Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55

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Performance

In our lab's performance tests, the Lumix DMC-FX55 fared well, but was no speed demon. The camera started up and captured its first JPEG in 1.4 seconds. Thereafter, the camera took 1.8 seconds between images with the flash turned off and a slightly sluggish 2.3 seconds between photos with the flash turned on.

Shutter lag measured an impressive 0.6 second in our high-contrast test and 1.3 seconds in our low-contrast test, which mimic bright and dim shooting conditions, respectively. The camera did live up to Panasonic's claims in burst mode, capturing an average of 3.3 frames per second regardless of image size, though it is limited to 4 images per burst in fine JPEG mode and 7 per burst in the lower quality standard JPEG mode.

Image Quality

Though the FX55 fares well in some aspects of image quality--its exposure, white balance, and color are impressive--the camera's image quality falls apart when it comes to noise. I saw noise even at the lowest sensitivity setting of ISO 100. At ISO 200, Panasonic was already engaging a noticeable blur filter to keep noise from getting out of control, though at the expense of sharpness, which means a loss of fine detail.

At ISO 400 noise increases more and more detail is lost, though there is still a decent amount of shadow detail present and you should be able to get acceptable prints. Noise increases precipitously at ISO 800, with even more loss of fine and shadow detail and finally plummets off the deep end at ISO 1,600. We recommend staying below ISO 800 when shooting with the Lumix DMC-FX55.

Noise has always been Panasonic's Achilles' heel and continues to dog their compact cameras. If they could only get that under control, they'd stack up better against the competition. As it stands, you'd be better served going for something along the lines of Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-T100.

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