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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 22 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The perfect go anywhere, do anything camera"
Pros: Ultra portable size, bright clear LCD, very usable flash, useful features, controls are in the right places.
Cons: No manual mode, no viewfinder.
Summary: The Lumix DMC-FX01 is the finest small camera I have ever used - film or digital. I take this camera almost everywhere - its miniature size lets me carry it in a shirt pocket. This is important to me because I hate being in the position of visualizing a potentially great photograph, and not having a camera handy. What's really incredible is that this camera is as small as it is given that its lense goes down to 28mm (35mm camera equivalent) focal length.
This is the first camera I've used that uses an LCD in place of a viewfinder, but it did not take long to get used to it. The LCD is large enough and bright enough to see clearly - even in direct sunlight. In fact the LCD is so good that I found the POWER LCD mode, which increases LCD brightness, to be a nice feature, but not absolutely necessary. The LCD HIGH ANGLE mode is great for doing just that - raising the camera above my head at a high angle for shooting above a crowd.
The flash is much better than most flashes I'm accustomed to on cameras this size - there is good even coverage at reasonable distances and at all focal lengths. This is likely due to the logical location of the flash head with respect to the lense.
The DMC-FX01 has two features that I came to rely on with my Contax 167MT (circa 1989) 35mm film SLR - EV adjustment and auto-bracketing. The beauty of these features on the Contax is how quickly I could get to them. The same is true for the DMC-FX01. Simply hit the +/- button around the MENU/SET button and EV can be manually adjusted +/-2 stops in 1/3 stop increments. Hit it again and AUTO BRACKET can be selected to bracket +/- 1/3, 2/3, or 1 full stop. Its that simple. What's really nice is that when adjusting EV I can see the immediate exposure effect on the LCD. Very nice.
Photo quality is just fine - once I became accustomed to the camera's few idiosyncrasies. For one, the auto flash setting (in NORMAL PICTURE mode) does not always make the right flash on/off decision. I've come to the point where I usually select either FORCED ON or FORCED OFF as appropriate.
Controls are useful and in the places I'd expect them to be. Displayed info is just right. The on-screen menu system is intuitive.
The Lumix DMC-FX01 is so good that I'm tempted to also purchase the Lumix DMC-LX1.
Where to buy
Panasonic DMC-FX01 (black):
$473.21
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$473.21 | Yes |
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