Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7K 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Image Stabilized Optical Zoom (Black)
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Panasonic's 5.0 megapixel DMC-FX7K digital camera is ultra-compact, yet packs a big punch with 12x total zoom capability, the MEGA Optical Image Stabilizer for super-crisp pictures, and the fast-shot response for unlimited consecutive shoooting. This camera proves you don't need a big camera to take great pictures.
Optics and Resolution
Featuring a 5-megapixel CCD sensor, the DMC-FX7 delivers a wide range of detail and color with images up to 2560 x 1920 pixels--enough information to make photo-quality prints up to 13 by 17 inches. Leica DC Vario-Elmarit 3x zoom lens, with 3 aspheric elements, combines comfortably small size with superb image rendering. By combining with a 4x digital zoom, users will have an equivalence of a 12x zoom lens in a very compact body, though users should note that digital zoom degrades picture quality.

Movie Mode
The DMC-FX7 lets you shoot QuickTime Motion JPEG video at resolutions up to 320 x 240 pixels with sound. The amount of video you can capture is limited by space on the memory card; you'll fit more at low quality (10 frames-per-second) than at high quality (30 frames-per-second). The movies aren't camcorder quality, but they're fun and convenient, and they're perfect as e-mail attachments. You can also record audio comments, up to five seconds in length, for your still pictures.

More Features

Storage and Transfer
Images and video are stored on Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. A 16 MB SD card is included. Files can be downloaded to either a Mac or PC via USB connectivity, which means it can be connected to any USB-based Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or later computer without installing any software.

Printing
This camera supports the PictBridge standard. PictBridge is a technology that lets you transfer pictures from a digital camera to a compatible printer, without a PC or image-editing software. Because PictBridge is an industry standard, users can connect PictBridge-compatible devices made by many different manufacturers. Learn more about PictBridge.

Power and Size
The camera is powered by lithium-ion battery pack (included with charger). It measures 1.97 by 3.70 by 0.95 inches and weighs 0.30 pounds.

What's in the Box
DMC-FX7 digital camera, battery charger, battery pack, battery carrying case, 16 MB SD memory card, lens cap, lens hood with adaptor, A/V and USB cables, strap, and CD-ROM

1 Seems like a great camera
I've had this camera for over a month now and I absolutely love it. When I was shopping for a camera, the main things that I was looking for were compact size and good picture quality. What drew me to this camera was the image stabilization. I have very shaky hands, and this, along with good reviews, sold me on this camera. The big screen is a plus and so far haven't seen a negative impact on battery power. The camera was fairly easy to use and I think the menu operation is very intuitive. It's definitely an eye catcher as well; everyone who sees it asks me about it (I opted for the black - very sexy). Picture quality has been really good. Red eye can sometimes be an issue, but editing red eye out of photos is so easy that I'm not concerned.
My only gripes so far are that sometimes in dark settings, the pictures can come out very grainy. Also, every now and then, pictures will come out with a random white spot. I'm not sure why this happenes, but if anyone has any insight, please share!
Overall, I highly recommend.
2 thank you for your reviews
hello there.
i used to have a canon powershot s400 and loved it. unfortunately i lost it. completely my fault. but anyways - i researched far and wide before i bought a new camera. i first bought the nikon 5200 but returned it because i thought it took horrible pictures.
finally decided on this panasonic fx7 because they told me i wouldn't be disappointed. welllllllll i still like my canon better. i'm hoping i just haven't figured out the capability of this panasonic camera yet. see i have that grainy problem too - in low light places. i'd like to say i take artistic photos - but in all honesty, basically i take my camera to the bar to take pics of my friends having fun. the canon was amazing at that. all my pictures were in focus, not grainy at all.
so is there just something i'm doing wrong? with the canon i didn't have to fix the settings, i just pointed and shot and wa la it was an amazing picture.
do you think it has something to do with being 5 megapixel vs 4 in the canon? i'm reading over the manual again too to see if i've missed something.
i don't mind the battery life so much, i just don't like how when you review a picture and try to zoom in it zooms in WAY too much. also there is a bit of shutter lag - also both problems with the canon too.
i guess i'm happy with it. but it was really expensive, and i'm not sure it was worth it.
please write another review if you can help me. i will take all the help i can get.
thanks!
3 Good, but the sd300 is just as good or better in most areas
I bought this camera because of all the great features. It does good in most fronts. I figured that the optical stabilization would be a nice feature.

I'll get the bad out of the way first. The camera seems to have more noise than the Cannon sd300, and the camera I replaced it with the Cannon sd500. The optical stabilization does not come in as useful as you may think, only in low light, non flash situations, or when you are jittery. I compared pictures from the same lighting conditions between the sd300 and the fx7 and the sd300 just did better with noise. Even with th sd300's tendency to have more purple fringing, it was not an issue in my try out.

Over the 4 months, I exercised the fx7 a lot, and it did good, but I believe that the sd300 is just a better camera $ for $ and is better executed, and the sd500 is WAY better and has much less noise.

The good: it takes good pictures in normal light. Size is incredible, nice features, generally a nice camera with a feature you won't find in any other cameras in its class, OIS.
4 I LOVE THIS CAMERA!!
I have owned 3 digital cameras now and this is by far the best one that I have seen. I read a couple reviews on here complaining about grainy pictures but I could not disagree more...I have developed about 50 pictures using this camera and they are all fantastic and very clear. I would highly recommend this camera...It is so easy to carry around. I put it in my pocket almost anytime I go out because its so small its like carrying your cell phone in your pocket. The number of pictures I take has risen dramatically since I bought this tiny camera because it is so easy to carry around and no hassle at all. Buy it...You'll be pleased.
5 Grainy pics !
This is a very nice little camera, but I can't help feeling disapointed by what matters the most to me : image quality. Maybe I was expecting too much of an ultra compact camera, but that's how I feel. I immediatly noticed that the pics were grainy, especially in the dark, something I didn't remember happening with my old 2 Megapixel Canon S10. And yes, I read the whole manual. It says that noise increases with ISO sensitivity (and typically you'd use a higher ISO sensitivity for darker pics). So I forced the ISO sensitivity to its lowest level (80) instead of the AUTO setting. Still, pictures look grainy to me. Did more research and found a review on dpreview.com where it addresses this issue. I highly suggest you read the review, here's the page on photographic tests : http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfx7/page5.asp

Finally I decided to dig up my Canon S10 (few years old) and compare images. All pics were taken in the dark, with and without flash. There's no question my new Panasonic renders much better, more accurate colors. I also noticed for the first time how much the Canon suffers from distortion. BUT, pictures made with my old camera are not grainy. Maybe blury, but not grainy. I'm surprised so few people commented on this, is this just expected from such as small camera, or am I missing something ?

Again, I didn't compare images in daylight, but in the dark the noise was pretty obvious to me, especially in the side by side comparisons with a cheaper and older camera.
6 So This Is Love
It took me a while to finally purchase a digital camera - I didn't want to hurt my SLR's feelings. I researched the market extensively before taking the plunge. I was about ready to go for a Casio Exilim until taking a look at this little baby. Its tiny size means that it goes everywhere I go - it's about the size of my cell phone. I have the black model, and it sure has sex appeal. The display is huge and pretty clear. The Leica lens does what it should - crisp, beautiful photos that capture color so nicely. Five megapixels does seem like overkill, but when I looked for a Panasonic Lumix DMC-series with 4 MP, they seemed pretty scarce and the price was nearly as high as for this model. The image stabilization is a handy feature - drives up the price considerably, too, but I really like that my camera has it, since I prefer not to use flash whenever possible, so camera shake is always an issue. It compensates somewhat for camera shake, but for shutter speeds longer than maybe a half second, you'll probably notice some blurriness, regardless of this function. I like the various shooting modes that it offers - I've gotten a lot of use out of the Snow function in particular. I wish it had a function for use in flourescent lighting, but it does have whiteness adjustment feature so that you can cancel out the greenish tint manually. My hands are pretty tiny, so the size of the buttons doesn't bother me, but I could see that being frustrating for someone with larger hands. Battery life is pretty lousy. This is the biggest complaint I have. I can drain the thing in a day or two if I take a lot of pictures. I'm looking into buying a back-up, but they're expensive - I just wish this one lasted longer. I'm also still trying to figure out how to take pictures of people with flash without their faces turning out white as flour. There's a negligible lag time between pressing the shutter release and the photo being taken, and it can be close to eliminated by pre-focusing (press the shutter release halfway down as you frame the shot). Still, it can't capture images instantaneously - for that, I keep my SLR around.
7 Near-Excelent Camera
I'm no professional when it comes to cameras but I know a good gadget when I see one. The User interface is nicely put together with easily understandable navigation. This camera is bound to appeal to all user levels. It has a simple point and shoot mode as well as manual mode for the more advanced user. The photo quality is comparable to most cameras in its class. My only reservations about the camera are that the battery life is not fantastic but I reckon that is a trade-off for a 2" LCD. It would have been nice to have a viewfinder to revert to when running low on battery life.
Also, I'd advice you get a carry case for this camera. The LCD screen is not recessed at all and is therefore likely to get scratches when placed with the back down. One other reservation I have is the time lag between pressing the "snap" button and the picture actually being taken.
Other than that, its an excellent piece of engineering...

8 Awesome quality, nice features, right size, some minor nits
This is a wonderful camera. I bought it for the Leica lens, because I know lens quality is even more important than megapixels. If there had been a camera this sweet with a Leica lens and fewer megapixels, I would have been happy, but having 5 megapixels is just icing on the cake. The number one thrilling feature of this camera is the ability to take good pictures in low light conditions. By low, I don't mean darkness, but I do mean for example at night in a room illuminated by one light. Pictures come out wonderfully and show the true light of the room, in focus, in detail. And that's without a flash. With the flash, you can get great indoor pictures of people. (Flash helps for people a night because people tend to move around, and in low light conditions shutter speeds are slower, leading to blurring if the subject is moving... the image stabilization of this camera can compensate for your hand wiggling a bit, but it can't make the people in your picture hold still, which is why flash is a good idea at night if your picture includes people.)

Others have said quite a bit, and I'll skip most things that have already been mentioned. To elaborate on the issue of it having a small battery, one great thing is it does have some very smart power saving options built in to the settings, and these are quite aggressive about saving power if you set them right.

Slide show mode is nice for showing off pictures without the bother of pressing buttons.

I found the UI of the camera to be excellent. I just wished for a few more geeky advanced settings, but there are quite a few settings already, and they are pretty clear and easy to use, so even a beginner and non-geek should do fine.

Made in Japan. Tripod mount. Burst mode. SD card, which means you don't need to install the included software, you can just copy files directly if you have an SD card reader.

The fact it comes with a small capacity SD card, not a big one, I put in the plus category because that means I'm not paying a Panasonic price for a large card when I can buy a large card (1GB), and a high speed 60x one at that, for $100 after shopping around.

Minor nits: I wouldn't mind having a smaller screen to save battery life. / There is a VERY bright red LED that blasts on with every picture, making it unlikely to ever take any candid shots. / The metal finger-nub protrusion on the front of the camera seems unneccessary, although it is quite nicely done and doesn't protrude much. / The camera did not come with the lens cap and lens hood mentioned in the Amazon overview (not that I care; that might have been a mistake in the overview, because this thing would only accomodate a lens cap or hood when it was turned on; that's the only time the lens sticks out). / The end of my battery cover sticks out a teensy bit (can feel it sticking out, but can't really see it, as it's too minor), as if the final fit wasn't quite right. Anyone else have this, or is mine special? / No audio output, though it does record sound with videos, and can also let you do sound annotations for stills. / Original Panasonic batteries hard to find. / No camera case included. / 1-second splash screen when turning off would be nice to disable. / Rotating an image only rotates it on the camera; when you copy images off the SD card, they revert back to their old unrotated selves. Maybe if I used the supplied software to copy images this wouldn't happen.

Wish list, but I always want more: bluetooth. / remote control. / stealth mode features (shoot without flashing LED). Tape over the LED won't work, because this camera uses the light from the LED to aid in autofocus, at least for some shots. / Sound recording. It already records during video; why not have an audio-only record mode. Probably would have added too much to the UI. / Setting to keep screen off all the time to save battery.

Even after all my nitpicking, I still say this is a very, very, very nice camera because of the nice pictures it takes and the nice features.
9 great camera
I got this camera as a handy "put in my pocket and go" alternative to my Canon 20D (which I love, but isn't always convenient to lug around).

I've been very impressed with the camera. The Leica glass pays off in terms of sharpness and especially color reproduction and contrast. You'll want to get a second battery with this and bring it on long outings, but the battery is small so it's easy to stick the spare in your pocket.

Getting so many megapixels on such a small camera sensor can create noise when the camera goes up to ISO 200 or higher in very low light situations. It's easy enough to get around by forcing the camera into a slower ISO, and the image stabilization helps hold steady for the needed longer shutter speeds.

My only complaints about the camera: I think the menu system could be better designed (very easy mind you, just a few things that require more button pushes then I think should be required), the flip screen animation building mode is pretty useless for most people--a panorama building mode would be much more useful, and it would be nice to be able to review any recorded audio notes when viewing images on the camera.

I've been very happy with the camera and recommend it.
10 I made a good descision
This camera is absolutely amazing. I was nervous to spend so much but have been waiting so long to purchase a 5MP camera that is small enough to sneak into the bar for some fun party flicks. This camera is a god sent. The image quality is very nice. And the menu system is very intuitive.

The only minus is what the reviews say is battery life (I get a night + a little on a full charge). But having knowing this I got an extra battery for the times when I want to take 100 shots without going home.

The LCD is to die for. I do think if it had a dock it would be nice but these small details are minimal when you think of the BANG in this puppy.

My suggestion, buy it and dont look back. This is the perfect camera for someone who wants to have fun and good pictures in the dark streets of new york or wherever you may reside.
11 An Almost-Perfect Digital Camera For The Pocket
I have this camera for over a week now, and have tested it out quite well to feel good enough to recommend it.

I won't go into details that others have already covered, but what I consider useful.

I did spend a lot of time comparing the picture quality of various ultra-compact cameras including Sony DSC-T1, Canon SD300, Pentax Optio S5i, Casio Exilim EX-Z55, and Panasonic DMC-FX7. These are pictures posted by the professional reviewers at steves-digicams.com, dcresource.com, dpreview.com, and megapixel.net.

Based on my personal judgement, the pictures taken by the FX7 are almost-always sharper, and have more details, which is what I consider the most important quality I look for in a camera.

The Image Stabilizer feature does help, even though it may not help much in low-lighting condition.

The battery life is short, but since I've been getting a minimum of 60 max-resolution shots (all with flash) per full charge. I consider that good enough for my need. I do have a spare battery (bought from a guy with id "imode technology" on eBay) with me all the time, though.

I also use an ultra compact case Tamrac 5686, which fits the camera just fine while still have a small pocket for the spare battery and/or spare SD card.

For SD card, I use a Sandisk Ultra II 512MB due to its speed.

Anyway, I'm keeping my FX7 as I'm quite happy with its looks, quality, and performance.
12 Grainy pics
It's ok. The camera looks great. Although every shot I took came out grainy. I returned it 3 days later. I was very unsatisfied with this camera.
13 Great camera
I bought this camera to replace my old 3MP Sony. Had it now for about one month. The quality of the images is great for a change. There are multiple auto settings for various situations, ie night portrait, night landscape, sport, and default among others. Very thin and light, yet big enough to hold, a perfect combination. All controls are very intuitive and easy to use. I am really impressed.
14 Great small camera
Before I bought this camera, I used one of the tiny Casio Exilim cameras. My biggest complaint about the small digital cameras are that the small size makes it easy to shake and therefore take blurry images. With the Panasonic DMC-FX7, its still a small camera but with the image stabilization, pictures are very sharp. Initially, I thought it would bother me that there's no optical viewfinder, but I don't notice it at all now.

pros:
- huge 2.5" screen
- image stabilization works and takes sharp pictures
- small form factor
- 5.0 megapixels
- uses SD cards (a 1GB card is about $70 or less now)
- solid construction (feels solid and metal finish is high quality)

cons:
- weak flash (which is common to many small digital cameras)
- more expensive than other cameras
- battery life is OK. (I'd get an extra battery if you're taking this camera with you on vacation)
- no optical viewfinder (but as mentioned, it's not an issue for me)

overall I love this camera for the size and the quality of pictures it takes!
15 Sexy as Hell
I think I spent several months trying to make a decision on which digi to go for, but I finally rested on this wonderful Lumix camera. I can't help but buy on design (which is why I had an instant attraction to the Sony T1), but the Lumix FX7 is not just a pretty package. It has an enormous 2.5'' LCD screen which I love. The camera is so small; exactly the same size as a business card or an iPod mini (a lil thicker, of course).
Some of the naysayers are complaining of digital cameras that don't have the optical viewfinder because it helps stabilize an image, but this digi comes with an image stablization system like the big SLRs so you don't have to worry too much about blurry images.
If you'd like more info on this camera, go to http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fx7-review/index.shtml . Now if only I could find a nice sleeve that could fit the camera snugly.
16 Best Digital Pocket Camera Ever!
I bought this camera from Vann's one week ago. The camera is extremely easy to use and every small detail is well thought out. I am most impressed with the optical image stabilization (go to panasonic.com for some cool animations that show how it works). I am consistently able to take pictures indoors without flash at very slow shutter speeds. I have taken smear or blur-free images at 1sec, 1/5sec, etc. shutters. This is amazing for a pocket camera! I had considered buying a larger digital camera with a larger lens to allow more photography without flash, but this Panasonic feature does the trick.

Other cool features:
*Infinite burst photography (takes consecutive pictures as long as the shutter release is depressed)
*12x zoom on replayed pictures makes it easy to determine if a picture was focused correctly. There's even a "map" to indicate what zoomed-in portion of the image you are viewing.
*Huge 2.5" screen! Not as high in resolution as the comparable Sony T1, but the other features more than make up the difference
*Image stabilization works quite well and allows indoor photography without flash

I'm still learning all the pre-programmed scene modes, but overall I'm quite impressed and would highly recommend this camera. FYI-I purchased this camera as a replacement to my Minolta F100.
17 SO much better than Sony's DSC-T1
I bought this camera after much research. It is superior to its Sony counterpart T-1 in almost every way:

+It is about 50 g lighter than the T-1, which is quite substantial. It weighs no more than my cell phone when I put it in my pocket.
+Image stabilization!
+The material the camera is made of is better looking than the dull T-1.
+Cheap memory cards, it uses SD cards, not the Sony Memory Sticks, which is 1/2 the price of the Memory Sticks
+It's NOT SONY!
+LCD screen is bigger than the T-1
+Cheaper batteries than the Sony T1

One thing I have to warn you though, the movie mode spits out .mov files, which is only compatible with Apple QuickTime. Personally, I much prefer the .avi format other cameras offer, but it's a worthy tradeoff, I never use the video mode anyways.

Overall, I highly recommend this camera, I've gotten countless "oohs and ahhs" from people, which is more than I can say about the Sony T1, as way too many people have that.
18 So far so good...
I bought this camera in Japan in August... it's been great so far. Super light, high quality Leica lens and the screen is terrific!

Thursday, 24-Jul-2008 14:26:04 CDT
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