I bought this camera mainly because of its ultra wide angle lens. I used to own a Panasonic FX30, which had an 28mm lens. I was already satisfied with that model, but this one has a 25mm and I like it even better. I also like the 5x zoom; it comes in very handy.
I was astounded by the image quality, though I don't use the photo's for any professional purpose (only for amateur photography and for shooting pics at parties and stuff) and I may not be very critical about them. But when I take a good look at the pictures (like 200% view) I barely detect any noise (ISO 80, 100, 200) and the colours are very true and realistic. Images are detailed and crisp.
Big pro: battery life. Panasonic claims that 350 pictures can be taken on a single charge. I was sceptic about that at first, but yesterday I took over 250 photo's and ten movies at HD-quality (6 GB of material in total) and the battery icon still showed that two-third of the battery was full. Big advantage! Put in a big memory card and you are guaranteed of taking photo's all day long.
Pro's:
+ Image quality: sharp, realistic colors
+ Good macro mode
+ Battery life
+ Slim design (fits into pocket easily, only 150 grams)
+ 5x zoom
+ 12 MP (although 7 MP would already have been sufficient for me)
+ HD movies (as long as you don't use the movies for professional editing purposes, because of mono sound)
+ Quality and positioning of buttons
+ Lens retracts when viewing photo's
+ Easy, fast shifting between viewing photo's and making them
Cons:
- Video recording in MPEG4-format, not using .H264 codec
- Sound quality in loud environments, esp. low freq. sounds (again when recording video's)
(note: I don't think that the weaker sides stated above will be a lot better on camera's of other brands).
I love the FX40!
Problems:
None yet.
I was astounded by the image quality, though I don't use the photo's for any professional purpose (only for amateur photography and for shooting pics at parties and stuff) and I may not be very critical about them. But when I take a good look at the pictures (like 200% view) I barely detect any noise (ISO 80, 100, 200) and the colours are very true and realistic. Images are detailed and crisp.
Big pro: battery life. Panasonic claims that 350 pictures can be taken on a single charge. I was sceptic about that at first, but yesterday I took over 250 photo's and ten movies at HD-quality (6 GB of material in total) and the battery icon still showed that two-third of the battery was full. Big advantage! Put in a big memory card and you are guaranteed of taking photo's all day long.
Pro's:
+ Image quality: sharp, realistic colors
+ Good macro mode
+ Battery life
+ Slim design (fits into pocket easily, only 150 grams)
+ 5x zoom
+ 12 MP (although 7 MP would already have been sufficient for me)
+ HD movies (as long as you don't use the movies for professional editing purposes, because of mono sound)
+ Quality and positioning of buttons
+ Lens retracts when viewing photo's
+ Easy, fast shifting between viewing photo's and making them
Cons:
- Video recording in MPEG4-format, not using .H264 codec
- Sound quality in loud environments, esp. low freq. sounds (again when recording video's)
(note: I don't think that the weaker sides stated above will be a lot better on camera's of other brands).
I love the FX40!
Problems:
None yet.
