Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 Review
Review Date: December 11th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein / Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around 4-5Mb.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37's image quality is good. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing obvious levels of noise. The noise and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely unusable 1600 setting. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 10 megapixel images were soft straight out of the camera and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop (unfortunately you can't change the in-camera sharpening level) and and, on the Standard default setting, colours were a little washed out. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is excellent for night photography, and the quality of the after-dark images is very good. Macro performance is about average for a compact camera, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure, although there is obvious light fall-off in the corners of the image with the lens set to 25mm wide-angle.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37. Noise is readily visible in images taken above ISO 200, leading me for the most part to steer well clear of ISO 800 and 1600. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You cannot change the in-camera sharpening level.
Original
(100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
12M
Fine (4.13Mb) (100% Crop) |
12M
Normal (2.04Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review. There's very slight purple fringing between areas of high contrast, but it's only noticeable on really close inspection, as shown in the example below.
Example
1 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Macro Shot |
Macro Shot (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 are Auto, Auto/Red-Eye, Forced On, Slow Syncro/Red-Eye and Forced Flash On. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. There is obvious light fall-off in the corners of the image with the lens set to 25mm wide-angle.
Flash Off - Wide Angle (25mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (25mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (125mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (125mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting and the Red-eye reduction modes caused any amount of red-eye.
Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-eye Flash |
Flash - Red-eye Flash (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds in the Starry Sky Mode scene mode, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds, f/2.8 at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 100. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length | Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/4th sec / 25mm |  |
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| 0.6 sec / 125mm |  |
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organisation. Our test results for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.