Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700 Review

This Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700 review finds a camera with many intermediate features for a sub-$400 model, including a 3.0-inch touch-screen LCD. I liked quite a few aspects of the FX700, but it did have some confusing menu options, which may frustrate beginners. Some of the camera's basic menu and settings options are not available, depending on which mode you're using to shoot, which is confusing.

However, the Lumix FX700 makes up for those problems with outstanding image quality. You'll be hard-pressed to shoot a poor photo with this camera, regardless of the lighting conditions.

Image Quality

Photos shot with the DMC-FX700 are sharp and bright, well above average for most point and shoot cameras and for cameras in the sub-$400 price range. The FX700 performs very well in all types of lighting conditions, creating sharp photos. The built-in flash unit works well, too.

With 14.1 megapixels of resolution, the FX700 has plenty of resolution for making large prints. You can shoot at four different ratios, including the widescreen 16:9 ratio, and you can shoot at six different resolutions per ratio. The FX700 can shoot up to five photos at the maximum resolution in burst mode.

The FX700 offers a few "special effect" modes, including the ability to shoot sepia, black and white, "happy" mode, and an interesting "film grain" mode, which can create some cool looks with the proper subject matter. Additionally, you can add the name and age to photos of babies and pets through a special mode that will calculate the age automatically.

Performance

You'll find great response times with the Lumix DMC-FX700, as it has almost no shutter lag, regardless of the lighting conditions. Shot to shot delays are minimal, too, and rarely noticeable. The FX700's startup times are only average, but the other response times more than make up for that slight problem.

The 3.0-inch touch-screen LCD is a very nice option, and you can control almost every aspect of the camera through the touch screen. Panasonic even included the ability to control the 5X zoom lens using either the touch screen or a manual switch. With the touch screen, it would've been nice if Panasonic made the screen larger, occupying the entire back panel of the camera, but Panasonic chose to include some buttons for additional control. I did find the touch-screen LCD to be a little tough to operate at first. It took a little practice to have the LCD recognize all of my gestures.

The 5X optical zoom lens offers limited wide angle capabilities, but it would be nice to have a little more magnification with this camera's lens. However, the lens' macro and "macro zoom" functions work extremely well, creating very sharp close-up photos.

The FX700's movie modes are really good and versatile, too. You can shoot at seven different movie quality settings, including AVCHD.

Design

The FX700 has a sturdy, well-built feel, but it remains a small, lightweight camera. Toggle switches are used to switch between still image and movie modes, as well as shooting and playback modes, which contribute to the feel.

The lens extends away from the camera body, and the left side (as seen from the front) is slightly curved. You'll find the FX700 in both black and silver.

The most frustrating aspect of the FX700 is its menu structure. Some options are only available in certain shooting modes, including some basic camera control options. It's difficult and confusing to remember what aspects of the camera you can control, depending on which mode you're using. You switch between modes using the touch screen, which is nice.