DPInterface Panasonic Lumix FX3 Review
Brad Soo - November 7th, 2006

The Panasonic Lumix FX3 is Panasonic's low cost ultra-compact camera designed for those who want a tiny camera priced much lower than those $300 - $500 compacts nowadays. Is this 6 megapixel Lumix worth it or should you go for those more expensive cameras?

Size and Weight

This is how compact the FX3 is:

(172.6)  89.5 x 58.0 x 25.1 mm (150 g) - Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH
(179.0)  91.2 x 59.6 x 28.2 mm (165 g) - Canon PowerShot SD900 Ti Digital ELPH
(172.2)  94.5 x 60.4 x 17.3 mm (127 g) - Casio Exilim S770
(172.8)  92.0 x 58.4 x 22.4 mm (139 g) - Casio Exilim Z1000
(177.2)  92.7 x 56.7 x 27.8 mm (155 g) - Fujifilm FinePix F30
(163.6)  90.0 x 55.0 x 18.6 mm (130 g) - Fujifilm FinePix Z3
(177.0)  93.0 x 61.0 x 23.0 mm (130 g) - HP Photosmart R827
(183.6)  96.0 x 62.0 x 25.6 mm (170 g) - HP Photosmart R967
(189.7)  111.0 x 55.5 x 23.2 mm (160 g) - Kodak EasyShare V610
(171.2)  101.0 x 49.8 x 20.4 mm (124 g) - Kodak EasyShare V705
(191.5)  110.5 x 60.0 x 21.0 mm (140 g) - Nikon Coolpix S7c
(168.9)  90.5 x 58.0 x 20.4 mm (115 g) - Nikon Coolpix S9
(174.3)  96.0 x 54.0 x 24.3 mm (120 g) - Olympus Stylus 750
(169.4)  94.1 x 51.1 x 24.2 mm (125 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX3
(169.4)  94.1 x 51.1 x 24.2 mm (132 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX07
(179.9)  97.7 x 57.1 x 25.1 mm (151 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX50
(166.0)  88.5 x 54.5 x 23.0 mm (125 g) - Pentax Optio A20
(173.0)  95.0 x 58.5 x 19.5 mm (135 g) - Pentax Optio T20
(169.0)  94.5 x 57.0 x 17.5 mm (142 g) - Samsung NV3
(174.8)  95.0 x 56.5 x 23.3 mm (130 g) - Sony Cyber-shot T50
(169.0)  89.0 x 57.0 x 23.0 mm (127 g) - Sony Cyber-shot W70

As usual, I've included the "DPI measurement unit" (As opposed to volume) on the left for a more accurate impression of a camera's size.

As you can see, the FX3 is one of the smaller cameras out there. Still, all of those cameras are very compact and pocketable.

Open up the Box

The FX3 has your average digital camera bundle in the box:

  • 16 MB Secure Digital Card
  • Rechargeable CGA-S005 lithium-ion battery
  • Battery charger
  • Wrist strap
  • USB cable
  • A/V cable
  • User's manual
  • CD-ROM

Storage and Power

You'd obviously need to factor in at least a 512 MB Secure Digital card from the start. The camera takes advantage of high-speed cards, and can reduce wait time especially after taking long bursts or a movie clip.

270 shots - Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH
230 shots - Canon PowerShot SD900 Ti Digital ELPH
200 shots - Casio Exilim S770
360 shots - Casio Exilim Z1000
580 shots - Fujifilm FinePix F30
170 shots - Fujifilm FinePix Z3
240 shots - HP Photosmart R827
160 shots - HP Photosmart R967
135 shots - Kodak EasyShare V610
150 shots - Kodak EasyShare V705
200 shots - Nikon Coolpix S7c
190 shots - Nikon Coolpix S9
190 shots - Olympus Stylus 750
320 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX3
320 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX07
300 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX50
150 shots - Pentax Optio A20
130 shots - Pentax Optio T20
200 shots - Samsung NV3
400 shots - Sony Cyber-shot T50
360 shots - Sony Cyber-shot W70

The Panasonic FX3 delivers above average battery life of 320 shots per charge (CIPA Standard). It takes 90 minutes to fully charge a depleted battery. There is a simple but effective 3-step battery indicator displayed on the FX3's LCD.

 

Extras

There's only a waterproof case and AC adapter available for the FX3.

Camera Tour

The FX3 is a simplistic camera which has the standard Lumix design. And, it comes in your choice of silver or black.

The Panasonic FX3 has the "old" 35 - 105 mm lens that was last seen on the FX9 in 2005. This lens has an aperture range of f2.8 - f5.0 and of course, it has built-in optical image stabilization.

The flash unit has a range of 30 cm to 4 m at wide-angle and 30 cm to 2.2 m, which is about average. The AF-assist/self-timer lamp is located to the top right of the lens.

The Panasonic Lumix FX3 has a 2.5 inch LCD which consists of 115,000 pixels. The LCD has good low-light and outdoor visibility though viewing angle is not that great. The low resolution is fairly obvious, especially in dark conditions.

A small mode dial peeps out at the very top right of the FX3. There's a 5-way controller lower down which consists of:

  • Up - Exposure compensation, bracketing, white balance adjustment, backlight
  • Down - Review (Quickly plays back your photos)
  • Left - Self-timer (Off, 2 seconds, 10 seconds)
  • Right - Flash setting (Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, flash on, slow-sync, flash off)
  • Center - Menu/Set (Confirm)

Below that is the DISPLAY button which toggles the LCD information shown as well as LCD modes. The LCD modes include brighten and high-angle mode. By default, the LCD cannot be viewed from odd angles but high-angle mode takes care of this, but also prevents you from viewing it directly. There's no way to combine these two. The other button changes the drive mode of the camera and also deletes photos in playback.

At the top of the FX3, you can see the mode dial more clearly as well as a power button and the shutter button and zoom lever wrapped around it. The little button at the very corner toggles between the two optical image stabilization modes on the camera. The numerous holes are for the speaker and microphone units. The modes include:

  • Playback
  • Program mode
  • Simple mode (Auto)
  • Macro mode
  • Scene modes
  • Movie mode
  • Direct print

Over here, there's the memory card and battery slot covered by a fairly sturdy door. A lock switch prevents the door from popping up. There's also a non-centralized metal tripod mount.

Shooting

The Panasonic Lumix FX3 displays a live histogram in record mode as well as a lot of shooting info, including complete exposure data.

The FX3 has 2 image stabilization modes: Mode 1 activates the OIS system all the time, even when composing, and Mode 2 stabilizes things only when the shutter is pressed. Mode 2 is more effective for most conditions.

The FX3 has a lot of scene modes which include portrait, soft skin, scenery (landscape), sports, night portrait, night scenery, self-portrait, party, cuisine, candle light, fireworks, starry sky, baby, snow, high sensitivity and underwater. High sensitivity boosts ISO to 800 or 1600 if needed in order to freeze motion.

Recording

The Panasonic Lumix FX3 can take VGA movies with sound at 30 FPS till the memory card fills up. There's also a widescreen mode whose resolution is 848 x 480. Movies are recorded in QuickTime format.

If you want to record more movies for less space, the frame rate is selectable with 30 FPS or 10 FPS. You can lower the resolution down to QVGA (320 x 240) as well. Exposure is automatically adjusted and the optical image stabilizer is functional while recording. Focus is fixed though and you can't use any zoom.

The Panasonic Lumix FX3 produces good video with audio.

Performance

The Panasonic Lumix FX3 starts up and extends its lens in under 2 seconds. The FX3 normally takes about 1/5 second to 1/3 second to focus which is fairly fast.

Shutter lag is a little obvious at telephoto in low-light conditions but is otherwise not noticeable. Shot-to-shot speed was 1 shot every 2 seconds, longer if the flash is used. Flash recharge time using a fully charged battery took 5 seconds. The camera zooms from wide-angle to telephoto in 2 seconds.

Using high and low speed continuous shooting, the FX3 can shoot up to 6 frames at 3 and 2 FPS respectively using the highest resolution. Using the unlimited mode, you can fill up the memory card firing at 2 FPS. The LCD refreshes many times at a respectable rate but don't expect to successfully track all moving subjects.

The FX3 turns off within 2 seconds in record mode with its lens at telephoto.

Image Quality

Time to take a look to see how the Panasonic Lumix FX3 fares in image quality:


ISO 100 (f8.5, 1/1000 sec)


ISO 200 (f8.5, 1/2000 sec)


ISO 400 (f8.5, 1/2000 sec)

At ISO 100, things are reasonably smooth and not noisy at all. Going up to ISO 200, there is a tiny bit of increase in noise and for that, you need to look very closely. ISO 400 noise is more visible but it still does quite good for big prints and viewing. Chromatic aberration (color fringing) is visible, probably due to the Venus Engine Plus imaging processor the FX3 uses (versus Venus Engine III on the other new Lumix cameras).

Color fringing, some soft corners and redeye are the only issues to the FX3. The rest, overall image quality is very acceptable.

Photo gallery

Check out the Panasonic Lumix FX3 photo gallery.

Playback

In playback, the Panasonic Lumix FX3 can playback stills and movies (With sound) as well as do all this: Protect image, print marking, sound memo, slideshow, rotate, resize and trimming. You can also magnify still photos by 16x and take a look around using the 4 arrow buttons. The FX3 shows you everything about your photos including a histogram and exposure info.

 

Conclusion

The FX3 is an affordable ultra-compact camera with optical image stabilization, good battery life and nice and snappy performance. The LCD may be low in resolution but it makes up for that with good visibility and display of an array of info.

Its movie mode is nice but lacks things like zoom which keep it from being excellent. With just a few small image quality issues to interfere with its very good image quality, the FX3 is overall a great deal and bang-for-you-buck. It's small size, low price and being big on features (price-feature ratio), I'd definitely recommend this camera.

Camera rating upon 10 (more about this): [Category: Ultra-compact]

  • 7.5 - Body/Exterior
  • 6.5 - Bundle, batteries and memory
  • 7.5 - Lens
  • 8.0 - Feature set
  • 6.5 - Controls and operation
  • 8.0 - Performance
  • 7.0 - Image quality
  • 7.3 - Overall rating

What's hot:

  • 3X zoom lens with optical image stabilization
  • Above average battery life
  • Good LCD visibility
  • Live histogram with exposure info (both in shooting and playback)
  • Fast performance, including continuous shooting
  • Nice movie mode
  • Good image quality with low noise
  • Affordably priced

What's not:

  • Low LCD resolution
  • No manual controls
  • Redeye, corner softness and color fringing
  • No movie focus or zoom, editing

Recommended Accessories

  • 512 MB high-speed Secure Digital card

Content ©2005 - 2006 Digital Photography Interface. All rights reserved.
All trademarks and images are property of their respective owners.
No part of this website may be copied, posted or used anywhere
without the written permission of the website owner.

.