The Panasonic FX30 is packaged in a compact box with a lithium-ion battery, a compact voltage-switching charger which plug directly into a wall-socket, a USB cable, an A/V cable, a printed manual and a software CD. Note that the printed manual is the complete thing, not a getting-started guide. While having a battery charger is better than using a docking-station or using an A/C adapter which keeps the camera tied down, this type of charger is difficult to use with plug-adapters.

Suitability - What is it good for?

This point-and-shoot digital camera is well suited for various types of snapshots. The strong point of the FX30 is its wide-angle lens which greatly helps with outdoor architecture and interiors. Note that for interiors, this camera's limited ISO performance, discussed below, means that moving subjects should be avoided. The 28mm equivalent lens gives an angle of view roughly 25% wider than the typical ultra-compact camera which starts at 35mm. The camera's casing feels quite solid and even the door covering the USB and A/V connections feels sturdy.

Wide-Angle @ 28mm

Normal-Angle @ 35mm

The Panasonic FX30's fast maximum shutter-speed of 1/2000 makes it good for outdoor action. It has three burst-modes: one which captures up to 5 images at 3 FPS, one which captures up to 5 images at 2 FPS and one which captures images at about 2 FPS until the memory gets full. The difference between the latter two is that one always captures at 2 FPS, regardless of the memory card speed, but stops at 5 images. The other mode keeps shooting until no more space is available but the shooting speed varies and may be limited by memory card speed. Since the FX30 does not have an optical viewfinder and the LCD significantly lags the action, the burst mode is more suitable when the subject's range of motion stays within the camera's field-of-view. Tracking motion is nearly impossible.

On the low-light side, the default range stops at 1/4s but that can be expanded to 1s. Within this range, the FX30's full capability is accessible, including ISO selection, exposure-compensation, white-balance and color-mode. The Mega Optical Image Stabilization, effective to 3-stops over the normal limit, means that up to 1/4s can be used at the wide-angle setting without additional support.

To access longer shutter-speeds, one must rely one of the relevant scene modes: night-scenery, night-portrait, fireworks or stary-sky. The camera gets unfortunately crippled when entering these scene modes. Most do not allow control over ISO, white-balance and even exposure compensation. This puts night photography at the camera's mercy. These are common limitations among ultra-compact cameras, but there are several models which do better.

The FX30 is not suitable for creative photography due to its lack of manual controls. Not only does it not provide any options for metering, it also only chooses between 2 aperture at any given focal-length, thus giving only two options for depth-of-field. Macro mode allows a minimum focusing distance of 5cm at wide-angle and 30cm at telephoto. At wide-angle, magnification is very good for an ultra-compact.

Usability - How easy is it to use?

Despite its diminutive size, the Panasonic FX30 is easy to hold. There is a thumb-grip texture on the back and small silver finger hook in the front to reduce the risk of the camera slipping. Panasonic claims this to be the smallest digital camera with a 28mm wide-angle lens and, as far as we can tell, it currently is among the major makers. The Canon Powershot SD800 IS and Olympus FE-200 are definitely larger. There are several smaller cameras, but their zooms all start at 35mm or more, for example the Pentax Optio T30 is only 0.7" thick compared to the FX30's 0.87" thickness.

The shutter-release, which is surrounded by the zoom controller, has a nice feel with a noticeable halfway point. This configuration helps keep a solid grip on the camera by allowing the thumb to constantly press against the camera's back. The top-mounted power-button is easy to reach and its sliding motion is not prone to accidental activation.

As view from the top also reveals the partially hidden mode dial. Having 8-positions on the mode-dial does seem excessive for a completely point-and-shoot camera. The first mode is used for direct printing. Not having a compatible printer, we could not test this. Plus, the FX30 even refuses to display the menu without the printer-connection. The second mode is for movies. This Panasonic camera can recorded 16:9 wide-screen movies at a resolution of 848x480. There are also two 4:3 full-screen resolutions: 640x480 and 320x240. Each resolution can be captured at 30 or 10 FPS. Despite the wide-screen modes having a higher resolution, the angle of view is less due to the cropping required to produce a 16:9 image from a 4:3 sensor.

... Usability - continued

The next two modes are for macro and normal picture-taking. Both these modes allow full-access to the camera's menu and features other than long shutter-speeds and high-ISO, both of which are reserved for scene-modes. The mode is called Intelligent ISO. The particularity of this mode is that it selects the ISO automatically depending the subject's motion. The ISO limit in this mode can be set between ISO 400 and 1250. In all other modes, Auto-ISO goes from ISO 100 to 200. Next on the mode-dial is the playback mode. This mode must be entered to view any image details.

The penultimate mode on the dial is the heart mode. This mode turns the FX30 into a simplistic camera with a completely different menu system consisting of only 4 options: picture mode which selects from 3 resolutions, auto-review, beep and clock set. This what we call the brain-dead mode. It has no control over ISO, white-balance or exposure-compensation.

The final mode on the dial is used to access one of the 21 scene-modes. Most scene modes preset some of the camera's function to what Panasonic thinks it takes for various situations. The printed manual explains most of these more reasonably well. Because some settings are preset by the scene-mode, those options cannot be set on the camera while the scene-mode is active. There are, however, several restrictions which make little sense like not allowing white-balance settings in the scenery mode. Is scenery always shot under the same light these days?

The menu system is well designed and easy to navigate. Most options are intuitive. The stabilization options are not among those. There are 3 options: off, mode 1 and mode 2. The manual clearly explains that mode 1 stabilizes the image at all times and mode 2 stabilizes the image only when the shutter is pressed. According to the manual, mode 2 is more effective. There are also 5 focus modes: 5-area, 3-area high-speed, 1-area high-speed, 1-area and spot-focusing. Apparently the high-speed modes focus faster but the LCD image may freeze during focusing in those modes.

By far the most significant problem with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30's usability is that the preview image on the LCD is not exposure-accurate. Most times, the LCD image is brighter in the preview than in the review. This is quite a problem considering most non-SLR cameras feature an exposure-priority display. When using exposure-compensation, the image gets proportionally darker or brighter but it is not representative, making choosing the proper compensation a more difficult task than necessary. This alone can be clearly considered reason enough not to buy this camera.

The remaining usability issues are annoyances which could have easily been avoided by Panasonic had they obtained more user feedback. First up is the image-review function. During image-review, the image can be zoomed or deleted. That is all. To see some image information or a histogram for taken pictures, one must use the mode-dial to enter playback mode. The image-review function inconveniently has an instruction bar next over the lower-part of the image. Although it is semitransparent, it can become hard to see through outdoors, thus making it difficult to check if undesired elements have entered from the lower-edge of the photograph. Along the same line, the exposure-compensation display hides the top and bottom of the image too. It is not accurate anyway, so who cares, right?

Next, there is a function menu which conveniently brings options for stabilization, burst modes, white-balance, ISO, resolution and image quality. The annoyance? You have to hold down the FUNC button for it to appear. All the other buttons do something when simply pressed. Why not this one? At least the DISPLAY button makes a bar appear which says Press LCDMODE for 1 sec. There is no such hint with the FUNC button. The final usability problem is the placement of the metal tripod mount very close to the camera's edge.

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