Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700

Zitat: Recommended Pro: + PASM exposure modes. + Fast burst shooting modes. + Excellent battery life. + 24mm super-wide angle. Contra: - Less than sparkling image quality. - Touch icons small and cramped. Physical switch for rec/playback mode. - Erratic continuous shooting performance. The Panasonic Lumix FX700 is a 14 megapixel compact with a 5x stabilised zoom and a 3 inch touch-screen display. At its heart is a newly engineered 14 Megapixel CMOS sensor which combined with the latest Venus FHD processor provides a range of fast burst modes and full HD video recording at 1080i as well as 720p resolutions. The Lumix FX700´s zoom lens has a super-wide 24mm equivalent starting point extending to 120mm equivalent at the telephoto end with a fast f2.2 maximum aperture at the wide angle setting. The FX700 has all the features you´d expect to find in a consumer-oriented compact including face detection AF, face recognition, scene detection and a wide range of scene modes. It also has sophisticated automated features for improving image quality such as intelligent exposure and intelligent ISO and offers extended control over exposure with PASM exposure modes.

Zitat: A nice camera that offers the best combination of auto functions and manual control we’ve seen so far. It has its foibles and the price is high, but it’s a good all-rounder

Zitat: Full-HD-Video, 24-mm-Weitwinkel und viele Einstellmöglichkeiten - die kompakte 5-fach-Zoomkamera richtet sich an ambitionierte Anwender. Dank großer Schrift lassen sich die Menü-Einträge gut lesen.

Zitat: The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700 adds two significant improvements, Full HD video and manual control over exposure, to the much cheaper FX70 model, but unfortunately does so at the expense of still image quality, with slow ISO speeds suffering from obvious noise and smearing of fine detail. Just like its cheaper sibling, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700 partners an effective touchscreen interface with a fast, wide-angle 5x zoom lens and the tried and tested FX series styling, resulting in a classy point-and-shoot that feels like a premium product. Having to operate almost everything by interacting with the LCD does inevitably slow things down though - the jury´s still out for us on whether a touchscreen interface makes absolute sense for a digital camera. The ability to focus on and even capture your subject with the touch of a finger is undeniably appealing and genuinely useful though. The impressively fast f/2.2 lens is a cut above the rest of FX700´s competitors, allowing the camera to collect more light and effectively allowing you to use a slower ISO speed to achieve a similar shutter speed. Having such a wide-angle setting of 24mm is also a real attraction of this model, with the telephoto reach of 120mm enough for candid head and shoulder shots. The FX700 uses a different 14.1 megapixel sensor to the one found in the FX70, presumably in order to offer Full HD video, and it actually worsens the image quality when compared to the FX70 model. Noise is all too readily apparent at ISO 200 and more obvious at ISO 400 along with smearing of fine details, with the fastest speeds of ISO 800 and 1600 being something of a last resort. An official asking price of £359 / $399 is too high for a camera that delivers only average picture quality, despite the welcome inclusion of manual control of the aperture and shutter speed and the headline-grabbing 1080i video mode. We´d advise you to choose the 720p, point-and-shoot FX70 model instead if you like Panasonic´s intuitive touchscreen experience and styling.