Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1

By Leonard Goh
May 4, 2009

The rugged camera market was once dominated by Olympus which produced hardy point-and-shoots such as the Mju Tough-8000. However, other brands have since followed suit and Panasonic's Lumix lineup welcomed its first tough brethren earlier this year with the DMC-FT1. While it may not be as rugged as the toughest Olympus camera, it comes close. The FT1 survived drops and dived into the deep end of the pool, returning unscathed. This shooter is possibly the only hardy snapper that can record HD-quality video clips. Can this camera unseat Olympus from the throne of rugged shooters? We find out.

Design

Similar to many tough cameras, the FT1 doesn't have a protruding lens design. This gives the shooter a brick-like appearance, though the variety of available colors (orange, blue, silver and olive green) makes the point-and-shoot look a bit more fashionable. However the FT1's aesthetics is more clunky and hefty, which make the snapper look hardier than your typical compact camera.

We noted some resemblance in design between the FT1 and the Olympus Mju Tough-8000. Both shooters have almost similar dimensions and look, though the Panasonic camera doesn't have a sliding lens cover to protect the optics when the shooter is not in operation. In place is a piece of hard, clear plastic. Panasonic said it went with this design because a rugged camera shouldn't have too many moveable parts. While this makes sense, we discovered that the hard plastic was easily smudged by fingerprints and tended to produce shots with a soft, blurry look which we didn't like.

At the top of the camera are the zoom lever, power and shutter button. The zoom and shutter control have ridged surfaces to provide a better grip for users. We think this will come in useful when you are using the shooter underwater.

At the rear of the camera are the mode dial and a range of buttons for operating exposure compensation, flash, self-timer, focusing modes and playback. The mode dial has several commonly-used scene modes such as sports and beach. The underwater mode can be found only within the menus, which is strange considering that the FT1 is marketed as a camera suitable for casual divers. We also noticed there is a snow mode on the dial, but we felt that the small buttons may prove to be difficult to operate for users who are wearing gloves or have larger fingers.

There is also a dedicated button for movie recording, which makes the shooter more intuitive to use.

Tags: Mode, Camera, movie, compensation, optics

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