Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX48

By Leonard Goh
Mar 23, 2009

The Lumix DMC-FX48 was announced earlier this year as part of Panasonic's lineup for the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) tradeshow held in Las Vegas. Its predecessor, the FX38, was unveiled last July, and we thought that was pretty fast of the Japanese company to release the next iteration. Looking at the FX48's literature, the most significant enhancement is probably the resolution which has been bumped up from 10 (on the FX38) to 12 megapixels. Also, the intelligent Auto (iA) mode gets slight upgrades to make shooting pictures easier. But that doesn't hide the fact that the point-and-shoot was slow to startup in our tests. The image quality can satisfy the average consumers, but a more discerning eye will be able to pick out flaws we noticed.

Design

One look at the FX48 and you probably will not be able to tell it apart from its predecessors. Some critics may say that the design is boring and has not been given a revamp since the early FX-series of cameras. Also, it doesn't stand out among competitors like Canon and Sony, which have stylish templates for their point-and-shoots.

The Lumix camera is small enough to slip into most pockets without leaving much of a bulge, but those with larger hands may find the FX48 too small to operate comfortably with one hand. Most of the controls are situated on the right. When we used our thumbs to change modes or navigate menus, we noticed we didn't have much of a grip on the shooter.

What we found most convenient was the locations of the zoom lever around the shutter button, the recessed mode dial and the shooting/playback switch. These three functions were most easily accessible with our thumbs and forefingers, which made the shooting experience pretty intuitive and snappy.

Tags: Sony Corp., Camera, Panasonic, Canon Inc., FX38

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