Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Panasonic FX30

Panasonic's new flagship ultra-compact is the FX30. Interestingly enough, Panasonic Japan calls it the "girl" camera, as opposed to the "lady" camera, TZ3. The FX30 is targeted at the stylish girl who also cares about advanced functionalities. These two cameras are Panasonic's attempt to capture the female market. I find it amusing that it does not come in pink. As we all know, pink cameras, cell phones, DS Lites, Wiis (just kidding) really capture a girl's heart like nothing else...
With a width of only 22mm, the FX30 is the world's slimmest digital camera with a 28mm lens. It has the Venus Engine III, and a 7.2 megapixel sensor, allowing ISO of up to 3200. It also has the intelligent ISO mode that detects subject motion and automatically raise ISO and shutter speed if necessary. While not so useful in prosumer cameras, this mode is very appropiate in this class of cameras. Most of the features are the same as the FZ8, with a great 2.5" LCD, 27MB built-in memory and support for SDHC.

Following the girl camera theme, FX30 has 21 scene modes. There is a new "pet" mode that allows setting of a pet's birthday to display its age on the photo, and a "sunset" mode that enables a user to capture beautiful sunset colors. Accessories will include a marine case to be used with the underwater mode!

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