Panasonic DMC-FX30

Reviewed July 2007

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Equipped with a wide angle that is equivalent to a 28 mm, the FX30 captures a wide field of view.

The metering clearly tries to balance the ambient light and the flash, and the result is an image that is a bit underexposed, has a slight yellow cast, and where noise can be detected in the shadows. Interestingly, although the sensitivity is set to Auto, the camera elects to maintain it at its minimum of 100 ISO.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

At the telephoto end, the equivalent of a 100 mm focal length, the camera automatically increases the sensitivity to 400 ISO as the maximum aperture drops to f5.6. With the boost in sensitivity, the light from the flash is noticeably more effective, the image is visibly brighter, and colours are more accurate.

At 400 ISO, noise is visible in the image, particularly in dark and uniformly coloured areas.

According to the manual, the macro mode of the FX30 allows the camera to focus on a subject that is 5 cm (2 inches) from the front element of the lens when the zoom is at the wide end, and 30 cm (1 ft) at the telephoto end. Set to the wide end, the camera is able to capture a field of view of approximately 5.7 cm (2.2 inches).

At the telephoto end the actual minimum distance is approximately 20 cm (8 inches), and this allows the camera to capture a field of view of approximately 7.8 cm (3.04 inches).

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

The exposure the camera delivers using its Multiple metering — the only metering mode available on the FX30 — is excellent under these conditions. The areas of the frame that are directly lit by the sun are correctly exposed, and while the shadow areas are a touch too dark, they retain details, albeit with a bit of grain.

Overall sharpness is rather good and homogeneous throughout the image.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

At the telephoto end, the metering performs very well, producing an exposure that avoids any overexposure of the brightly lit areas, while it prevents the shadows from getting too deep.

There is no visible chromatic aberration along the edges of strong contrasts, and there is no pincushion distortion. Some noise is detectable, however, and there is some fuzziness along the edges of objects.

NIGHT PHOTO

This camera is capable of long exposures, and an image captured late at night is presented to give an idea of its capabilities.

The Night Scenery mode of the FX30 has a maximum exposure time of 8 seconds, making it possible to capture excellent images of well-lit urban scenes.

Even more interesting, however, is the Starry Sky mode as it allows exposure times of 15, 30 or 60 seconds, making it possible to capture images of very dark places that the Night Scenery mode cannot, such as the subject presented here.

An exposure time of 30 seconds at f2.8 and 100 ISO with this subject makes it possible to capture an image that reveals a enormous amount of detail that is completely invisible to our eyes.

The only source of light in this subject is a low street light positioned over the plants that line the path, in front of the light gray building in the background. The Starry Sky mode fixes sensitivity at 100 ISO to limit the amount of noise in the image, and sets the white balance to Auto. And, while the colours the Auto white balance yields are clearly influenced by the artificial lighting, the overall result is not too yellow.

A dark-frame noise reduction system is used on the FX30, and once processed the image contains comparatively little noise, and remains relatively sharp.