Big, beautiful and bright 3" screem
Intuitive easy to use menu
Good looks, comfortable to hold
Wide Screen

Poor picture quality
Barrel distortion @ wide angles
Very noisy indoor and at ISO400 +

The Panasonic Lumix DMC FX50 is the latest upgrade to the quite successful FX07, with the addition of a big, beautiful 3 inch screen. I purchased this to complement my DSLR, and have something more compact for those more social occasions where carrying around a big body isn't feasible.

The menu functions are well laid out and easy to use, and the camera feels comfortable to hold and fits easily in the pocket. The Image Stabilisation (OIS) works very well even at long focal lengths, and is great for quick "one handed" snaps when on the move. Recording video works well, however sound quality is quite poor, to the point of being unable to pick up audible conversation from anyone but yourself. And now..on the subject of poor.

Where this camera fails miserably is picture quality. Panasonic I believe have made a big mistake with this lens, as at its widest angle (and default start-up focal length), barrel distortion is quite noticeable with horrible blurring at the edges. This is most disappointing, considering it is quite sharp towards the centre of the image. Initially I thought I'd been sold a lemon, but after browsing hundreds of photos from other FX50 owners on Flickr, it is just as noticeable, especially when the images are viewed at larger size.

Indoor photography is equally horrible as the FX50 struggles to auto-focus in even the most gracious indoor lighting conditions, and big blocky noise saturates the images. Flash performance is not too bad considering the small size of the flash window, but flash-less photography using high ISO is also very poor, even when using a tripod.

In summary, I am very disappointed with this camera and would not recommend it to anyone wishing to take good quality pictures at sizes larger than 1024 X 765, and especially significant indoor shots.

Such a pity though, as that big beautiful bright screen is a wonder to look at!!