We would hate to suggest that the looks and styling of a digital camera would be a major influence on your buying decision. When you're spending £300 you should be able to expect something fairly impressive for your money, but the Panasonic DMC-FX5 looks rather dull and understated.
It's a quality piece of kit that has an unusual machined finish on the front so the casing is very finely ridged, with the result that the camera changes colour very slightly as you move it around in the light. It's a little odd, and it certainly has no bearing on the performance of the DMC-FX5, but it summed up our experiences with the Panasonic. Initially we were unimpressed, but as we used the camera more its qualities started to shine through.
This is a conventional compact digital camera that is a similar size and shape to the Canon, Casio and Olympus models, with a Li-Ion battery and SD card under one cover, and the transfer and power ports under a second cover. The screen is the usual 1.5-inch item that we have become accustomed to, and when you flip the power switch the lens extends. The first time this happens there is an annoying and unnecessary beeping noise, but you can easily disable it in the set-up menu.
As we said, it's a very conventional camera, and although the build quality is exemplary it seems rather over-priced, right up to the point where you start to take photos. The first photos taken using the Normal Picture mode were rather average, and seemed to confirm that the DMC-FX5 is a rather uninspiring camera.
As we investigated the rotary dial with its nine positions, we started to see what the camera was capable of. After that we had a good look through the menus, which are neatly laid out and easy to use, and we were also impressed by the quality of the controls.
It became clear that there are two ways to fix the focus of the camera, either by pressing a dual function button on the back of the camera, or by lightly pressing the shutter button before you take your shot. Once we worked that out the quality of our pictures improved greatly, and we started to revel in this camera. Close-up shots were amazingly sharp and detailed, and fixing the focus meant that the camera wasn't confused by shiny or translucent surfaces, which is a failing of many cameras that we have used.
It's a little annoying that it is possible to take really good photos with the DMC-FX5 so long as you take your time, but if you act in haste the results can be very pedestrian. We suspect that most digital camera owners want a camera that they can point and click, allowing the electronics and lens to do all the hard work for them. We sympathise with this view, so while we were impressed by the DMC-FX5 we doubt that it is ideally suited to the man in the street.
