Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX250 looks, at first glance, just like many other compacts on the market. It has a surprisingly uninspiring squared-off design, juxtaposed with an all-metal build that enhances the camera’s appeal.
Upon closer inspection, however, the unassuming FX150 is actually a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as it features a comprehensive set of controls and shooting options that include manual control. Disappointingly, you only get ‘proper’ Shutter Priority control with just a minimal nod to aperture control.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150 - back face
The first headline feature must be the camera’s 14.7mp CCD sensor. This captures the light from the rather excellent 28mm wide-angle zoom lens with a zoom ratio of 3.6x, and runs to a tong zoom focal length of loomm, a useful range indeed. Accompanying the lens and aiding sharp detail capture is Panasonic’s effective MEGA OIS (optical image stabilisation), which uses CCD-shift mechanisms to counteract camera shake at lower shutter speeds and offers about two stops of extra handheld control. While this feature is very useful indeed, we’re not convinced by the wisdom of cramming that many pixels onto the sensor, since excessive image noise is almost always the result.
Despite this setback, there are other tricks that the FX15o sports that make it a little more mouthwatering than its rivals. First, there’s a clever E-Zoom button adjacent to the shutter release, with its encompassing lens zoom lever. A press of E-Zoom zooms the lens from its wide end to full zoom in around 1.5 seconds, while another press activates the’Extra Optical Zoom’ (actually it’s a 7.7x digital zoom) - a rather misleading misnomer in our view. The camera has Panasonic’s Venus Engine IV image-processing chip that helps provide responsiveness to the package and deals with colour and noise too.
With speediness in mind, you’ll not be disappointed by the FX150. There’s a burst mode of 2fps for up to eight images, coupled with an unlimited (or at least to the capacity of the SD card) burst mode at 1.5fps. Switch to the Hi-speed Burst mode and you can shoot up to one hundred images at 7.5fps, though the image size is reduced to 3mp in order to achieve that rather respectable shooting rate.
Shutter lag is evident - although it’s no worse than some competitors - and the focusing is unfortunately slower than in should be. In bright daylight it can take over a second for the AF to bite, even using the ‘Quick AF’.
On the upside, there are abundant AF modes including tracking AF, which works very well once it has locked on to a target. Face Detection AF is in there too, and while faces in profile are a challenge, it gets it right most times.
The multi-area AF provides 11 zones that you can select depending on the subject, so when shooting macro on a tripod, say, you can move the AF point without changing the camera’s position. It’s a shame the camera does not auto select the AF zone in this or any other mode, but here the ethos seems to be around user control instead. The AF zone chosen can only be selected in the AF menus, although it does allow you to select groups of AF zones (up to five at a time) in various configurations.
Area high-speed focusing supposedly offers a speedier single-zone AF solution, yet it appeared no quicker than the normal settings. That aside, the inclusion of i-Area and Spot AF modes mean that while the overall AF response times leave something to be desired, you cannot fault the focus flexibility afforded to the FX15o.
Another of Panasonic’s recent innovations is iA (intelligent Auto). This function allows the camera to choose the correct shooting mode depending on the scene in front of it. Although this system works welt, a downside is that you cannot use some of the advanced controls on offer, such as simultaneously shooting RAW and JPEG images. What’s more, you lose control of the otherwise excellent intelligent ISO mode.
In terms of handling, the camera is actually rather good to use, with the shutter release and zoom lever well placed for ease and accessibility. The aforementioned E-Zoom button is straightforward to use, while the four-way jog buttons on the back provide scrolling and entry into various settings: Manual Control, Auto Bracketing, Colour Bracketing, Exposure Compensation and Flash Compensation.
The Q (Quick) Menu button is useful and is reminiscent of Canon’s ‘FUNC’ menu control, as here it launches a
drop-down menu hosting the key image controls. It allows for fast access and changing of chosen parameters without having to delve into the camera’s deeper menu systems.
The usual array of scene modes are included (24 in all), with an odd Pin Hole mode and a Film Grain setting. An Image Leveling mode is more useful as it automatically straightens wonky horizons, though it does mean that it crops the image accordingly as well.
In terms of image quality, the FX150 isn’t bad. The ISO range starts at loo to 6400 (a high-sensitivity Scene mode) with noise appearing above ISO 400, although it’s very subtle. Over ISO 800 it’s more noticeable, but overall noise is very well controlled (bar the ISO 6400 setting, which is a step too far). Highlight detail’s good, while shadow detail goes AWOL too quickly. Image sharpness is quite low by default, but you can change it in settings and the noise processing doesn’t scrub all the detail away at higher ISOs.
Overall, the 14.7-megapixel sensor is well tamed by performance of a camera of this ilk.
Review by Digital Photographer Magazine
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