Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX77 / FX78

1st July 2011

Written by Gordon Laing

Quality

Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 vs Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS vs Sony Cyber-shot TX10 Resolution

	Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 results
1	Lumix FX77 / FX78 Resolution
2	Lumix FX77 / FX78 Noise
3	Lumix FX77 / FX78 Sample images

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To compare real-life performance when zoomed-out, we shot this scene with the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78, Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS, and Sony Cyber-shot TX10 within a few moments of each other using their best quality JPEG settings.

The lenses on each camera were set to approximately the same field of view and all three cameras were set to Program auto exposure mode.

The ISO sensitivity was manually set to the lowest available setting on each camera. The Panasonic and Canon were set to 100 ISO and the Sony was set to 125 ISO.

The image above was taken with the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 with its lens at 4.3mm (24mm equivalent). The camera metered 1/1000 at f2.5 and 100 ISO. The original image measured 4.72MB. The crops are taken from the areas marked with red rectangles and presented here at 100%.

The first thing to say about the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78’s performance here is that it has got the exposure slightly wrong, overexposing the scene by about a stop. Obviously, there’s good detail in the shadows, but the highlights are clipped – mainly in the top right corner – and the image looks a little washed out.

Looking at the crops, image detail looks to be a little soft, there are no hard edges in the top crop and detail on the grassy hillside looks soft too. The lighthouse in the second crop has disappeared from view, the atmospheric haze and overexposure may be partly to blame, but only partly. Lack of contrast isn’t helping, but there’s an underlying softness to the edges and fine detail that’s merely being exagerrated by the overexposure problem.

You can see this more clearly in the third crop, where the detail in the roof tiles and brickwork lacks definition and, in this crop from the frame edge, there’s also a little bit of colour fringing indicative of chromatic aberration. Finally, in the fourth crop, even though the lettering on the banner, like most of the other image detail, is a little soft, it’s clearly legible, underlining the fact that these issues are only likely to become apparent on very close examination or if you’re making big prints. Overexposure wasn’t a persistent problem with the Lumix FX77 / FX78 as you can see from the gallery examples.

Compared with the Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS, the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 looks soft, flat and washed out, but it’s not as damming as it sounds, if the shot had been correctly exposed only the first of those three would apply. Having said that, there’s no arguing with the fact there’s a lot more detail in the Canon crops and they’re crisper and better defined. If you’re looking for negatives you could point to the slight haloing that appears on the horizon of the Canon crops and the colour fringing on the crop from the edge of the frame which is worse than on the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 crop. But for my money the IXUS 310 HS ELPH 500 HS produces the better results

Compared with the Cyber-shot TX0, the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 crops look qualitatively different. The Cyber-shot TX10 crops are lacking in detail, but its noise processing algorithms result in pixel clumping rather than softness. The best example of the difference is in the first crop, look at the detail in the rocks at the top of the hill and the wall in front of the chapel. As we’ve said before, at less then 100 percent view, these differences won’t make a great deal of difference, but if you plan to make big prints or crop heavily I think I’d prefer the results from the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 to the 16.2 Megapixel Cyber-shot TX10.

Now let’s see how they compare at higher sensitivities in our High ISO Noise results.

Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78	Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS	Sony Cyber-shot TX10

f2.5, 100 ISO	f2.8 100 ISO	f4.5, 125 ISO


f2.5, 100 ISO	f2.8 100 ISO	f4.5, 125 ISO


f2.5, 100 ISO	f2.8 100 ISO	f4.5, 125 ISO


f2.5, 100 ISO	f2.8 100 ISO	f4.5, 125 ISO

Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 results : Real-life resolution / High ISO Noise

Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 vs Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS vs Sony Cyber-shot TX10 Noise

	Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 results
1	Lumix FX77 / FX78 Resolution
2	Lumix FX77 / FX78 Noise
3	Lumix FX77 / FX78 Sample images

To compare noise levels under real-life conditions we shot this scene with the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78, the Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS and the Sony Cyber-shot TX10 within a few moments of each other using their best quality JPEG settings at each of their ISO sensitivity settings.

All three cameras were set to Program auto exposure mode (called Normal Picture mode on the Lumix FX77), and the lenses were set to approximately the same field of view, in this case the widest focal length setting which is roughly equivalent on all three. The ISO sensitivity was set manually.

The above shot was taken with the the Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78 in Normal Picture mode. The lens was set to its default wide angle setting of 4.3mm (24mm equivalent), the sensitivity was set to 100 ISO and the exposure was 1/5th of a second at f2.5. The crops are taken from the area marked with the red square and presented below at 100%.

The Lumix FX77 / 78 makes a promising start. The 100 ISO crop shows good image detail and minimal noise, it’s well exposed and the white balance is good. There’s a tiny bit of graininess visible in the wood panelling, but nothing worth getting concerned over. The 200 ISO crop looks good too, but there’s a slight reduction in the amount of detail visible in the stone column and the wood panelling, so if you possibly can, it will pay you to stick with the 100 ISO setting.

At 400 ISO there’s another step change, but while the Lumix FX77 / FX78’s sensor is clearly producing more noise at 400 ISO, the processing that’s working to keep it to a minimum is nicely balanced; it takes the edge off the noise without blurring or smearing fine image detail. At 800 ISO no amount of processing is going to keep the noise at bay, but the Lumix FX77 / FX78 is still producing acceptable, if a long way from pristine, results. On a 1600 ISO crop from any compact sensor it’s going to be hard to see the image for the noise and the Lumix FX77 / FX78 is no exception. There’s no 3200 ISO setting, but the Handheld Nigh Scene has produced a reasonably good result at 800 ISO, albeit at a reduced size.

Compared with the the IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS the Pansonic LUMIX FX77 results look very respectable. At 100 ISO there’s little to choose between these 12 Megapixel sensors, though the Lumix FX77 looks a little softer to me. Likewise there’s less detail in the wood panelling at 200 ISO – the vertical line on the right isn’t visible on the Lumix FX77 crop. I’d say the Canon has a slight edge all the way, but it’s pretty marginal and not enough on its own to swing things in the IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS’s favour.

At both 100 and 200 ISO the Lumix FX77 / FX78 crops looks significantly better than those from the Cyber-shot TX10. Above 400 ISO the Lumix doesn’t quite manage to hold on to its lead the way the IXUS does, but I’d say the Lumix FX77 FX78 is nonetheless ahead of the 16.2 Megapixel Cyber-shot TX10 all the way. At the higher ISO sensitivities the Lumix FX77 / FX78’s softness is, in my view, preferable to the pixel clumping that result from Sony’s noise supression.

The final row compares the composite low-light mode of all three models. Each has chosen a different ISO sensitivity so the results aren’t a strict comparison except that they do show the results each camera will produce in the same circumstances. We’ve used Anti Motion Blur mode on the Cyber-shot TX10 as the Hand-held Twilight result was underexposed. Of the three, the IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS appears to have produced the best result with an ISO sensitivity of 800 that’s clearly better than the straight 800 ISO crop. The Lumix result also looks good, albeit at a reduced image size of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

Now head over to our Lumix FX77 /FX78 sample images to see some more real-life shots in a variety of conditions.

Panasonic Lumix FX77 / FX78	Canon IXUS 310 HS / ELPH 500 HS	Sony Cyber-shot TX10

100 ISO	100 ISO	125 ISO


200 ISO	200 ISO	200 ISO


400 ISO	400 ISO	400 ISO


800 ISO	800 ISO	800 ISO


1600 ISO	1600 ISO	1600 ISO


3200 ISO Not available	3200 ISO	3200 ISO


Handheld Night Shot 500 ISO	800 ISO Handheld Night Scene	Anti Motion Blur 3200 ISO