With its generously-sized LCD monitor,
the interface of the Panasonic DMC-FX7 is one of the easiest
to use. The text is large and very legible, colours are bright
and icons explicit, making navigation and selection of options
efficient. Moreover, the external controls are clearly identified
and respond quickly.
The menu system of the DMC-FX7 is typical of current Panasonic cameras.
Menu items are spread out over a successive screens, and the presentation
is consistent across all the menus. Moreover, an access to the basic Setup menu
is offered in all but the Simple mode menu:
Monitor: allows adjusting the brightness of the
LCD monitor over 7 steps.
Auto Review: serves to decide if and for how long
a just captured image will be displayed on the monitor. Four
options are available: Off, 1 or 3 seconds or Zoom. The latter
option, Zoom, displays the image full screen for 1 second
then zoom into it (4X) for another second so that its sharpness
can be ascertained. Photos captured in Burst mode, or which
have a voice annotation are not enlarged.
Power Save: sets the delay until the camera automatically
shuts down (1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes).
Economy, two battery saving modes are available
with the FX7:
Level 1: turns off the LCD monitor after 15
seconds of inactivity.
Level 2: turns off the LCD screen after a
15 second period of inactivity or after 5 seconds after
an image has been captured.
In either case, the camera completely turns off after 2 minutes
of inactivity.
Beep offers three sub-options:
Beep Level: sets the beep volume (soft, loud
or Off);
Beep Tone: selects the sound that will accompany
camera operation (3 sounds);
Shutter: selects the noise produced by the
shutter release (3 sounds).
Clock Set: serves to set the FX7's internal clock
and calendar.
No. Reset: selects whether photo files will be incremented,
or reset to 1, when the card is formatted or a new card is
inserted.
Reset: returns all menu options, with the exception
of the date and time and the folder name, to their original
factory settings.
USB Mode: controls the USB protocol. PC is
to communicate with a personal computer; PictBridge is
to print photos when the camera is connected directly to
a PictBridge compatible printer.
Video Out decides the video out signal: NTSC or PAL.
Scene Menu: decides whether or not the scene menu
is shown when the Mode dial is set to .
Alternatively, pressing the Menu button once displays the
scene menu.
Language to select the interface language: English,
French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese.
If the printed manual that is supplied with the DMC-FX7 is thin,
it is at least relatively complete and easy to understand, much
as the camera's interface. Moreover, explanations are often accompanied
by some relevant photography tips.
Software
One CD is included with the Panasonic
DMC-FX7 as sold in North America. The disc contains Panasonic's SD
Viewer 2.0, QuickTime, Acrobat Reader, and
the drivers necessary for older operating systems. In addition,
ArcSoft's PhotoImpression 5, Panorama Maker 3 and PhotoBase 4.5
are included.
SD Viewer presents photos
like an index sheet, placing them on the right while the folders
are shown on the left.
SD Viewer can be used to rotate or crop images, print them, and present
slide shows full-screen. In addition, photos can be selected by their extension
(JPEG, TIFF, MOV) with a single click. However, no photo editing, including
global adjustments to an image, can be made with SD Viewer.
Image editing is left to PhotoImpression 5
which is able to modify sharpness, brightness, contrast, saturation,
and colour tone. Moreover, the program can also be used to resize
or crop images, and even automatically eliminate red-eye.
PhotoImpression can also be used to add text and borders to images, and
a wide variety of templates to use, or modify, are included with the program.
PanoramaMaker 3 is designed
to stitch together a series of contiguous photos so they can
be assembled into a single large image horizontally, vertically
or as a mosaic.
PhotoBase 4.5 is intended to organize still images and
video clips, and manage them through a database.
QuickTime is to view the video clips recorded with the
FX7.
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Interface & Software
.
Alternatively, pressing the Menu button once displays the
scene menu.
