Panasonic DMC-FX48 25mm wide-angle lens model with Face Recognition and lots of style

Product Features

• An iA mode that's smart enough to remember faces
  The FX48 features an enhanced iA mode that includes Face Recognition (Turn Face Recognition item ON and resister the person with full-face portrait on the shooting menu in advance.), a function that "remembers" registered faces. When there's a familiar face in the frame, it optimizes the focus and exposure so that the face is in sharp focus and bright. iA mode also activates a host of functions (see list below) that make it easy to get great shots.
• MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer)
  helps prevent blurring caused by shaky hands when shooting.
• Intelligent ISO Control
  helps prevent blurring caused by the subject moving as you shoot.
• Intelligent Scene Selector
  selects the most suitable Scene mode for the situation.
• Intelligent Exposure
  adjusts the brightness of dark areas in an image.
• Face Detection AF/AE
  helps capture sharp, bright shots of faces.
• AF Tracking
  keeps the focus locked onto the subject, even if it moves.
• Bright F2.8, 25mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens with 5x optical zoom
  The 25mm wide-angle lens in this super-compact camera captures almost twice the area of an ordinary 35mm lens, making it ideal for shooting group photos indoors or wide landscapes outdoors. The 5x optical zoom pulls distant subjects up close, and the exquisite rendering of the LEICA DC lens lets you capture nuanced, expressive photos.
• Sorts and organizes photos with familiar faces
  Thanks to Face Recognition technology, the camera can find photos of people and sort them in Category Playback mode. This makes it easy to display only photos of a particular person, or to set up a slideshow with just those photos.
• Create incredible 360° panorama photos
• A Panorama Assist mode makes it easy to take a series of images to combine into a panorama shot, while checking the degree of overlap between adjacent shots. This is great for shooting landscapes that are too wide to capture in a single shot. ArcSoft Panorama Maker software (included with the camera) can be used to stitch the images into a single panorama photo.
  

Product Specs

Panasonic DMC-FX48s Review

pcmag.com

06/08/09

In many ways, the 12.1-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX48 is an exciting camera. Its got a compact build, tons of features, and an easy-to-use interface with big icons and large text. Add in powerful zoom and HD video capture and you have the makings of a winner. Unfortunately, image quality is less than ideal, especially in bright light, and that prevents the FX48 from being a good buy. Also, at $349.95 (direct), its toward the top of the point-and-shoot camera price range.

For such a small camera (it measures 2.1 by 3.8 by 0.9 inches, HWD, and weighs about 4.5 ounces), the FX48 houses a powerful lens with a 5X optical zoom and a focal range of 4.4 to 22mm (35mm equivalent: 25 to 125mm), with corresponding maximum f-stops of f/2.8 and f/5.9. Many manufacturers advertise their cameras as using a wide-angle lens, like the 28mm lens on the Canon SD960 IS; at 25mm, the FX48s lens is even wider.

The back panel houses the 2.5-inch LCD screen, which is small for a camera of this price, though understandable given its compact build. The display packs 230,000 pixels, but because most point-and-shooters use the same number of pixels with a 3- or 3.5-inch screen, the user interface and images in playback mode look particularly sharp. But as was the case with this cameras predecessor, the Lumix DMC-FX37, the LCD shows considerable motion blur: Moving subjects streak across the screen.

I really like the controls on this camera; there are switches, rather than buttons, for turning the power on and off and switching between shooting and playback modes, so youll never accidentally hit either button or be confused about which mode the camera is in. You zoom in and out with a trigger, which is better than separate buttons because you dont have to lift your finger when framing shots. The shutter release is a large button in the middle of the trigger, so its easy to hit quickly once you frame your shot.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX48 The FX48s speeds are pretty much run-of-the-mill. The camera can boot up and snap off its first picture in an average of 4 seconds, and it averages 3.52 seconds between shots. For comparison, a really fast shooter like the Canon SD780 IS can boot and shoot in just 1.75 seconds, with 2.5 seconds between shots. Shutter lag was also very noticeable: The Shooting-Digital.com shutter lag test revealed that the FX48 averaged a very poky 1.11 seconds between button push and image capture. (The SD780 delivered a much more reasonable 0.5 second.)

To objectively test image quality in our photo lab, I use a suite called Imatest. Results from the FX48 were spotty, but acceptable overall. Noise levels were low at ISOs 100 to 400 and average at ISOs 800 and 1600. Automatic white balance is excellent at ISOs 100 to 400 and just a little warm at ISOs 800 and 1600. Images are sharp in the center (averaging 2,215 lines per picture height) and fade a bit toward the outer regions (an average of 1,402 lines per picture height). A little barrel distortion is evident at the widest position (25mm), bowing the image a tad to the right, and a little pincushion distortion is present when the lens is in the telephoto position. Somewhat more significant problems are that strong amounts of color fringing may also be visible in high-contrast areas in the outer regions of the image, and that the flash is on the weak side.

But the DMC-FX48 has one issue in particular thats hard to overlook: blooming. When youre taking photos in well-lit areas, the sensor disperses light to parts of the shot where it doesnt belong, thus softening the overall image.

Our real-world tests confirmed our in-lab findings. On a gorgeous April day in Manhattan, I did some shooting with the DMC-FX48 alongside the very good Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR for comparison purposes. Images of objects in the shade as photographed by both cameras looked almost identical. But there were dramatic differences in the photos taken in bright light. The Panasonics photo of a black Audi looked like a much brighter shade of black than did the F200EXRs. Upon closer inspection, the bright spots on the car (such as the headlights, turn signals, and windshield) reflected the suns light and displayed the aforementioned blooming effect. The areas that met the black paint were also lined in purple fringe.

High-definition video taken with the DMC-FX48 looks and sounds great. The camera records 1,280-by-720 progressive-resolution video at 30 frames per second (720p30) in MOV file format. (If youre using Windows, youll need to download Apple QuickTime to watch it.) Besides being able to adjust the white balance, you can also shoot through the color filters available: Black & White, Sepia, Cool, and Warm.

Connections on the DMC-FX48 are frustrating. A USB port and analog high-definition A/V port for outputting to your standard-def TV or HDTV are built into the right-hand side of the camera, but both require a proprietary Panasonic cable. Panasonic should take cues from Canon, which on the Canon PowerShot SD780 offers a real mini USB port and a real mini HDMI port for a digital high-definition A/V connection to your HDTV.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX48 is a good choice only if ease of use is a top priority. The cameras compact build, obvious buttons, and clean interface wont cause confusion or headaches, but its photos wont satisfy you if image quality is paramount. Instead, Id recommend the $370 Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR or the much less expensive $279.99 Canon SD780 IS, both of which take better photos under bright conditions.