Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580

Viewfinder (0.00)

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a point-and-shoot that carries a viewfinder presently.

Display (5.90)

The LCD here is a touch screen and previously we’ve had issues with some touch screen based cameras (the Sony T900 and T700 spring to mind immediately). The problem with many of these screens, is that they’re resistive type, which has a tendency to be slightly inaccurate. This becomes a major issue when the LCD is the only method of input. Wisely, Panasonic use the LCD in addition to standard button based controls. So while the screen might not be the most accurate method of entering settings, it bolsters the traditional controls, rather than completely replacing them.

There are a couple of features which can only be used with the touch screen. Touch to focus is one of these functions, where you tap on an area where you want the camera to focus and meter. Also, adjusting exposure compensation, ( and aperture and shutter speed, when enabled), must be done by sliding a bar on the screen. It’s not the worlds most elegant way of changing settings, but it works.

Many of the menus can be browsed using either touch screen or the directional buttons. You can easily spot these, because the icons are large enough to be hit by a finger. In fact, the only situation where you can only use the four-way pad are the options that are accessed using the Menu button. The quick menu, editing controls, changing flash modes, all of those sorts of things can be changed either way.

As for looks, 230,000-dot resolution on an LCD isn’t mind blowing, but it’s acceptable. It’s bright enough for most situations, though you’ll likely have some trouble using it under the full glare of the sun.

Flash (6.50)

The flash on the FX580 felt a bit under-powered, with some major light dropoff towards the edges. This may be a bit exaggerated due to the wide-angle lens, but it just didn’t feel very bright.

The control for the flash are good. It can be set to Auto, Auto with Red-Eye Reduction, On, Off, and Slow-Synch/Red-Eye Reduction. This last one pairs the flash with a long shutter speed to give a more even exposure across the entire frame, including the background. The flash brightness can also be adjusted in the exposure compensation controls to ±2 EV in 1/3 EV steps.

Lens (7.00)

The lens on this camera is 5x zoom, 25mm wide-angle. The focal length runs 4.4-22mm (25-125mm 35mm equivalent).The aperture range is f/2.8 to f/5.9, which is just about as fast as you’ll get on a point-and-shoot.

The table below gives a feel for what a 5x zoom offers.

Zoom Ratio Examples
4.4 mm	13.2 mm	22.0 mm

Battery (8.00)

The battery on the FX580 is a lithium ion rechargeable. Panasonic gives the number of photos recordable on a single charge as 350, which is a good lifespan for a point-and-shoot.

Memory (3.00)

The FX580 uses SD and SDHC cards, which are the standard memory card for most digital cameras. They’re inexpensive, and high capacity.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs (4.00)

The FX580 has two I/O ports, one for AV and USB, the other for component out. The camera doesn’t come with cables for the component port, but the option is there if you want to spring for high-def connectivity. Neither of these are industry standard ports, so cord replacement is expensive.