Panasonic prides itself on being at the forefront of technology and the introduction of the DMC-FX30, the world's slimmest digital camera with 28mm wide-angle lens, is a case in... more
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A review by bluejonny on Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30EB-S July 7th, 2008
Author's product rating:
Picture Quality
Satisfactory
Range & Quality of Features
Diverse
Ease of Use
Very Awkward And Confusing
Durability
Good
Overall Look & Design
Excellent
Value for Money
Satisfactory
Advantages:
It's silver, it's compact, fits in my wife's microscopic handbag
Disadvantages:
It's just not what you expect from Panasonic
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
OK. Let's get something straight out now before I continue. I love Panasonic. I have always been brand loyal. Hi-fi, DVD players, Video recorder, TV's, Sat System - god , I even went and bought a 3DO just because it was by Panasonic!! (for those of you who may not remember, a 3DO was the first ever "next gen" games console - trust me, it was...)
However, my experiences with this camera have questioned my loyalty - so from that you can best surmise I am not too pleased with this one... let me begin:
Reviews: like most, I always do hefty research into products before purchase - to be even more honest I do trust Panasonic as I have never, ever had a bad experience with their products. So, when my wife decided to upgrade her Canon Ixus 2, I thought I knew best and surprised her with a package I thought well researched in the Lumix DMC FX30. I was chuffed that this camera was getting good reviews - all my wife wanted was a point and click. Simple.
The DMC FX30 did get some good reviews, some average, the occasional poor, but I was prepared to accept the bad reviews as a "blip" as a Panasonic loyal person. So I purchased the camera along with a mighty fine Epson PictureMate 100.
Christmas day was met with whoops of joy as the new camera duly performed, taking pictures at every opportunity, inside and out the camera gleefully responding with a pleasing beep at every button press. Simple mode - just what we wanted. Just point and click. What more could you need?
Boxing Day came and the paltry memory card I purchased as an extra alerted us that it was bourgeoning from the frivolity of Christmas and needed to be downloaded. So, we hastened to the computer whereby we started to copy the photos from card to hard drive.
Inspection presented us not with joy and laughter, moreso painful expression of dismay and bewilderment. The photos were all over the place - out of focus, blurred, badly lit, poorly saturated in weird colours with purple haze and appallingly bereft of quality. There were the odd outside shots that looked good, but upon zoom were again not to expectations.
So, putting this down to the helpdesk "user error", the polite way of calling us imbeciles, we persevered and tried a multitude of settings and options. Quite frankly, a GCSE in photography was probably needed as the overabundance of options left us quite bemused.
A simple point and click camera should just take a picture - no fussing, no grey matter overload - just point, click, photo.
Don't get me wrong - this camera has so many options that you, like us will wonder why it has so many for just a point and click Baby 1, baby 2, outside low light, night, day, lunch, brunch, punch. (so the last one we made up) ISO from 100 to 1600!! Red eye reduction that does not work!! But come on! This is a point and click - the manual is 155 pages long and all in English!! In a small font too!!
So let's get to the nitty gritty:
Photo quality: average in all conditions, apart from outside in bright daylight which were exceptional.
Blur: appalling. All the time. Sports mode, fast mode, high ISO. All the same. Anti blue does not work well. I think they call it image stabilisation.
Flash: Average to poor in that it does not seem in sync with the camera.
Battery: OK. Did not last long. About 50-70 shots.
Quickness: unless you are fart arsing around trying to find the right mode, it's not too bad. Just a shame you have to fart around with it.
LCD Screen: exceptional. Pictures look awesome. Just a shame when you print them out they look completely different! Even viewing them on a PC they look different!
Features: Got a year? Got a degree? You're gonna need it.
Functions: See above
Lens: A saving grace. Widescreen is a boon. Pretty useless if your pictures look s**t though. Mind you that means you can take s**t widescreen pictures. And show off a bit cos your friends can't.
Recommended? By now you should have made your own mind up. You may also think that this may be a one off. We thought that. So we complained and got a replacement camera. No difference - in fact, shockingly, this one is worse. And it's the same darn camera!!
Some may completely disagree with me - the facts are there are too many fancy features when the R&D should have gone into making the camera take better pictures.
It breaks my heart to say - but this Panasonic is best avoided. My gut reaction is that I have had a bad camera. But two? No chance.
We have just ordered a Canon Ixus 960IS. I'll let you know how we get on.
As for the Panasonic Lumix DMC FX30. It's a Pana So So.
Advantages: clear results,user friendly,light in weight Disadvantages: none
...digi-cam should have.i believe that panasonic will keep manufacturing stylish and user friendly products like this one.The most appealing thing abt this cam is its look which is slim and attractive and its easy and helpful functions.in short this cam is a reasonable/economical product and every person who love to catch happy moments should try this one once.the display screen is 2.5" which is quite enough to give u a clear picture of the photos u ...
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Panasonic prides itself on being at the forefront of technology and the introduction of the DMC-FX30, the world's slimmest digital camera with 28mm wide-angle lens, is a case in point. The perfect camera that fits into any lifestyle, the ultra slim FX30 offers sophistication in technology and style, whilst remaining inherently easy to use. This new lens allows photographers to easily capture a large group of people, or expansive architectural structures and landscapes with dynamic width and rich perspective. The lens part of the DMC-FX30 comprises of seven elements in six groups, including five lenses with six aspherical surfaces to generate high optical performance. The zoom ratio can be extended up to 5.3x in 3megapixel resolution mode with minimal deterioration thanks to the Extra Optical Zoom. By using the central part of the CCD, this powerful zooming function allows you to easily capture and magnify distant subjects. Panasonic is the first manufacturer to have successfully incorporated Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) into its compact cameras - a feature strongly appreciated worldwide and now considered to be a standard requirement of photography. O.I.S minimizes the jitter from shaky hands that causes many photos to look blurred by shifting the O.I.S lens unit to keep the optical axis aligned straight against the CCD, to ensure images are captured with supreme clarity and sharpness. The DMC-FX30 features the Venus Engine III, Panasonic's advanced image-processing engine that can record at a sensitivity setting as a high as ISO 1250 at full resolution. Noise reduction is also greatly improved, with picture noise removed in stages during image processing. Critical noise is analyzed, and chromatic and luminance noise are reduced separately. The chromatic noise, which has greater effect on picture quality, is then selectively suppressed, resulting in clearer images.
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