Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX90 Pro Reviews

Even the best manufacturer can have its off-days, and the FX90 is certainly not one of Panasonic's better efforts. It's packed with advanced features like touch-screen, Wi-Fi and 3D imaging, but none of them work terribly well. The touch-screen interface is lousy, the Wi-Fi link is incomprehensible, the battery life is too short, and to top it off the picture quality isn't up to scratch. Panasonic has made many better cameras than this.

If you want to capture the antics of friends and family and share the images on a social network site or an iPad, then this camera will happily do the job, thanks to its welcome Wi-Fi connectivity.

While adding Wi-Fi to a point-and-shoot to compete with smartphones is a solid idea, Panasonic fumbles it a bit with Lumix DMC-FX90. A big reason you'd want to have this Wi-Fi camera would be to have better photos than you'd get from your smartphone. And while they're better outdoors in good lighting, indoors, or in low light, the difference will be negligible for a lot of people, making the DMC-FX90 lens and image stabilization the only real advantages. Add to that the difficulty of setup and use of the wireless features, and overall it's a disappointing execution.

The FX90 has some nice touches, but the sluggish touchscreen interface, conservative design and only average image quality means there are better alternatives out there.

The Panasonic FX90 is a highly competent, well-made camera with many strengths and a few weaknesses. It's attractive with good build quality, though I have a few minor quibbles with its ergonomics, particularly its tiny zoom lever. It shoots quickly and focuses accurately. The camera has good image and movie quality and exhibits very little lens distortion. However, overexposure is a problem when glare is present. The camera's touch screen is nicely responsive, though Panasonic may want to consider revamping the interface so that fewer submenus need to be accessed for commonly used actions. The camera's Wi-Fi works well and is an excellent addition to an already high quality camera.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX90 has a good range of features to separate it from the competition, such as a fast f/2.5 lens and built-in Wi-Fi. There aren't many cameras which feature built-in Wi-Fi and the FX-90 also takes good pictures, a handy combination! A useful addition would be the ability to upload direct to social networking sites from the camera rather than having to send them to your computer or smartphone first, as you can on the Samsung SH100. If the Wi-Fi isn't the most important feature to you there is a wider range of cameras to consider but the FX90 won't disappoint.

If you're looking for a camera that has advanced features, a good build and takes sharp pictures then you need to at least pencil the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX90 in as one to consider. If the camera gets let down by anything it's going to be the noise at high ISOs, which is a real shame. Panasonic have at least shown a degree of sense here - after all they could have gone higher than ISO 3200 or ramped up the noise reduction and smudged out all the detail.

The FX90 isn’t so different from its FX70 predecessor. Granted there’s the inclusion of Wi-Fi that, while nice to have, isn’t as useful as it at first seems, not least due to its huge negative impact on the camera’s battery life. The FX90’s touchscreen is good enough, but won’t compare to a Smartphone and that’s a comparison that will be made among tech-savvy users. Of course there’re plenty of positives to sway the balance: the FX90’s touchscreen makes hands-on autofocus extra easy, the camera is small and well built, pictures are decent, and the lens is not only a wide-angle 24mm at its widest but also provides excellent image stabilisation that’s useful at the longest 120mm setting. A good camera, but the FX90’s premier Wi-Fi feature is likely to see little use due to the impact on what is already poor battery life.