DPInterface Panasonic Lumix FX9 Review
Brad Soo - February 18th, 2006

The Panasonic Lumix FX9 is an ultra-compact camera with a very useful feature not found on most competition: Optical image stabilization. Other than that, the Panasonic Lumix FX9 also includes a 2.5 inch LCD, full-fledged movie mode and excellent battery life. Quite recently, my dad was shopping for an ultra-compact camera and considered the FX9. He's quite impressed with the FX9's performance and features. But will the FX9 impress me? Find out now in this review:

Size and Weight

This is how small the FX9 is compared to other cameras:

(165.1)  96.1 x 45.1 x 23.9 mm (105 g) - Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital ELPH
(161.1)  86.0 x 53.5 x 21.6 mm (140 g) - Canon PowerShot SD450 Digital ELPH
(165.1) 90.0 x 59.0 x 16.1 mm (115 g) - Casio Exilim S600
(166.0)  88.5 x 57.0 x 20.5 mm (112 g) - Casio Exilim Z600
(163.6)  90.0 x 55.0 x 18.6 mm (130 g) - Fujifilm FinePix Z2
(177.0)  93.0 x 61.0 x 23.0 mm (130 g) - HP Photosmart R727
(172.0)  94.0 x 56.0 x 22.0 mm (143 g) - Kodak EasyShare V550
(171.2)  101.0 x 49.8 x 20.4 mm (125 g) - Kodak EasyShare V570
(167.1)  89.9 x 57.5 x 19.7 mm (118 g) - Nikon Coolpix S3
(178.5)  97.0 x 55.0 x 26.5 mm (128 g) - Olympus Stylus 600
(178.0)  95.0 x 55.5 x 27.5 mm (115 g) - Olympus Stylus Verve S
(168.8)  94.1 x 50.5 x 24.2 mm (127 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX9
(166.0)  88.5 x 54.5 x 23.0 mm (125 g) - Pentax Optio A10
(159.0)  86.0 x 54.0 x 19.0 mm (100 g) - Pentax Optio S6
(166.7)  89.6 x 59.8 x 17.3 mm (133 g) - Samsung Digimax i5
(175.3)  96.5 x 61.0 x 17.8 mm (130 g) - Samsung Digimax i6
(173.9)  93.6 x 60.0 x 20.3 mm (113 g) - Sony Cyber-shot T5
(166.4)  91.6 x 60.0 x 14.8 mm (115 g) - Sony Cyber-shot T7
(165.2)  89.7 x 54.9 x 20.6 mm (134 g) - Sony Cyber-shot T9

The size comparison has changed a bit since my 2005 reviews. I've added a new and very unique unit on the very left to compare the size of digital cameras - As far as I know, DPI is the first camera review site to do this.

Anyway, the Pentax Optio snags the title of the smallest and lightest camera. The FX9 is about average in size and is the only camera in that list to feature optical image stabilization (besides the Sony T9).

Open up the Box

Open up that box and in it you'll find these:

• 16 MB Secure Digital Card
• CGR-S005A lithium-ion battery
• Battery charger
• Wrist strap
• USB cable
• A/V cable
• CD-ROM
• User's manual

Storage and Power

Of the cameras I've reviewed, none of them had enough bundled memory. And the FX9 is not an exception. The 16 MB card can barely hold 5 full resolution photos. For the FX9, I'd recommend a 1 GB high-speed SD. Don't take MMCs, don't take non-speed rated cards; instead get a high-speed card (40X and above) - There's a very noticeable increase in performance.

The FX9 can take an excellent 270 shots (CIPA standard) on a single battery charge. It takes about two hours to fully charge the battery. It's always good to get an extra battery pack for your camera, even if it has very good battery life like this one. I hope you don't mind but here's a fairly long list of battery life numbers (Apparently this camera class is a very competitive one) so here we go:

160 shots - Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital ELPH
150 shots - Canon PowerShot SD400 Digital ELPH
150 shots - Canon PowerShot SD450 Digital ELPH
300 shots - Casio Exilim S600
500 shots - Casio Exilim Z600
170 shots - Fujifilm FinePix Z2
N/A - HP Photosmart R727
120 shots - Kodak EasyShare V550
150 shots - Kodak EasyShare V570
190 shots - Nikon Coolpix S3
330 shots - Olympus Stylus 600
120 shots - Olympus Stylus Verve S
270 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX9
150 shots - Pentax Optio A10
130 shots - Pentax Optio S6
N/A - Samsung Digimax i6
240 shots - Sony Cyber-shot T5
180 shots - Sony Cyber-shot T7
240 shots - Sony Cyber-shot T9

As you can see, the FX9's battery life is above average, almost reaching the 300 shot mark.

Extras

I can't think of any accessories for the FX9.

Camera Tour

The Panasonic Lumix FX9 comes in your choice of silver, black, blue or this very special purple-red. Blue is the most stylish color, according to my dad, but Panasonic decided to send me what they call a red FX9 (Purplish-red to me).

The Panasonic Lumix FX9 has 6 effective megapixels on a 1/2.5 inch CCD and a 3x optical zoom lens equivalent to 35 - 105 mm and f2.8 - f5.0. The Panasonic Lumix FX9 has optical image stabilization which helps reduce blurring caused by camera shake. Optical image stabilization really helps - For the FX9, I managed to squeeze out some good shots that would've been impossible without OIS. As for Panasonic's other ultra-zoom which has the same technology, the FZ7, I managed to get a clear hand-held shot taken at 2 seconds!

The built-in flash has a maximum range of 4.0 m at wide-angle and 2.2 m at telephoto which is above average (A lot of ultra-thin cameras do badly in this area; not the FX9 though!). The AF-assist beam/self-timer lamp is located to the top right of the camera.

The Panasonic Lumix FX9's LCD has about twice the resolution of the FX8's LCD. This 2.5 inch LCD has 207,000 pixels. It's big, bright and sharp. Indoor and outdoor viewing was great. It brightens automatically in low-light so you can frame properly. Outdoors, you can boost the brightness by holding down the DISPLAY button.

The mode dial is on the top right and you can easily change modes with using your thumb. Modes on the dial include:

• Movie
• Scene modes
• Macro
• Simple mode AKA full automatic
• Auto AKA programmed auto
• Playback

The 5 way controller gives you quick access to change these:

• Up - Compensation (Backlight, exposure, white balance, bracketing)
• Down - Review
• Left - Self-timer
• Right - Flash setting (Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, flash on, slow-sync, off)

The MENU button in the middle brings up a whole bunch of other options to customize. White balance compensation allows you to set warmer/cooler white balance in 1 step increments to +/-10. Bracketing takes 3 shots with different exposures.

The DISPLAY button toggles the amount of info displayed on the LCD. Pressing it for longer than 1 second boosts the LCD brightness by 40%.

The top of the FX9 features a on/off switch, shutter button with a wrapped around zoom lever and a button to change OIS mode. Also, there's a microphone and speaker.

Over here at the bottom is a tripod mount and battery/card slot covered by a wimpy cover. Should I point out that I'll also be using a non-slip mat in my 2006 reviews as... let's say... a protective measure.

On one side of the FX9, you'll find it blank whereas on the other side, you'll find a wrist strap mount and these ports: 2-in-1 USB and A/V out port and the DCIN port (With the use of an AC adapter

Shooting

The Panasonic Lumix FX9 has 2 image stabilization modes: Mode 1 and Mode 2. As I mentioned earlier on, you can change the OIS mode by pressing the small button next to the shutter button. OIS is always active Mode 1, whereas in Mode 2, the OIS activates only when the photo is taken. Mode 2 is always more effective, for some reason.

The FX9's ISO sensitivity range is from ISO 80 to ISO 400 in these steps: 80, 100, 200, 400. For white balance, there's Auto, 3 presets and one custom.

There's 5 image size options ranging from 6 MP to VGA along with 2 compression options which are Fine and Standard.

The Extended Optical Zoom feature uses a smaller area on the CCD to bring you closer. It doesn't involve the movement of the lens neither does it degrade image equality. This is essentially cropping without having to use the computer. And the catch here is the resolution used is 3 MP.

Recording

The Panasonic Lumix FX9 can take VGA movies at 30 FPS till the memory card is full, with sound of course. A QVGA 10 FPS option is available. You can't use the zoom while recording but you can activate OIS. Movies are recorded in QuickTime format and the first frame is saved as a separate picture. That's practically it. The FX9 has an excellent movie mode though there's not much of a size/FPS selection range.

Also, I think a zoom feature should be implemented as this feature is available on most ultra-compacts nowadays. I see that the Extended Optical Zoom feature, mentioned in the previous section, can be a potential method to zoom without recording the lens motor sound.

Movie quality was very good but I think audio quality could've been better by moving the microphone to the front.

Performance

The FX9 turns on quickly in 2 seconds. High-speed autofocus was so fast, I couldn't even notice the camera focusing. On the other hand, normal autofocus took half a second. If you don't mind the LCD hesitating for a moment when using high-speed AF, then you should probably use it. With shot to shot speed being about 2 seconds and flash recycling time, about 7 seconds, the FX9 is fairly fast.

Based on my testing with a 512 MB SanDisk Ultra II SD, the Panasonic Lumix FX9 can fill up the memory card with photos at 1.4 FPS in continuous shooting drive. While not many digital cameras can do that, this one can. The are two other continuous modes as well: Low-speed (Which took 7 photos at 1.8 FPS) and high-speed (Which took 6 photos at 3 FPS). I think the high-speed mode is best suited for sports/action photography.

The lens goes from wide-angle to telephoto in about two seconds. When it comes to powering down, the FX9 powers down instantly.

Image Quality

ISO 80 (f2.8, 1/8 sec)

ISO 100 (f2.8, 1/8 sec)

ISO 200 (f2.8, 1/13 sec)

ISO 400 (f2.8, 1/25 sec)

The FX9 produces fairly sharp photos. Chromatic aberration (Color fringing) levels are low along with distortion. There were some soft photos but even then, they were still acceptable. As for noise, I think that's not a significant problem. Red-eye is common on most ultra-compacts, including this one. Overall, image quality was very good.

Playback

In playback, the Panasonic Lumix FX9 can playback stills and movies (With sound) as well as perform these functions: Protect image, rotate, resize, crop, record sound memos (Up to 10 seconds), slideshow, print marking and direct printing (The FX9 is PictBridge enabled).

You can also zoom up to 16x into still photos taken and take a look around using the 4 directional buttons. Choose to see no info, basic info or lots of info (Shutter speed and aperture values are shown) about your photos. When it comes to histograms, the FX9 displays a histogram in playback as well as a live histogram while shooting.

Conclusion

The Panasonic Lumix FX9 is a great camera: 6 megapixels, a 2.5 inch LCD, great battery life and best of all, optical image stabilization. The 2.5 inch LCD has a significantly higher resolution than the one on the FX7/FX8 and is a lot brighter too. OIS is not something you'll see on many ultra-compact cameras.

The FX9 can shoot indefinitely at 1.4 FPS using its infinite continuous mode. Great but the frame rate isn't as good as other ultra-compacts which can do the same, such as the Canon SD450 which can do 1.9 FPS till the card fills up. Other than that, the FX9 is very fast, especially when auto focusing.

Photo quality was great except some softness at times and red-eye. The movie mode is excellent though it should feature some sort of "zoom while recording" function, and the microphone more strategically placed.

One thing about the FX9 is it doesn't feature any manual controls, not even "priority" modes. This is definitely something I'd like to see. So if you'd like a compact camera with OIS and speedy performance, then you probably should take a look at the Panasonic FX9.

What's hot:

• Ultra-compact and stylish
• Great battery life
• Optical image stabilization
• Excellent LCD (Sharpness AND visibility)
• Extremely fast
• Unlimited continuous shooting
• Excellent movie mode
• User friendly
• Good photo quality

What's not:

• No manual controls
• Low FPS rate for "infinite shooting"
• Flimsy battery/card cover
• Red-eye
• Some soft photos
• No movie zoom

Recommended accessories:

~Extra CGR-S005A battery
~1 GB high-speed SD card

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