Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMCFX37 Digital Camera - Silver (10MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 2.5 inch LCD

this camera really is great. good zoom, good megapixel count, slim and it takes great pictures. i have taken many pictures with this camera and have taken it on skiing holidays and summer holidays in Corfu and it can handle all climates, lights and weather. obviously if you want to take professional shots thena SLR or DSLR is for you but if you want a camera to take around and take really good pictures then this is the camera for you. the only downside of this camera is that when you use other cameras you will fell so disappointed as it wont be anywhere as near as good as yours.

Brilliant camera! If you read reviews before buying, then I'll try to make this worth your while.

Battery life:
Excellent! The specs say 310 pictures, but with a lot of reviewing (and faffing around between shots) and not caring too much about the power-save options, you still get about 200 pictures between charges. This was enough for a week in Marrakech.

Picture modes:
I don't bother with the 'Scene selection' option. The intelligent auto dial setting is good for 95% of pictures. For night shooting, some very good effects come from 'forcing flash off'. For a bit of choice, set the dial to the little red camera icon; this gives you more shutter speed, exposure, flash, anti-shake options etc.

Controls:
Flash, exposure, macro setting and self-timer all have their own one-button setting and a quick menu (icons, plus brief tips on the relevant function) is also a quick way to set up for a shot. Beyond that, all the operating functions area available and can be altered via the main (central) menu button. Reviewing and deleting - or adding a clip of ambient sound, like Muezzins getting sparked up for evening prayers - is easy and quick. (Delete?/confirm... Done).

Picture quality:
Extremely good, although I noticed that bright backgrounds can 'bleed' into the foreground subject. Cure: drop the exposure a click or two, or use multi-point metering. Zooming in on 10 Megapixel shots shows a mushiness, but this could be from my choice of detail/quality setting.

Physical:
Well built! Compact - teeny bit smaller than a fag-packet - but absolutely no problem to use, even with my shovel-hands. I would have liked a slightly stiffer on-off switch: be carefulnot to catch it (and accidentally switch on) as you put it into a pouch. Cure: always switch to review mode before it goes into the pouch, then the lens won't try to open up. I was also worried about the (combined) battery & memory compartment door possibly coming open, but the worry was unfounded.

Summary:
Long review - sorry! I really like this little camera. Good pictures, excellent battery life, easy to use, splendid value. Go to Marrakech - It's bonkers but full wonderful kind people

>>>>> Now had 3 months of use and I'm still impressed. The FX37 is so small that you hardly notice it on a belt-mounted pouch. I'm still trying to get sharper than sharp pictures, but using it on macro (flower icon) all teh time probably don't help a lot.

I bought this camera after much looking around and have been very impressed. It takes excellent photos with paticularly great looking colour. I have used this for two holidays so far and have had no problems using it. It has an intelligent auto mode for all us photo taking newbies but has many other settings if you want to fiddle around a bit. There the nice options of face recognition, macro mode and settings for taking shots of landscapes and sunsets. The photos taken on sunny days are extremely impressive (so much so that after seeing them a friend went out to buy one of these). Overall an easy to use point and shoot camera that takes great pictures. Recommended.

I have purchased a number of Panasonic items over the years so I was failry comfortable in getting this camera when my wife, out of the blue as they do, indicated that she would like a camera mainly to take photos of our new grandson. The FX37 model was chosen as a balance of features and perceived ease of use.
The box arrived, the battery charged and a few test shots taken before passing it over. Four days later an over-night baby-sitting opportunity occured and off she went with camera in her handbag. The following day she returned and we put the jpegs into the PC to see them in greater detail than the on-board LCD. Wonderful shots - even taking into account that I am biased.
So for a techo-phobe granny a great buy, easy to use with all the shots being keepers.