Capture the Beauty of Everyday Moments

The LCD brightness automatically adjusts in nine steps to match the brightness of your surroundings. This ensures good viewability even outdoors on a sunny day, and improved viewing comfort when you're inside a dark room.

Product Features

• 12.1 Megapixel Digital Camera
• Intelligent Auto Mode Helps prevent shooting errors.
• LEICA DC Vario-Elmar Lens 29mm wide angle.
• Venus Engine IV Up to ISO 1600 at full resolution.
  

Large, easy-to-see Intelligent 2.7-inch LCD

The high-resolution, 230,000-dot LCD makes it easier to frame the shot before you shoot and check the results after you shoot. It also makes it more fun to view your photos with family and friends.

Product Specs

Panasonic DMC-FS15Ks Review

reviews.digitaltrends.com

05/08/09

The Lumix DMC-FS15s dimensions put it squarely in the subcompact class. It measures 3.82 inches wide by 2.14 inches high by 0.85 inches deep, and it weighs 4.87 ounces with its battery and an SD memory card installed. (The camera accepts both SD and higher-capacity SD-HC media).

Theres not much to see on the front of the camera. Theres the lens, the auto-focus assist lamp (which also acts as a self-timer indicator), and the flash unit. With the camera in auto mode, you dont need to push any buttons to enable the flash. Overriding the flash to shoot in natural light takes just three button presses on the back of the camera.

Panasonic Lumix DMC FS15The top of the camera is occupied by a tiny speaker, a tinier microphone, the on/off switch, the shutter button (encircled by a wide-angle/telephoto wheel), and a button that toggles between Intelligent Auto mode (iAuto) and whichever manual mode you used last. Theres a hand-strap eyelet and a micro-USB connector on the right side (used to connect the camera to a PC, a PictBridge printer, or—using a proprietary cable—a TVs analog A/V inputs).

The 2.7-inch LCD viewfinder occupies most of the space on the back of the camera, with an array of buttons to the right of it. The slider that switches between record and playback mode feels rather sloppy, but the other buttons feel substantial and provide solid tactile feedback and an audible tone (which can be disabled) when pressed. The oval Mode button calls up a menu with the cameras five basic modes: Intelligent Auto, Normal Picture, Film Grain, Scene Mode, and Motion Pictures.

Panasonic Lumix DMC FS15You navigate the on-screen menus using a round, convex Menu/Select button surrounded by four rectangular buttons that move the cursor up and down and left and right. A top-mounted dial would make changing scene modes much quicker, but the on-screen menus do an excellent of helping you decide which mode to use for a given situation, a boon to the casual photographer who doesnt want to memorize the meanings of all those tiny symbols on the typical dial. Plus, the four directional buttons also provide instant access to these frequently used functions: Exposure compensation, macro mode, the self timer, and flash setting.

Information presented on the LCD was easy to read, even in direct sunlight and at extreme angles. Viewing subjects in front of the lens and examining photos stored on the memory card while outdoors, however, was more difficult because they have much less contrast.

Whats Included

The Lumix DMC-FS15 comes with a Lithium-ion battery, a plug-in battery charger, a hand-strap, and USB data and A/V cables. Theres also a CD-ROM containing several software programs (Panasonics own PhotoFunStudio 3.0 software, Apples QuickTime movie player, and ArcSofts Panorama Maker 4 and MediaImpression), and a 119-page user manual. The camera comes with 50MB of onboard storage, but thats only enough for about 10 snapshots.