Though with a rating of 6.6 out of 10, the FX55 fares well in some aspects of image quality- its exposure, white balance, and color are impressive.

The camera’s image quality falls apart when it comes to noise. I saw noise even at the lowest sensitivity setting of ISO 100. At ISO 200, Panasonic was already engaging a noticeable blur filter to keep noise from getting out of control, though at the expense of sharpness, which means a loss of fine detail. At ISO 400 noise increases more and more detail is lost, though there is still a decent amount of shadow detail present and you should be able to get acceptable prints. Noise increases precipitously at ISO 800, with even more loss of fine and shadow detail and finally plummets off the deep end at ISO 1,600. I recommend staying below ISO 800 when shooting with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55.

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The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 is a stylish ultra-compact camera that you can carry with you wherever you go.

It’s quite responsive with quick focusing, even in low-light conditions, and an adequate Continuous mode of 3fps. Panasonic have focused on making the DMC-FX55 the ultimate point and shoot camera, with a new Intellligent Auto mode that achieves great results in most situations with very little input required from the user. The large, high resolution 3 inch LCD screen is also very welcome, although I missed having a true optical viewfinder in very bright sunlight.

The DMC-FX55 is also one of a handful of compact digital cameras to offer a 28mm wide-angle lens, which provides an entirely new angle of view when compared with conventional zoom lenses that typically start at around 35mm. A mere 7mm may not sound like much, but it actually makes a big difference to image composition.

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