still photography. It adds needless complexity when mode 2 is so much more effective. Overall minor gripes and some positive criticism do not detract from the fact that for my purposes, there is nothing better currently available. Oh, and did I mention? It takes beautiful photos.

Previous Equivalent Items Owned: 8 digicams from Canon, Casio, Fuji, Nikon, Pentax and Sony. Countless film cameras.

Items I Recommend: 4 or 8 GB SD card for movie capture, otherwise 1 or 2GB, spare batteries, soft case.