Excellent Lumix fx35 with great picture quality and features (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35)

Member Name: fishydiver

Product:	Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35
Date:	15/07/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 25mm Ultra wide angle lens, great battery life, fantastic picture quality, pocket sized, IA mode

Disadvantages: Limited zoom (4x), little manual control, can't zoom during movies

I bought this camera in silver from Argos' Clearance Bargains Ebay shop for just under £130 delivered, and what a brilliant investment it was! I chose it due to its wide range of features, and the fact that you can get an underwater case for it, as I would like to do underwater photography.

The first thing that struck me was just how good the battery life was, easily outstripping the 2 2700mAh AA batteries my old Samsung S830 used! It seemed to last for hours, even when I used the flash! I took this camera to a disco and was extremely impressed by how good the low light pictures looked when I used party mode.
The video is also very good quality, and includes a 720 HD widescreen mode as well as all the standard definition modes in 15 and 30 fps. However, I must point out that you can't zoom in while filming, and there is a limit to how long you can film for in one go, meaning that it is very difficult to tell how long you can film for until you run out of memory. The manual is very clear, however, in that it tells you how long you can video for with different sized memory cards.

I'll move on to the macro mode. Buying this camera made me want to experiment with macro mode, something which I had never really tried properly, as many compacts don't produce good macro results. However, the fx35 was an exception, producing fantastically clear and sharp results as close as 5cm from the subject. I would recommend using spot focusing and focus lock for the best results.
Overall, I think that the FX35 is a fantastic camera, even by today's standards, and would recommend it to anyone who wants an easy to use camera without manual controls or a massive zoom, particularly those who take a lot of landscape shots or photos of lots of people. It is very easy to use, especially on intelligent auto mode, which detects what type of picture you're trying to take, so you don't have to adjust a single setting!

Summary: Recommed as a great point and shoot digital camera with good picture quality and HD movies

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