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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30 Gordon Laing, August 2007

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30 gallery

The following images were taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30. The FX30 was set to 7M Fine JPEG mode and 4:3 aspect ratio with Auto White Balance, Multiple metering and the Standard Colour mode.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

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Landscape: 3.27MB, Normal, 1/640, f5.6, ISO 100, 4.6-16.4mm at 16.4mm (equivalent to 100mm)

  Our first sample image was taken with the FX30 zoomed all the way in to an equivalent of 100mm. This has allowed us to grab this shot of two boats sailing into the distance.

The crops show the optics are very sharp, but the sensor is letting the side down with quite visible noise even at the lowest sensitivity of 100 ISO.

Remember this is the FX30 working in bright light at its best quality settings.
     


Building
: 3.41MB, Normal, 1/200, f8, ISO 100, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)


    Another shot taken with the FX30 at its 100 ISO sensitivity, but this time with the lens zoomed-out to its widest angle setting.

The subject matter is more forgiving here, with noise only really apparent in darker areas.

The crops show the lens is also sharp when zoomed-out, even when examining an extreme corner, such as in the crop of the roof tile.
     
   
     
   


Portrait: 2.71MB, Normal, 1/50, f5.6, ISO 200, 4.6-16.4mm at 16.4mm (equivalent to 100mm)

  We zoomed the FX30 into its longest focal length for this portrait shot and set the built-in flash to fire to compensate for the dim conditions.

The resulting exposure is natural-looking and very well-balanced, but the increase in sensitivity to 200 ISO has resulted in further noise and noise reduction artefacts - indeed any detail which was present in the crop of the hat has been smeared out.
     


Macro: 2.68MB, Macro, 1/125, f8, ISO 400, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  We switched the FX30 to its macro mode for this shot and positioned the camera near to the 5cm closest focusing distance at wide angle.

The optics again do the FX30 proud, but an increase in sensitivity to 400 ISO has resulted in a further fall in overall image quality.

Noise is quite obvious when viewed at 100%, although at least there's still some detail remaining.
     


Indoor: 2.86MB, Normal, 1/60, f2.8, ISO 400, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  We stuck with a sensitivity of 400 ISO for this indoor shot taken with Auto White Balance under fluorescent lighting.

As with the previous example, noise is quite visible when viewed at 100%, especially in darker areas, but there's still a decent amount of detail remaining. The magazine cover-lines are quite clear.
     


Indoor: 2.75MB, Normal, 1/20, f2.8, ISO 800, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

    Upping the sensitivity to 800 ISO for this indoor shot has resulted in a significant increase in noise, again especially in the shadow areas.

Like most compacts, these higher sensitivities are best avoided except for emergency use or on smaller prints.
     
   
     
   


Indoor: 3.29MB, Normal, 1/50, f2.8, ISO 1250, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  Our final Gallery image was taken at the FX30's highest sensitivity available at full resolution: 1250 ISO.

Unsurprisingly the noise levels are higher still than the 800 ISO sample, although on the plus side at least the FX30 isn't applying too much noise reduction here and losing all the detail.

As with the 800 ISO sample though, this is best used only in emergencies or for smaller prints.
     

All words, images, videos and layout, copyright 2005-2010 Gordon Laing. May not be used without permission.

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