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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 reviews
You can find here the most interesting reviews / ratings from the well-known expert sites about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 Camera. Here are the reviewers:
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- 21 January 2008 - |
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- 4 |
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- 10 December 2007 - |
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- 4 |
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- 26 November 2007 - |
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- 0 |
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- 20 November 2007 - |
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- 3 |
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- 24 September 2007 - |
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- 3 |
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- 14 September 2007 - |
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- 4.5 |
Cameras.co.uk 's conclusion / rating - 21 January 2008 |
“ The Panasonic DMC FX55 has a few extra features when compared to a standard point and shoot model. Despite this ease of use remains one of the camera's strong points. Picture quality is above average in most instances, although noise starts to creep in when light starts to drop... ”
Cameras.co.uk's rating: |
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- 4 |
Complete review here
ePhotozine 's conclusion / rating - 10 December 2007 |
“ As with all compacts that have come from Panasonic, I'm impressed. I think they are a company to give serious consideration to when thinking of what to buy. It's a shame they have fallen into the trap of styling cameras the same as everyone else.
This camera is great for if you work in low light, thanks to the great noise results. If you want a good quality picture from a slim compact but can't be bothered, or simply don't know how to use a camera, then with the Leica lens and Intelligent Auto, this camera will be good for you... ”
Complete review here
DCResource 's conclusion / rating - 26 November 2007 |
“ Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FX55 offers some big camera features -- including image stabilization, a wide-angle lens, and a huge 3-inch LCD -- and puts them into a sleek ultra-compact body. For the most part, they've succeeded -- the FX55 is a responsive, capable camera that takes good quality photos. While there's certainly room for improvement, the Lumix DMC-FX55 earns my recommendation with ease.
From the front, the DMC-FX55 doesn't look much different than its siblings. It's compact, metal, and well built (for the most part). Flip the camera around and you can't miss its extra large 3-inch LCD display. While Panasonic bumped up the screen size on the FX55, the screen resolution (230k pixels) isn't any better than you'd find on a 2.5" display. You'll notice, but it probably won't bother you. The screen is easy to see in bright outdoor light (with the Power LCD function) and in dimly lit rooms (where it "gains up" automatically). As you might expect, the camera lacks an optical viewfinder. One of the nicest features on the camera is its lens, which has a focal range of 28 - 100 mm. If you want to pack as much as you can into the frame, then you'll like having this wide-angle lens. Inside the lens is Panasonic's optical image stabilization system, which effectively reduces "camera shake" in both stills and movies.
As is the case with all of the FX-series Lumix cameras, the FX55 is almost 100% point-and-shoot. The only manual control you'll find is for white balance, which is a good one to have around. What you will find are plenty of scene modes, covering virtually all possible shooting situations. There's even an auto mode that will pick the right scene for you, if you'd like. One of the scene modes is a "high sensitivity" mode, which boosts the ISO to somewhere between 1600 and 6400 -- it's best to leave this one alone. More useful is the Intelligent ISO feature, available in the regular automatic and macro modes. This boosts the ISO to a limit of your choosing, based on how much movement is in the frame. The FX55's movie mode is pretty nice, with the ability to record at either 848 x 480 or 640 x 480 (that's 16:9 or 4:3) until a 2GB file size is reached, which takes roughly twenty minutes. The camera's playback mode is equally impressive, with numerous ways of viewing your photos, plus a date stamp feature which lets you add titles, baby ages, and more to your pictures... ”
Complete review here
InfoSync 's conclusion / rating - 20 November 2007 |
“ We loved almost everything about the FX55's design; it felt sturdy, had logical button placement and had a huge, clear LCD screen. The video looked great, we loved the multitude of formats, and the SCN modes were somewhat helpful. All in all, the FX55 doesn't do anything perfectly (we would have liked to zoom during video recording, the on/off switch is problematic), but it does everything well, and is a solid all-around camera. We would recommend it to anyone looking for a versatile point-and-shoot... ”
Complete review here
CNET 's conclusion / rating - 24 September 2007 |
“ Though the FX55 fares well in some aspects of image quality--its exposure, white balance, and color are impressive--the camera's image quality falls apart when it comes to noise. I saw noise even at the lowest sensitivity setting of ISO 100. At ISO 200, Panasonic was already engaging a noticeable blur filter to keep noise from getting out of control, though at the expense of sharpness, which means a loss of fine detail. At ISO 400 noise increases more and more detail is lost, though there is still a decent amount of shadow detail present and you should be able to get acceptable prints. Noise increases precipitously at ISO 800, with even more loss of fine and shadow detail and finally plummets off the deep end at ISO 1,600. I recommend staying below ISO 800 when shooting with the Lumix DMC-FX55.
Noise has always been Panasonic's Achilles' heel and continues to dog their compact cameras. If they could only get that under control, they'd stack up better against the competition. As it stands, you'd be better served going for something along the lines of Canon's PowerShot SD870 IS or Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-T100... ”
Complete review here
PhotographyBLOG 's conclusion / rating - 14 September 2007 |
“ The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 is a stylish ultra-compact camera that you can carry with you wherever you go. It's quite responsive with quick focusing, even in low-light conditions, and an adequate Continuous mode of 3fps. Panasonic have focused on making the DMC-FX55 the ultimate point and shoot camera, with a new Intellligent Auto mode that achieves great results in most situations with very little input required from the user. The large, high resolution 3 inch LCD screen is also very welcome, although I missed having a true optical viewfinder in very bright sunlight. The DMC-FX55 is also 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. A mere 7mm may not sound like much, but it actually makes a big difference to image composition.
Image quality has been improved since the last generation of Lumix models, carrying on where the recent DMC-FX07 left off. Panasonic have improved noise performance, so that ISO 400 on the FX55 is about equal to ISO 200 on the older models, which increases the camera's low-light capabilities. ISO 100-400 still isn't particularly versatile, but the usual excellent optical image stabilisation system makes the FX55 a more adaptable camera than its predecessors, as you can take a photo at a faster ISO speed and therefore a slower shutter speed, and still get sharp results, without adversely affecting the battery life too much. The High Sensitivity mode provides a fastest ISO speed of 6400, but the image resolution is automatically reduced, resulting in smaller print sizes, and there's far too much noise and blurring of detail at that speed. The extension of the ISO range up to 1600 at full image resolution is more of a marketing strategy than providing any real benefits - you won't want to use the noisy ISO 800 and 1600 settings unless there is no other alternative. The inability to alter sharpness in the camera is also frustrating, as the images are soft by default.
Despite the poor performance at higher ISO speeds, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 is a fantastic point and shoot digital camera that anyone in your family can use. If you're interested in the very effective combination of ultra-compact size, wide-angle lens and simple ease-of-use, then the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 should definitely find a place on your shopping list... ”
PhotographyBLOG's rating: |
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- 4.5 |
Complete review here
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