Nice, small, wide-angle (28 mm) camera

Where to begin? When it comes to cameras, probably with a description of what I use it for. I am usually a casual photographer. The snapshot guy, indoors and out. The camera needs to be small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. Doesn’t matter how great a camera you have if you don’t have it with you. However, about 10% of the time I want (demand?) a high quality artistic or sports type photo under (sometimes) difficult circumstances.

So how does the Lumix DMC FX01 do? I have waited a little more than 6 months to write this review so that I could use the camera under a wide variety of circumstances. Here are my epinions.

For all digital cameras.I recommend: Toss the memory stick and put a 2 gb one in. Even though the battery in this camera is very very good, buy a spare battery and put it in your belt case. You’ll be glad you did.

Casual photos:

Small: Very. Bigger screen than my last digital because nearly the entire back is the screen. And clever. Bright, (“power LCD” setting) and a “high angle” feature. Know how you sometimes have to hold the camera high over your head to get a clear shot in a crowd? Well, click and hold a button on the back, set the screen on “high angle” hold the camera over your head and you get a near perfect view of what you want to photograph. Indispensable in crowds. Have used it repeatedly.

Snapshots: Outside of taking accurate photos, the most important feature of a snapshot camera is the ability to quickly take photos of groups indoors. To do this, there is no substitute for a slightly wide-angle lens. If this were a film camera, the lens would be called 28mm. Most digital cameras have the equivalent of 35mm lenses. I just gave my perfectly good digital camera away because having a 35mm lens for indoor snapshots just gets too frustrating. Snapshots require the quick “point and shoot” feature. The small setting dial on the top has a “heart” setting, my favorite. For most situations, set it on the red heart and it will figure out what is going on and take a good to near perfect photo nearly every time.

Quality of photos: I would classify this in the good to excellent category for digital cameras. However, as with any digital photos I have ever taken or seen, I frequently run them through my Paint Shop Pro “Enhance Photo” – “One step photo fix” setting on my computer to see if the color etc. is improved. I get a fairly high percentage of photos where there is no improvement, or even a degradation. The anti-shake feature is very effective. I have had to trash very very few photos (one I think) from being blurred due to shaking, and I am 70 - not nearly as steady as I used to be.

Higher quality – more difficult photos:

Good Leica lens. See the specs and a review at the digital Photography Review site:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06021404panasonicfx01.asp

Do remember when reading the review it is just that. The reviewer has not used the camera for months under varying “real world” circumstances.

Among the multitude of settings on this camera, there are two I find useful when not using the “heart” setting.

The “SCN” setting:
A multitude of specialty settings for special circumstances. The one I use all the time is the “High Sens.” Setting. Useful for High speed and/or dim light photos. If you are something of a camera person, it gives an ISO of about 1600. I am still learning the limitations of this setting. However, I just took a collection of photos at a cricket match in New Zealand under dim light conditions. All came out nearly perfect, even for the color. Very impressive. Stopped the cricket ball in mid-air. No blurred photos. Captured the hair streaming out of one of the women pitching – one of my neatest photos ever. Out the door of a cable car in San Francisco last Christmas after dark – beautiful photo, perfect focus, perfect colors.

The “normal” “red camera icon” setting:
This is the usual setting with the multitude of options. I normally only change the “picture quality” setting depending on whether the photo is for email, regular viewing or high quality photo print. I always leave “anti-shake” on the highest setting(2) which is in effect for all photo settings I use. It’s nice to have all the other settings, however, I originally set it up the way I wanted it and make few or no changes while using it.

The other setting I have used twice is the “Movie” setting
This will take a fairly good quality video with sound (for a tiny camera).. Does not zoom when in this setting. If you want to make videos, buy a video camera. However, the two times I did use it, it worked well and “I had it with me”.

My one complaint: Sometimes does not focus correctly when dark, distance, flash photo. This may be inherent in all small digital cameras using autofocus.

All in all, the camera has met my expectations. If you are thinking about this camera, realistically list how you are going to use it and read reviews about all such cameras. I put 28mm at top of my list, and started shopping there. Last Sunday everyone took a photo of us all at dinner. I was the only one to get everyone in exactly as I wanted. No scrunching up or odd angle. I have emailed my photo to everyone. I don’t want a copy of theirs.

In my small belt loop camera case I have an extra battery and a tiny tripod. Use the tripod all the time. You would be amazed how you can always get both of you (or just yourself) in the photo by sticking it on a fence post, shelf, car hood etc. Have a nice tripod in the trunk of my car. Have yet to use it.