Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH5 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)
- 16.1-megapixel resolution
- 4x optical zoom; 28mm wide-angle Leica lens
- 720 HD video capture; LUMIX Image Uploader makes it simple to share pictures on Facebook and video on YouTube
- Panasonic iA mode makes it simple for anyone to take beautiful photos
- Capture images and video to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH27 2.7″ LCD 16.1 Digital Camera. Enjoy clear photos with the Panasonic digital camera. This digital camera shoots high-quality 16.1 megapixels images and combines a 28mm wide angle 1 Leica DC lens with a powerful 8x optical zoom to take amazing photos. The high-speed, high-performance Venus Engine VI is incorporated in this camera to enable the recording of beautiful images with higher quality signal processing including the intelligent resolution technology. The MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH27 2.7-Inch Touchscreen LCD 16.1 Megapixel Digital Camera compensates for the blurring caused by hand-shake. The face detection AF/AE function detects faces and automatically optimizes the focus and exposure settings. Features Include: Face Detection AF/AE function detects faces and automatically optimizes the focus and exposure settings 16.1 Megapixels 4x Optical Zoom Lens Aspect Ratio of 4:3 / 3:2 / 16:9 Mega O.I.S. 720p HD movie record
List Price: $ 169.00
Price: $ 169.00
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better than I expected – UPDATE Dec. 2011,
I wanted to see how well this camera would actually function as a carry-around for quick grabs of interesting things which happen too fast to dig a camera out of a bag. Being very pocketable, it is easy to carry in shirt or pants pockets, provided you take into consideration the delicate nature of the LCD screen and thin lens cover.
Anyone who reads my other reviews of cameras and electronics will know that I am no fan of proprietary rechargeable batteries. I think they are wasteful and unnecessary complications, requiring one to purchase extra batteries which can only be used on one device, then must be discarded. Given that we already have international standards for battery designs (including rechargeable), I find it a poor design choice created primarily to bilk customers out of more hard-earned cash.
That said, I will have to admit that this camera has changed my mind a little in that regard. I am still using my very first charge on the included battery, and have not had to recharge it yet. Now, I only shoot it for limited periods of time, and not every day, but the charge is holding far better than I expected, even when not in use.
Another strong point is that I can get extra batteries from a third party for little more than the price of a 4-pack of lithium AA batteries, which means that I can easily carry several charged batteries for about the same cost as one-use batteries. This makes it much more attractive, even though I am still limited to the charged batteries I have on hand. I have even bought 2 extra batteries to test this out. I will update if there are any significant additional things to report.
The other thing that has made this camera far more attractive to me is its macro capability. As an old geezer with eyes not quite so good as in my youth, I find it more and more difficult to read the increasingly microscopic text being printed on increasingly smaller electronic devices, such as wall wart power supplies, and have found that this camera works extremely well for taking pictures in macro mode and zooming in to make them very readable. I have also used this camera to reach inside equipment racks to take pictures to document equipment connections (which were undocumented) before making changes or moving gear. It has worked very well for that.
It has become my camera of choice for everyday carry-around use, and although it is not as easy to use as my favorite Canon 720 IS, I am finding that it functions reasonably well for most things. The lack of an optical viewfinder makes it difficult for those of us with glasses, especially in the bright sunlight, but the LCD can be made bright enough to see well enough to frame shots with an acceptable level of usefulness. It would be better if the LCD were not glossy, however, as reflection in bright light makes it more difficult to use.
The picture quality is good, although I haven’t done any hard comparisons with my other cameras yet. I was shooting at the 5 megapixel size for a while to save space on the 1gb card, but have since replaced that with an 8gb card and will test at full resolution.
All in all, I am happily surprised and looking to using and testing this camera more in the future. I will update with any significant information.
Within its limitations, I would recommend this camera.
UPDATE No. 13, 2011
I used the video recording feature for the first time recently, and I was extremely impressed. The video was very clear and sharp, and the audio was amazing for the tiny mic placed on top of the camera.
The more I use this camera, the more I like it. It has become very useful in my life.
UPDATE: Dec. 17, 2011
I have seen some references to Panasonic has changing their batteries in later models so one cannot use third party batteries, but must purchase the vastly more expensive Panasonic ones. If that is true, that makes this camera even more valuable, as one can still get replacement batteries from third parties. Shame on you Panasonic, if that is true.
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|Awesome Point and Shoot Camera,
I bought this camera before leaving for a two-week trip to Kauai. My other digital camera, a fancy Canon camera, broke a while back and I haven’t had it fixed yet, plus it is huge.
So I was looking for something relatively inexpensive that would take good quality photos and would not have unacceptable shutter lag.
This camera fits the bill. It’s tiny but solid; very little shutter lag; has many interesting scene modes; captures colors really well; and it’s extremely easy to transfer files from the camera to a computer without using any special software.
I was a little bit worried about the lack of control due to the complete point and shoot nature of this camera, but I found that by using Intelligent Auto Mode, the results improved. Intelligent Auto got it right most of the time. The stabilization is great, too. Then I found that I could make the camera do some other tricks that make it slightly more tailored to my needs – I found the setting that allows the camera to determine the optimal shutter speed and tweaked a few other settings. Now it takes awesome low-light photos (pending you can hold the camera still for up to 1/4 of a second). I took photos inside of a lava tunnel with no flash and they came out!
The battery life is good also, which I was concerned about. I could take well over 100 photos a day (leaving the camera on for long periods of time) and only wear out 1/3 of the battery.
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|Great value, but with a flaw,
I am a novice at photography, so I will be writing this review from the perspective of someone who is not an expert at all with the ins and outs of using a camera. I just wanted something that took good quality pictures for this price range, was easy to use, and had a zoom. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH5 was a massive upgrade from my old Kodak Easyshare C-530. When I took it out of the packaging, I was amazed at how small it was. I have big hands, but had no problem holding or operating the camera. The user manual is on a CD in .pdf format rather than being on paper, but this didn’t bother me. The menus and buttons are fairly simple and easy to figure out. Novices like myself will have no trouble operating the camera after a little experimenting. FYI, there is no touch screen on this model, but a few simple buttons instead (which is exactly what I wanted. I suck at using touch screens because my big fingers lead to accuracy problems.) The 2.7 inch display makes it easy to see what you’re doing. You can also customize a few items such as the focus icon, the LCD screen’s brightness, what sounds the camera makes when taking a picture or selecting menu items, as well as the volume of each sound. If you want to take a self-portrait or family photo with yourself in it, there is a self-timer which can be set for a 2 or 10 second delay. The FH5 also has the standard tripod-mounting hole on the bottom.
One of the really nice things this camera allows you to do is to take pictures with three different aspect ratios. Most of the options are 4:3, but you can also select 3:2 or my favorite, 16:9. Choosing the 16:9 setting means that your pictures display perfectly on a HDTV with no resizing required, which is perfect for me. I have found through experimentation that there are only really three different picture-taking modes that I need to use. The first is Scenery, for brightly lit pictures of outside landscapes. The second is Normal mode with Macro activated, for taking extreme close-ups of small objects/critters. For everything else, Intelligent Auto (iA) seems to do a fine job. I am generally quite pleased at the quality of pictures that this camera produces, and how simple it is to use. It does struggle with overblown bright sunlit areas, but so do all point-and-shoot cameras. The previously mentioned Scenery mode seems to handle these areas the best. I confess that someone who knows more about photography might be able to come up with manual settings that produce better results in this situation than I can. Before I bought a new camera, I was concerned that whichever one I got might have a delay between me pressing the button and it actually taking the picture, but there are no worries with the FH5. It’s simply lightning-fast. I cannot comment on the ease or quality of video recording, as I have never used it.
Overall, this camera does a great job for the low price (it was $119.00 when I purchased it.) However, there IS an elephant in the room that prevents the FH5 from getting 5 stars, and that is the poor battery life. I went on a hike yesterday that lasted 2.5 hours, and I took about 170 pictures. The camera went from being fully charged to being fully drained in this time. I already had both the LCD brightness and sound turned down to help save the battery as well. If you have the sounds and brightness set higher, the issue will be even worse. This might not be a big deal if you’re just going to use the camera sporadically, but in some circumstances it might become a real problem. If you are on vacation, and you have a full day of photography planned, you’ll need to get an extra battery or two. I timed it, and it takes about 100 minutes to fully recharge the battery, so at least that’s fairly quick. I have not purchased an extra battery (which is damned expensive at $55.)
What else will you need to get with this camera, if anything? Well, first of all it comes with a wrist strap, but I’d recommend getting a simple neck strap instead. It provides added security and it’s just easier to carry something around your neck. The body of the camera is fairly smooth, and you don’t want it slipping out of your hands and getting dropped. Another thing I would recommend is a simple case for protecting the camera when it’s not in use. The rear LCD IS flush with the body of the camera, so you don’t want to be setting it on anything that could scratch it. I got the Case Logic TBC-301, and it fits well. The camera comes with 70MB of on-board memory, so you’ll definitely want to pick up a SD/SDHC card if you want to take more than a few pictures at once. I got an 8GB, 30MB/sec card for about $32. However, before it arrived, I used an older and slower 1GB, 15MB/sec card which seemed to work just fine. You can probably get a much cheaper card than I did and it will be good for general photography purposes. I went with this card because I felt I needed the fastest possible card for burst mode…
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