-
$295.48
26.12% pricedrop
Avg. Price: $399.95
11 customer reviews
-
- 10.1 MegaPixel / 5x Zoom / 3.0" LCD Touchscreen / HD Movie / Picture Adjustment
-
- Others have written reviews that capture the key features of this camera. I want to add that this is a very easy camera to use -- even for someone like me who is not especially tech-savy. The interface is quite intuitive and, indeed, fun to use. Intelligent Auto works well in most situations, though as other writers have suggested, in low light situations it's best to go to one of the specific "scene" modes intended for such instances.
I had the camera with me on a recent 2 week vacation. Both the wide angle lens and the 5x zoom paid for themselves, I felt, with the scenes I could capture using them. (The wide angle of this Panasonic may not add much width in a living room scene, but it certainly does when shooting a mountain panorama.) Battery life was more than adequate for a full day of picture taking; and it's of note that the battery's charger comes (free) in the camera box. Best of all, I'm really pleased with the quality of the photos taken with this little camera.
- Best camera I've ever got
- I read a lot about this camera before buying it. I found, as always, many reviews on both sides saying is great and is lame.
I found it great. The automatic mode recognizes the type of shooting almost perfectly everytime and the pictures looks great on the screen, on my laptop and on y main pc.
The noise factor is there, especially on dark pictures, but is barelly noticeable.
The camera is larger than most Panasonic models making it hard to fit in small cases.
But still, the manual controls are amazing and if you're not a pro, go ahead with this one because the auto mode is just magnifique
- Excellent at it strengths, good even at it's weaknesses
- First of all, I can't comment much on the value for the money, since my purchase was based solely on features and I was willing to pay for them. I searched for 6 months for a camera that met my requirements (in this order).
Must Haves:
-fast first picture from 'off' state
-good low light pictures (as good as a compact anyway)
-small enough to fit in pocket (for bars, parties, etc)
-HD Video
-7MP or more
Nice to have:
-manual photo options
-Zoom while video record
-.avi video recording
-4x zoom or more
I was originally going to purchase the TZ5, but this model's manual options and smaller size won me over. For my purposes, giving up the 10x optical zoom was well worth it.
PROS:
-excellent (amazing) "Auto Ai" mode: It's truly point-and-shoot if you want it to be
-image stabilization 'mode 2' works very well to reduce blur
-about 1.25 second to first pic from off (about 2 sec with flash)
-battery life (second only to the Casios that I've purchased for friends and family)
-low-light pictures: if you set the correct scene mode, you can get a very decent picrture without flash - better thatn any other compact digitals I've seen.
-great video quality: 720p .MOV format is compatible with iMovie and looks great on a 42" 1080P LCD TV on a computer (you'll need to pay extra for the cable that goes directly from the camera to the TV)
-25mmm wide-angle is surprisingly useful, but you have to remember to zoom slightly if you don't want a slight 'fisheye' view.
-there is a 'quick menu' that gives you 2-button access to all the most often used functions (they change with each mode)
-one touch access to self-timer (great for quick self-portraits)
CONS:
-no zoom while video recording (TZ5 only as far as I know)
-sometimes it's unclear whether to use touchscreen or the joystick (I think anywhere that uses the touch should also be able to use the joystick)
-flash pics are about 6 seconds shot-to-shot (with 2/3 battery on full iA mode with double red-eye reduction flash)
MINOR ANNOYANCES:
-the LCD turns off after a some flash pictures for 1.5 sec or so (I suppose to help the flash recharge more quickly)
-tripod mount is to far left of body: bad for tiny portable tripods, but placement allows you to change battery/card without disconnecting tripod
-USB cable is not a (current-standard) mini-USB on the camera end. This may be a plus later on as more phones and cameras use micro-USB
SUMMARY:
This is the best camera available for my requirements, and an excellent overall compact. It has the best low-light pictures (with defeated flash) that I've seen on a digital compact (aside from the old, old Fujis). It's the first camera that I've been truely comfortable setting on 'auto' and knowing I will almost always get a good picture.
If you want a pocket-sized camera that you can just whip out at an event and be assured of a good picture or take a great looking video clip, while retaining the ability to do some limited manual exposures, this is the one for you.
- Terrific Camera - Image Stabilization Works Well
- I am highly impressed with the FX500. The touch screen is very cool, though most of the actual setup and operation must be done with the small joystick (also easy to use). The large 3" display is crystal clear and bright, even in sunlight. The camera has a metal body and machined metal lens casing and buttons - very sturdy camera. The photos are excellent in quality, better than my last Canon (the SD1000, total junk camera) by FAR. Lightweight and the video recording in HD at 720P feature is AWESOME for shooting small clips that look excellent on my 42" plasma. Flash is bring enough for all situations, and in natural light shooting with no flash the Optical Image Stabilization helps a lot. Some graininess noted in photos above ISO 400 and in a basement with no windows and lighting dimmed WAY down, but that's to be expected from ALL cameras. Quick fiddling with the manual mode (done by touchscreen) and you can take 10MP photos in very low light with no flash and they look quite good... very impressed. One last note, this works perfectly with my Macbook Pro, recognized by iPhoto right away and imports are lighting quick too!
- Great camera, too much noise
- I bought this camera due to its compact size, its wide angle lens, its long maximum exposure (60 seconds, I'm an astronomer and amateur astrophotographer), its manual controls, targeted tracking autofocus, and 'intelligent ISO mode'.
I nearly returned this camera because the images seemed to have blurry edges and like they were covered in dirt. Eventually I realized the pictures were NOT blurry (see #2 below), and if I was careful with my exposure and noise reduction settings I could make the noise look like film grain.
Combined with a mini travel tripod, I've managed to get some pretty nice night scenery (60 seconds, "full" manual controls) and nice portraits. That 25mm is great for scenery. (Incidentally, the "Scenery" scene mode fixes the focus at infinity, which is great for taking pictures of the Moon. Unfortunately, you can't control shutter speed or aperture, but see #7)
If the noise still bothers you, resizing the pictures to 7 megapixels or less (which can be done in-camera) should basically remove the problem.
Some random notes:
1.) The on-screen review can apparently zoom in farther (16x) than 100%; your photos are sharper than they appear on screen.
2.) I've seen some noticeable distortion at the corners of images taken at the full wide-angle.
3.) Contrary to the manual, switching to 7 and 5 and 3 megapixel modes is NOT just cropping out the center; they're merely scaled down versions of the full frame just like you'd expect. On the other hand, digital zoom WILL crop out the center.
4.) The Intelligent ISO mode actually works. It seems to be like tweaking the gamma in an image editor.
5.) Targeted autofocus does NOT work well. More often than not it can't seem to lock on the object I touched. On the other hand, once locked it tracks the object well.
6.) The Mega OIS image stabilization works wonders, but in low light it's usually not enough to make up for the longer exposures you'll need to see anything.
7.) You can set the desired exposure compensation for the 'Scenery' mode (and possibly others) by going to Aperture or Shutter mode, setting the exposure compensation, and switching back.
8.) The USB connector is microUSB, not miniUSB.
9.) It works with Linux out of the box! When you plug it in to a computer, it will ask you to select (via the joystick thingy) between MTP and PC connection, which seems to be a standard USB Mass Storage mode.
10.) I actually got pretty close to what Panasonic quotes for battery life.
- I'll try to keep it simple.
Pros:
- 25mm wide angle is UNBELIEVABLE! My previous camera was a Canon Powershot SD500. So being used to 35mm and now 25mm is a HUGE difference. So massive thumbs up to this camera for the 25mm function.
- 3.0 inch screen. I was used to a 2.0 inch screen
- Clarity and sharpness of photos are FANTASTIC when at 25mm. Otherwise not so much (I'll describe later in the CONS)
- small compact size.
- Eh??? touch screen is alright. Not all menus etc are accessable via touch. You also have to access certain menus/functions via the joystick
Cons:
- NOISE NOISE NOISE! UGH!!!!!! Using the IA shooting mode isn't as beneficial as one would think. Especially for indoor shots. It automatically puts the ISO at 400 ... and UGH!!!! at 400 the noise is awfully noticable. south of like ISO 300 is much better, but you really really have to play around with the camera to get at a lower ISO for indoor shot without flash. I've been pulling my hair out trying to find the best method to accomplish this, and for the moment, I think I did find the correct method. Use SHUTTER PRIORITY MODE, and play around with the horizontal and vertical bars and turning the flash off. Depending on the lighting in the room, for the mostpart, you can achieve non-noisy shots at lower isos. GOOD LUCK
-Movie quality. even in the 1280 x 720p 30fps mode, sound quality SUCKS and the visual quality is still quite pixelly. I'm not impressed with the video quality at all.
-OH, the zoom (talking about optical zoom ... NOT digital zoom). At 25mm photo quality is perfect. Even if you zoom in a little bit, I've found that photo quality is poor. Blurry (even is beautiful sunny weather outside). I've tried focusing and focusing, and refocusing on the same object in a higher zoom and each time, the image is blurry (non-super crisp). I've even tried putting the camera on a tripod. Same result. So, I for the most part do not zoom. Which is annoying.
-Time between taking shots seems slower than I would like. I've set the Autoreview off and it's still slower than I would like.
All in all, as others have said, this is a camera that I want to love soooooo much but I just cannot. I preorderd the DMC-LX3 camera hoping that it would be less noisy. I hope amazon will come out with this camera sooner rather than later so I can try it out.
Comments and criticism are welcome. Thanks.
-
- This camera has been crippled from the get go by removing ZOOM from the video mode (except for 10 fps mode, which does not count). If this is the business model Panasonic wants to practice (so as not to compete with their camcorder dept.) that's fine with me, but they should explicitly state so, otherwise their "5 x zoom" marketing is misleading and deceptive. A month ago I bought Canon SD870IS and was happy with it, except for its 3x zoom (too small for lots of professional dance shots that I make). Then I read the announcement for the upcoming FX500s. They sold me on the 5x zoom and HD movie resolution (that Canon lacks). I was in a 14 day return period so I decided to part with Canon and wait a month for this one. Today I gladly received Lumix DMC-FX-500S, but was dismayed and upset that having decided to sell it as the most advanced pocket size cam on the market (e.g. manual exposure that e.g. Canon lacks) Panasonic has decided to drop zoom mode while filming (you set the zoom prior to the recording but not during it, which is outright dumm). I hope there will be more returns like mine (sorry Amazon) so they can learn their lesson the hard way and be forced to rethink their modus operandi and perhaps upgrade the firmware. I am sorry, but as it is now, lack of the zoom in video recording mode is a deal breaker for me. For others who don't mind this may be a superior product.
- The FX500 was intended to replace a Canon TX1 but even in well lit scenes, the TX1 still produces higher quality images - I returned the FX500.
- I really liked the features and specifications. The wide angle, touch screen, zoom and higher resolution video really lured me to this camera. However, the photo image quality was poor compared to my older Sony DSC-N1 or the replacement Canon I bought. (Sony N1 video is poor & jerky)
I think some reviewer are impressed with their first touch screen - as they are impressive - but I am used to them since my Sony DSC-N1 has a touch screen.
I have a critical eye for image quality, and the colors from the Lumix FX500 had a blah quality and yellow tint. I tried to compensate by setting the white balance to Warm - it helped a lot - but it still could not compete with the Sony or Canon. Also, the FX500 focus was often soft and not sharp. When in focus, FX500 resolution was equal to my Sony N1 that has 8 MegaPixels. In general the Sony Color looked better in the side-by-side shoot-out comparison. (even when tweaking the FX500 settings, and leaving the Sony on Auto). Though Sony saturates colors a bit, the overall photos just looked better. The Color was not true in DMC-FX500 photos - and the photos had a yellow tint (yuck!). I bought a Canon SD870-IS, and returned this Lumix DMC-FX500 camera. Wow, the Canon SD870 photos have great true colors and are sharp (Much better color that Lumix and truer color than Sony). The Canon video is standard 640x480 resolution - but very good quality. Living without a touch screen is fine. I am technical and did not have issues with the Canon interface. I was hesitant to buy a Canon - as I had reliability issues and experienced poor customer service 9 years ago with a high end digital Canon camcorder (broke just out of warranty with little use). A friend also had a Canon digital camera break easily and Canon repair is expensive. But the images from the Canon SD870 camera are fantastic and the video is good (much better video than the Sony N1). You can Zoom while shooting video with the Canon - but focus gets blurry with video zoom above 3.8x. The Canon SD870 has been working like a champ for the past 3 weeks with heavy daily use. I am really glad I returned the Lumix and bought the Canon. I wish the Lumix DMC-FX500 image quality was comparable to the Canon - because the Lumix features and specs are great.
- Sophisticated but not better than others
- I have this camera. I got it in Japan.
It has many automatized features that looks very nice. The stabilization works well. The menu is very easy to use.
However, I have been disappointed by the poor quality of the pictures. It does not show better results than most other compact cameras whereas it is rather more expensive and heavier.
Most outdoor pictures are over-exposed (intelligent mode), and it is not easy to check with the display. I took many pictures that I thought were nice but finally looks very bad on the computer and print. Indoor pictures with flash and artificial lighting looks yellowish unless the subject is very close to the camera (<1 m). The pictures looks grainy or soft in many circumstances. Maybe Panasonic is not ready for 10 Megapixels.
As mentionned by others no zoom in video mode.
Nice wide angle but there is noticeable distortion at the edges. A person at the edge of a picture taken without zoom looks somewhat deformed.
I compared with my canon powershot 710IS. The canon (7 MPx, X6 optical zoom, stabilizer, digital zoom in video) is much better though just a little bit thicker. I was planning to give it to someone and keep the FX500... I may do the contrary!
Conclusion: nice piece of technology but disappointed by the results considering the price and the weight compared to other products.
- I REALLY wanted to like this camera... but I don't
- I completely fell in love with my Panasonic DMC-FX01, which has taken many unbelievable photos over the last 3 years until it finally ingested too much sand and died. I badly wanted a pocketable camera with 5x optical zoom, manual controls, a wide angle lens, and above all, great image quality. I have been so happy with Panasonic compacts that I decided to wait 2 months for the DMC-FX500, but I feel like that was a complete waste of time. With all its bells and whistles, and the promise of full manual settings, this camera just doesn't take good photos.
For the steep $350, I expected the camera to at least somewhat approach the image quality of my Canon G7, which has near-DSLR IQ. This camera sadly doesn't even hold a candle to my wife's DMC-FX03, an older, low/middle-range Panasonic. Photos are generally very soft, and lacking focus. Highlights are often blown out, and lack vibrant colors. About 1 in 4 photos actually comes out decent, with somewhat acceptable focus. The 9-point auto focus setting turned in the best results, but even those were spotty.
I spent much of a 3-day weekend trying to tweak the manual settings, white balance, megapixel levels, sharpness and noise reduction controls, and came up with about the quality I'd expect from a $100 camera. Neither close-ups nor wide shots lacked sufficient detail. The "intelligent" auto setting is odd b/c there seems to be nothing intelligent about it - the results are almost random - some are way under-exposed and others are badly blown out. Some shots are relatively well-focused, while others are soft/blurry. Almost none approach a "great" shot.
I keep wondering if I've gotten a bum unit, but I'm so disappointed with this camera that I don't feel like bothering. Even with the Canon SD870IS' questionable reliability (our friends had trouble with theirs), I'd rather drop down to 4x zoom and 8 megapixels, which will be better anyway due to not having to stuff too many MP into a small image sensor. I don't have any doubt it will take the quality of photos I expect from a higher-end compact, and for about $90 less than this one.
-
- The FX500 was intended to replace a Canon TX1 but even in well lit scenes, the TX1 still produces higher quality images - I returned the FX500.
- Great camera, too much noise
- I bought this camera due to its compact size, its wide angle lens, its long maximum exposure (60 seconds, I'm an astronomer and amateur astrophotographer), its manual controls, targeted tracking autofocus, and 'intelligent ISO mode'.
I nearly returned this camera because the images seemed to have blurry edges and like they were covered in dirt. Eventually I realized the pictures were NOT blurry (see #2 below), and if I was careful with my exposure and noise reduction settings I could make the noise look like film grain.
Combined with a mini travel tripod, I've managed to get some pretty nice night scenery (60 seconds, "full" manual controls) and nice portraits. That 25mm is great for scenery. (Incidentally, the "Scenery" scene mode fixes the focus at infinity, which is great for taking pictures of the Moon. Unfortunately, you can't control shutter speed or aperture, but see #7)
If the noise still bothers you, resizing the pictures to 7 megapixels or less (which can be done in-camera) should basically remove the problem.
Some random notes:
1.) The on-screen review can apparently zoom in farther (16x) than 100%; your photos are sharper than they appear on screen.
2.) I've seen some noticeable distortion at the corners of images taken at the full wide-angle.
3.) Contrary to the manual, switching to 7 and 5 and 3 megapixel modes is NOT just cropping out the center; they're merely scaled down versions of the full frame just like you'd expect. On the other hand, digital zoom WILL crop out the center.
4.) The Intelligent ISO mode actually works. It seems to be like tweaking the gamma in an image editor.
5.) Targeted autofocus does NOT work well. More often than not it can't seem to lock on the object I touched. On the other hand, once locked it tracks the object well.
6.) The Mega OIS image stabilization works wonders, but in low light it's usually not enough to make up for the longer exposures you'll need to see anything.
7.) You can set the desired exposure compensation for the 'Scenery' mode (and possibly others) by going to Aperture or Shutter mode, setting the exposure compensation, and switching back.
8.) The USB connector is microUSB, not miniUSB.
9.) It works with Linux out of the box! When you plug it in to a computer, it will ask you to select (via the joystick thingy) between MTP and PC connection, which seems to be a standard USB Mass Storage mode.
10.) I actually got pretty close to what Panasonic quotes for battery life.
- Best camera I've ever got
- I read a lot about this camera before buying it. I found, as always, many reviews on both sides saying is great and is lame.
I found it great. The automatic mode recognizes the type of shooting almost perfectly everytime and the pictures looks great on the screen, on my laptop and on y main pc.
The noise factor is there, especially on dark pictures, but is barelly noticeable.
The camera is larger than most Panasonic models making it hard to fit in small cases.
But still, the manual controls are amazing and if you're not a pro, go ahead with this one because the auto mode is just magnifique
- I'll try to keep it simple.
Pros:
- 25mm wide angle is UNBELIEVABLE! My previous camera was a Canon Powershot SD500. So being used to 35mm and now 25mm is a HUGE difference. So massive thumbs up to this camera for the 25mm function.
- 3.0 inch screen. I was used to a 2.0 inch screen
- Clarity and sharpness of photos are FANTASTIC when at 25mm. Otherwise not so much (I'll describe later in the CONS)
- small compact size.
- Eh??? touch screen is alright. Not all menus etc are accessable via touch. You also have to access certain menus/functions via the joystick
Cons:
- NOISE NOISE NOISE! UGH!!!!!! Using the IA shooting mode isn't as beneficial as one would think. Especially for indoor shots. It automatically puts the ISO at 400 ... and UGH!!!! at 400 the noise is awfully noticable. south of like ISO 300 is much better, but you really really have to play around with the camera to get at a lower ISO for indoor shot without flash. I've been pulling my hair out trying to find the best method to accomplish this, and for the moment, I think I did find the correct method. Use SHUTTER PRIORITY MODE, and play around with the horizontal and vertical bars and turning the flash off. Depending on the lighting in the room, for the mostpart, you can achieve non-noisy shots at lower isos. GOOD LUCK
-Movie quality. even in the 1280 x 720p 30fps mode, sound quality SUCKS and the visual quality is still quite pixelly. I'm not impressed with the video quality at all.
-OH, the zoom (talking about optical zoom ... NOT digital zoom). At 25mm photo quality is perfect. Even if you zoom in a little bit, I've found that photo quality is poor. Blurry (even is beautiful sunny weather outside). I've tried focusing and focusing, and refocusing on the same object in a higher zoom and each time, the image is blurry (non-super crisp). I've even tried putting the camera on a tripod. Same result. So, I for the most part do not zoom. Which is annoying.
-Time between taking shots seems slower than I would like. I've set the Autoreview off and it's still slower than I would like.
All in all, as others have said, this is a camera that I want to love soooooo much but I just cannot. I preorderd the DMC-LX3 camera hoping that it would be less noisy. I hope amazon will come out with this camera sooner rather than later so I can try it out.
Comments and criticism are welcome. Thanks.
- I really liked the features and specifications. The wide angle, touch screen, zoom and higher resolution video really lured me to this camera. However, the photo image quality was poor compared to my older Sony DSC-N1 or the replacement Canon I bought. (Sony N1 video is poor & jerky)
I think some reviewer are impressed with their first touch screen - as they are impressive - but I am used to them since my Sony DSC-N1 has a touch screen.
I have a critical eye for image quality, and the colors from the Lumix FX500 had a blah quality and yellow tint. I tried to compensate by setting the white balance to Warm - it helped a lot - but it still could not compete with the Sony or Canon. Also, the FX500 focus was often soft and not sharp. When in focus, FX500 resolution was equal to my Sony N1 that has 8 MegaPixels. In general the Sony Color looked better in the side-by-side shoot-out comparison. (even when tweaking the FX500 settings, and leaving the Sony on Auto). Though Sony saturates colors a bit, the overall photos just looked better. The Color was not true in DMC-FX500 photos - and the photos had a yellow tint (yuck!). I bought a Canon SD870-IS, and returned this Lumix DMC-FX500 camera. Wow, the Canon SD870 photos have great true colors and are sharp (Much better color that Lumix and truer color than Sony). The Canon video is standard 640x480 resolution - but very good quality. Living without a touch screen is fine. I am technical and did not have issues with the Canon interface. I was hesitant to buy a Canon - as I had reliability issues and experienced poor customer service 9 years ago with a high end digital Canon camcorder (broke just out of warranty with little use). A friend also had a Canon digital camera break easily and Canon repair is expensive. But the images from the Canon SD870 camera are fantastic and the video is good (much better video than the Sony N1). You can Zoom while shooting video with the Canon - but focus gets blurry with video zoom above 3.8x. The Canon SD870 has been working like a champ for the past 3 weeks with heavy daily use. I am really glad I returned the Lumix and bought the Canon. I wish the Lumix DMC-FX500 image quality was comparable to the Canon - because the Lumix features and specs are great.
- I REALLY wanted to like this camera... but I don't
- I completely fell in love with my Panasonic DMC-FX01, which has taken many unbelievable photos over the last 3 years until it finally ingested too much sand and died. I badly wanted a pocketable camera with 5x optical zoom, manual controls, a wide angle lens, and above all, great image quality. I have been so happy with Panasonic compacts that I decided to wait 2 months for the DMC-FX500, but I feel like that was a complete waste of time. With all its bells and whistles, and the promise of full manual settings, this camera just doesn't take good photos.
For the steep $350, I expected the camera to at least somewhat approach the image quality of my Canon G7, which has near-DSLR IQ. This camera sadly doesn't even hold a candle to my wife's DMC-FX03, an older, low/middle-range Panasonic. Photos are generally very soft, and lacking focus. Highlights are often blown out, and lack vibrant colors. About 1 in 4 photos actually comes out decent, with somewhat acceptable focus. The 9-point auto focus setting turned in the best results, but even those were spotty.
I spent much of a 3-day weekend trying to tweak the manual settings, white balance, megapixel levels, sharpness and noise reduction controls, and came up with about the quality I'd expect from a $100 camera. Neither close-ups nor wide shots lacked sufficient detail. The "intelligent" auto setting is odd b/c there seems to be nothing intelligent about it - the results are almost random - some are way under-exposed and others are badly blown out. Some shots are relatively well-focused, while others are soft/blurry. Almost none approach a "great" shot.
I keep wondering if I've gotten a bum unit, but I'm so disappointed with this camera that I don't feel like bothering. Even with the Canon SD870IS' questionable reliability (our friends had trouble with theirs), I'd rather drop down to 4x zoom and 8 megapixels, which will be better anyway due to not having to stuff too many MP into a small image sensor. I don't have any doubt it will take the quality of photos I expect from a higher-end compact, and for about $90 less than this one.
- Others have written reviews that capture the key features of this camera. I want to add that this is a very easy camera to use -- even for someone like me who is not especially tech-savy. The interface is quite intuitive and, indeed, fun to use. Intelligent Auto works well in most situations, though as other writers have suggested, in low light situations it's best to go to one of the specific "scene" modes intended for such instances.
I had the camera with me on a recent 2 week vacation. Both the wide angle lens and the 5x zoom paid for themselves, I felt, with the scenes I could capture using them. (The wide angle of this Panasonic may not add much width in a living room scene, but it certainly does when shooting a mountain panorama.) Battery life was more than adequate for a full day of picture taking; and it's of note that the battery's charger comes (free) in the camera box. Best of all, I'm really pleased with the quality of the photos taken with this little camera.
- Sophisticated but not better than others
- I have this camera. I got it in Japan.
It has many automatized features that looks very nice. The stabilization works well. The menu is very easy to use.
However, I have been disappointed by the poor quality of the pictures. It does not show better results than most other compact cameras whereas it is rather more expensive and heavier.
Most outdoor pictures are over-exposed (intelligent mode), and it is not easy to check with the display. I took many pictures that I thought were nice but finally looks very bad on the computer and print. Indoor pictures with flash and artificial lighting looks yellowish unless the subject is very close to the camera (<1 m). The pictures looks grainy or soft in many circumstances. Maybe Panasonic is not ready for 10 Megapixels.
As mentionned by others no zoom in video mode.
Nice wide angle but there is noticeable distortion at the edges. A person at the edge of a picture taken without zoom looks somewhat deformed.
I compared with my canon powershot 710IS. The canon (7 MPx, X6 optical zoom, stabilizer, digital zoom in video) is much better though just a little bit thicker. I was planning to give it to someone and keep the FX500... I may do the contrary!
Conclusion: nice piece of technology but disappointed by the results considering the price and the weight compared to other products.
- Excellent at it strengths, good even at it's weaknesses
- First of all, I can't comment much on the value for the money, since my purchase was based solely on features and I was willing to pay for them. I searched for 6 months for a camera that met my requirements (in this order).
Must Haves:
-fast first picture from 'off' state
-good low light pictures (as good as a compact anyway)
-small enough to fit in pocket (for bars, parties, etc)
-HD Video
-7MP or more
Nice to have:
-manual photo options
-Zoom while video record
-.avi video recording
-4x zoom or more
I was originally going to purchase the TZ5, but this model's manual options and smaller size won me over. For my purposes, giving up the 10x optical zoom was well worth it.
PROS:
-excellent (amazing) "Auto Ai" mode: It's truly point-and-shoot if you want it to be
-image stabilization 'mode 2' works very well to reduce blur
-about 1.25 second to first pic from off (about 2 sec with flash)
-battery life (second only to the Casios that I've purchased for friends and family)
-low-light pictures: if you set the correct scene mode, you can get a very decent picrture without flash - better thatn any other compact digitals I've seen.
-great video quality: 720p .MOV format is compatible with iMovie and looks great on a 42" 1080P LCD TV on a computer (you'll need to pay extra for the cable that goes directly from the camera to the TV)
-25mmm wide-angle is surprisingly useful, but you have to remember to zoom slightly if you don't want a slight 'fisheye' view.
-there is a 'quick menu' that gives you 2-button access to all the most often used functions (they change with each mode)
-one touch access to self-timer (great for quick self-portraits)
CONS:
-no zoom while video recording (TZ5 only as far as I know)
-sometimes it's unclear whether to use touchscreen or the joystick (I think anywhere that uses the touch should also be able to use the joystick)
-flash pics are about 6 seconds shot-to-shot (with 2/3 battery on full iA mode with double red-eye reduction flash)
MINOR ANNOYANCES:
-the LCD turns off after a some flash pictures for 1.5 sec or so (I suppose to help the flash recharge more quickly)
-tripod mount is to far left of body: bad for tiny portable tripods, but placement allows you to change battery/card without disconnecting tripod
-USB cable is not a (current-standard) mini-USB on the camera end. This may be a plus later on as more phones and cameras use micro-USB
SUMMARY:
This is the best camera available for my requirements, and an excellent overall compact. It has the best low-light pictures (with defeated flash) that I've seen on a digital compact (aside from the old, old Fujis). It's the first camera that I've been truely comfortable setting on 'auto' and knowing I will almost always get a good picture.
If you want a pocket-sized camera that you can just whip out at an event and be assured of a good picture or take a great looking video clip, while retaining the ability to do some limited manual exposures, this is the one for you.
- This camera has been crippled from the get go by removing ZOOM from the video mode (except for 10 fps mode, which does not count). If this is the business model Panasonic wants to practice (so as not to compete with their camcorder dept.) that's fine with me, but they should explicitly state so, otherwise their "5 x zoom" marketing is misleading and deceptive. A month ago I bought Canon SD870IS and was happy with it, except for its 3x zoom (too small for lots of professional dance shots that I make). Then I read the announcement for the upcoming FX500s. They sold me on the 5x zoom and HD movie resolution (that Canon lacks). I was in a 14 day return period so I decided to part with Canon and wait a month for this one. Today I gladly received Lumix DMC-FX-500S, but was dismayed and upset that having decided to sell it as the most advanced pocket size cam on the market (e.g. manual exposure that e.g. Canon lacks) Panasonic has decided to drop zoom mode while filming (you set the zoom prior to the recording but not during it, which is outright dumm). I hope there will be more returns like mine (sorry Amazon) so they can learn their lesson the hard way and be forced to rethink their modus operandi and perhaps upgrade the firmware. I am sorry, but as it is now, lack of the zoom in video recording mode is a deal breaker for me. For others who don't mind this may be a superior product.
Shop by Category
Electronics
Computers
Kitchen
Home & Garden
Games
Kids & Baby
Shoes
Jewelry
Watches
11 customer reviews
