Panasonic DMC-FX500
16 MAY 2008
Launch price
£370.00
Stuff says
It’s certainly expensive, but you get what you pay for – excellence
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It might seem churlish to complain, but occasionally you’ll find yourself heading to the joystick to alter a setting when you should be prodding the on-screen icon, and vice versa. You’ll get used to it.
Class-leading pics
And the good news is that it takes the best photos we’ve seen from such a small camera, with very accurate colours, minimal noise throughout the ISO range and excellent flash performance. The 5x zoom Leica lens starts at a very useful 25mm-equivalent ultra-wideangle and has a maximum aperture of f2.8 for low-light shooting without flash.
The optical image stabilizer is up to Panasonic’s usual high standards, too. The lens also provides one of the few bugbears, though, by being so sluggish to zoom in and out.
The 720p hi-def video – saved as .mov files – is good for a camera, and smooth, but not as crisp and contrasty as the 720p footage from the much cheaper Samsung NV24HD.
This is a camera that tries to do everything well without bulging out your pocket, and asks you to pay a high price for its lack of compromise. It’s worth the money, but only serious snappers will want to fork out that much for a compact.