Every once in a while, we put our pens down and ask ourselves: When is enough really enough? The same thought must have crossed the minds of the Panasonic Lumix folks. While we were waiting in anticipation for the FX9's successor (presumably the FX10), the Japanese manufacturer sprang a surprise by releasing its FX01 at a launch recently. And unlike the 6-megapixel Lumix FX9, which has an extra megapixel over the FX8, engineers at Panasonic have stopped fighting the resolution battle and decided that six is just right.
Pity there are still no manual features, no optical viewfinder, and no ability to zoom during movie recording on this shooter -- at least not yet.
Design
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Apply that theory to Panasonic's Lumix FX series and you have the FX01, looking nearly identical to its predecessor -- the FX9. Nonetheless, there are some cosmetic enhancements on this new shooter.
Unlike its previous incarnations, the directional keys on the FX01 have been merged into a circular pad. What each key does, however, remains the same. Pressing left lets you set a 2- or 10-second timer, while hitting right alternates between the various flash options. Up brings you to the exposure compensation and auto-bracketing menus, while down reviews your last taken picture. Everything else remains -- including a 2.5-inch LCD (207k pixels), Display/LCD mode button and a Delete/Continuous shooting key on the back of the unit. There are five selections on the mode dial: Playback, Record, Simple, Macro, Scenes and Movie.
The AV/USB and DC-in connectors take up the right side of the unit behind a metallic snap cover. Along the bottom edge are the tripod receptacle and a compartment for the Lithium-ion battery and memory card. We like the manual lock on the cover which prevents accidental opening, which was present in the FX9 as well.
Features
You'll be disappointed if you expect a quantum leap in terms of features on the FX01. The unit remains a compact point-and-shoot camera and there are no manual (manual- and aperture-priority) features or optical viewfinder -- much to our disappointment. That aside, the unit does come with a couple of enhancements that should please general photography users.
According to Panasonic, the FX01 is the world's smallest camera (35mm film equivalent) with a 28mm wide-angle lens. The wide-angle ratio is attained by the incorporation of an Extra High Refractive Index Aspherical (EA) lens that does not compromise on the compact size. What this means is you can now fit in a couple more people on the sides without standing further away from your subjects. The FX01 is capable of taking wide-aspect VGA (848 x 480-pixel) motion images at 30fps and should please most self-taught movie buffs. However, we recommend that the user purchase a high-speed and high-capacity memory card to fully optimise this feature. During our tests, we used Imation's 1GB ultra-high-speed Secure Digital card.
The new menu layout allows you to access the camera setup from within Record and Playback modes. Click to enlarge.
Among the new features on the FX01, the shooter's dual image stabilisation takes center stage. Previous Lumix models (and the FX01) came with the company's proprietary MEGA Optical Image Stabilisation (O.I.S.) to battle camera shake -- allowing the user to shoot up to three steps slower than the shutter speed required. Panasonic has upped the stakes by incorporating a High Sensitivity mode on the FX01 to prevent blurry shots due to moving subjects.
In short, the FX01 offers a two-prong solution for both camera shake and subject movement. While the MEGA O.I.S. suppresses the effects of camera shake, the High Sensitivity mode automatically raises ISO levels (between ISO 800 and ISO 1,600) and increases shutter speed at the same time to minimise blurring caused by moving subjects.
In terms of scene modes, the FX01 comes with two new selections: Underwater and High Sensitivity. The High Sensitivity mode, as previously mentioned, helps to minimize subject movement by automatically increasing ISO levels and shutter speed. However, there is no option to set a specific ISO level in this mode. The Underwater mode produces natural colours while suppressing strong blues. Do remember to use a marine case purchased separately, unless you desire to donate your camera to Panasonic's coffers as the FX01 is not waterproof.
Another feature which we find really useful during our tests is the High Angle LCD option. If you are fond of shooting over a crowd or from a top-down perspective, you will love the new mode which allows the 2.5-inch LCD to be viewable at angles which were previously not possible. This may be the best solution next to having a swivel and flip-down display.
Other features onboard the new FX01 include a new menu layout which allows you to switch quickly between the Record, Setup and Scene modes; a 9/25 multi-display and calendar display for your pictures; and a brighter LCD using the pixel-mixed readout method which automatically increase the brightness level of live images according to the level of ambient light.
For the record, the FX01 uses the same Lithium-ion battery and charger as the previous FX9 and FX8. So if you are planning to upgrade from these models, remember to keep the batteries as you can still use them on the FX01.
Performance
True to its claim, the FX01 powered up within 1.6 seconds. Shutting down the camera slighter longer at 2.2 seconds. Time to first shot (without flash) averaged 2.3 seconds. You can shoot every 2.4 seconds (without flash) thereafter, but on forced flash or red-eye reduction, it'll take longer at 3 seconds and 4 seconds, respectively.
Blooming occurs with high-contrast backgrounds. Click to enlarge.
Burst mode on the unit was a joy to use. In High burst mode, we managed to capture a total of eight JPEG shots in 2.8 seconds (3.6 seconds in Low burst mode) at the highest resolution. Shooting in Fine quality reduced the maximum number of frames to six. You can also shoot continuously at 1.2fps until your finger cramps or when your memory card runs out of capacity. Time taken for the FX01 to zoom from wide to telephoto (3.6x optical zoom) averaged 2 seconds. You can shoot in wide VGA (848 x 480 pixels) at 30fps on the shooter but you cannot zoom during movie recording. We also recommend using a high-speed memory card to optimise camera performance.
Image Quality
Image quality from the FX01 was a hit-and-miss affair. Overall, our images contained saturated colours with a good amount of details. However, at the default exposure setting, some of our indoor photos turned out slightly darker than we would have liked. This can be corrected by adjusting the exposure levels.
Purple fringing and barrel distortions at wide-end angle.
Click to enlarge.
We also noticed slight barrel distortions at the wide-end angle (28mm) of the lens. In addition, there was blooming and chromatic aberrations in the form of purple fringing in our pictures when shooting with high-contrast backgrounds.
Noise levels were relatively well contained even at the maximum ISO level of 1,600 which surprised us. While noise was noticeable almost throughout the various ISO settings, it shouldn't affect users making small prints. That said, we were unable to change the sensitivity level determined by the camera (beyond the user-adjustable ISO 400) in the High Sensitivity scene mode.
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Mark
17/06/2007, 07:07 PM
rating
5/10
I was expecting many things from the LUMIX range, but I was disappointed with this camera. The main problem with this camera were the quality of the shots. The camera's default setting were hopeless; the shots would either come out too dark, over exposed or more noisier than a room full of toddlers. The shutter reaction times are hopeless- if you try and take a photo of a moving object you are more likely to get a photo of a blurr or the background behind the moving object, but no moving object as it would of moved out of shot due to the slow shutter reaction time.
Indoor photos are usually over exposed or dark, no matter what setting you attempt to use.
Pros:
28mm wide lens
Cons: hit and miss photo quality.
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