FX500 Review - Is This Panasonic the Best Travel Camera?

Why the FX500?

I needed to replace our Canon S-60, which had a suspicious ding in the side and had started to produce some odd-colored pictures. So I looked at the camera with the widest wide-angle lens (25mm) that I could pocket. Despite warnings that the FX500 sensor was "noisy," I went ahead an bought one. I haven't been (very) disappointed yet.

FX500 Specs and Highlights

The 10.1-megapixel FX500 features a 25mm Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens with 5x optical zoom(equivalent to 25-125mm on a 35mm film camera). It has image stabilization that allows you to take quite sharp pictures at 1/8 of a second with the zoom set at wide angle. The FX500 also features a 3.0-inch large touch-screen interface.

The FX500 records HD motion pictures in 1280 x 720p, but you can't zoom during the take.

You can set auto focus and exposure on the desired subject by simply touching it on the screen before framing your shot as you please.

First Look at the FX500

First off, let's establish my methods for testing any camera. I usually peer into the menus and turn off any in-camera processing, including sharpening and noise reduction, preferring to do those things when post-processing in Lightroom or PhotoShop. This gives me a good idea of what the camera can do on its own. If you don't have these expensive programs, you will find lots of adjustments on the FX500 to make your pictures pleasing to your taste.

I also turn off the automatic features, preferring to set the aperture manually to control depth of field. I set the ASA to 100 to get low-noise pictures. You see, automatic exposures are usually biased by manufacturers toward high ASA ratings so that camera shake is less of a factor--but those higher ASA pictures will be absolutely full of noise when ASA exceeds 200 on a small sensor camera.

Now on to what attracted me to the FX500:

The FX500 is only 0.9" deep, and easily slips into a shirt pocket. It's sleek brushed metal exterior is attractive, but a bit hard to hold for those of us with stumpy yet meaty fingers.

The camera is snappy to turn on, and pictures are recorded quickly. Focus isn't quite as speedy as other cameras I've used.

The macro mode is decent and allows pictures to be taken about 2 inches from the front of the lens.

Image stabilization (mega OIS) is good. I could take food pictures in rather dark restaurants at 1/8 of a second at ASA 100 (see samples).

Is the FX500 a Great Travel Camera for your Pocket?

I usually carry a DSLR around on my travels. But when I'm out at a restaurant at night, I don't want to be lugging that monster around. So a camera as small as the FX500 with a wide angle lens and decent image stabilization allows me to take discrete pictures of the food in a fancy restaurant or night shots of a city. For this, I like the FX500 very much.

I also found that exposure of my images was pretty much spot on. Usually with pocket cameras, the highlights are "blown out," meaning you see big areas of pure white in your pictures where the light is harsh.

The movies the FX500 takes are also a cut above the movie features of most small digital cameras not specifically made for movies. I hope to use this feature more in my travels this fall.

I'm very excited at this upgrade of my S60. It's nearly half as thick, and the lens has a wider range at both ends. The battery seems to have decent life as well.

The lens, a Leica, is pretty distortion free. I couldn't find any curved lines on buildings I had photographed from the ground.

The camera doesn't come with an SD card, although it will take a few pictures using its internal memory. Not a problem as we got a 4 GB card for $18.

Sample Pictures

For the pictures you see here and more, see our FX500 Sample Picture Gallery and discussion.

Postscript: Noise Issues With the FX500

There is lots of complaining on the net about noise issues with pocket cameras these days, especially with Panasonic models, so I thought I'd weigh in on the discussion.

For a small sensor pocket camera, I don't find the FX500 sensor particularly noisy.

Manufacturers, to their discredit, have made a holy grail out of pixel count and are racing to increase the number of photosites in each sensor. As those photosites get smaller, they get noisier. It's a fact of life (well, physics at least). The Panasonic sensor has one of the highest pixel densities of current pocket cameras.

Truth be told, would be happier with a 5 megapixel camera with less noise. After all, who are the people who are cranking out 20x30 pictures these days? I've published magazine covers from a good 2 megapixel digital camera and they look fabulous.

That said, when you pixel peep (enlarge your picture on your computer screen so that you are looking at actual pixels) many people will say they see noise in the FX500 images, even at ISO 100. In reality, I think this "noise" has its origins in the jpeg compression that the FX500 uses to keep file size small. This is a mistake, because these days storage is relatively cheap and the lens on the FX500 really good.

So, even if you don't follow all this, my suggestion is to use ASA 100 (or no more than 200 for pictures you want to print) and use the full 10 megapixels of your sensor. You will get quite decent results from these settings.

Shame on Panasonic for not including RAW files on their flagship pocket camera, or at least a less compressed option.