Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 Review

Review Date: November 20th 2006

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4.5
Ease-of-Use	4.5
Image Quality	4.5
Value for Money	4

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 is is best described as an incremental upgrade of an already appealing camera, which doesn't really add anything of great significance, but also thankfully doesn't have any detrimental effects either. The upgrade to a 7 megapixel sensor is more of a benefit to the Panasonic marketing team than to the general consumer, allowing them to keep up to speed in the great megapixel race. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 is still one of a handful of compact digital cameras to offer a 28mm wide-angle lens, which provides an entirely new angle of view when compared with conventional zoom lenses that typically start at around 35mm. 7mm may not sound like much, but it actually makes a big difference, albeit at the expense of noticeable image distortion. The FX07 is a stylish, well made and ultra-compact camera that you can carry with you wherever you go. It's also very responsive with a good Continuous mode. Image quality is on the whole OK, although the inability to alter sharpness in the camera is frustrating as the images are soft by default.

Unfortunately the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 suffers from exactly the same problem that plagued its predecessor, namely noise. The slowest ISO speed of 100 on the DMC-FX07 is perfectly fine, but ISO 200, which isn't exactly a fast speed, displays some noticeable noise and blurring of detail, and ISO 400 is even worse. The optical image stabilisation system partially makes up for the noise problems, in that you can take a photo at a slower ISO speed and therefore a slower shutter speed, and still get sharp results, without adversely affecting the battery life too much. But it isn't a complete solution - if this was my camera, I would set it to ISO 100 for every shot, turn on the anti-shake system and pray for good light. You could alternatively run every image through third-party noise-reduction software (a less than ideal solution). Panasonic's attempts to alleviate the noise issue are only a partial solution. The High Sensitivity mode provides a fastest ISO speed of 3200, but the image resolution is automatically reduced, resulting in smaller print sizes. The extension of the ISO range up to 1600 at full image resolution is even worse, in that you won't want to use the noisy ISO 800 and 1600 settings unless there is no other alternative.

So overall, the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 is a stylish, easy to use, point and shoot camera with that 28mm lens as its main attraction, just like the older FX01. The noise issue is by no means a show-stopper, particularly if you live in a sunny climate or tend to shoot mostly outdoors, but it does stop me from recommending this camera more strongly. If only Panasonic had spent more time trying to reduce the noise levels without losing detail at ISO 200 and 400, instead of adding the pretty pointless ISO 800 and 1600 settings. Still, if you're really interested in the unique combination of ultra-compact size and wide-angle lens, then the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 should definitely find a place on your shopping list.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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