Filed under: Digital Cameras

Those Lumix FX-07s are surely fast sellers, but apparently Panny had no problem goosing sales a little with some limited edition versions of the compact shooter. Manufactured in 100 piece lots, these FX-07s come in five unique finishes, and are packaged in paulownia wood boxes for the tidy sum of ¥59,800 (about $515). Our pan-Pacific pals can get one of the 500 pieces being produced come December 12th.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

While the DMC-FZ50 was never intended to be a complete overhaul of the well-regarded DMC-FZ30 it replaces, it seemed that Panasonic was trying to address the gripes on the prior model, as well as toss in a few unexpected niceties to boot. Apparently the upgrade was a success, as the folks at DPReview found a lot to love about the evolutionary camera, especially for the price. Sporting the obligatory 12x zoom, 10.1 megapixels (up from 8), a TTL flash hot shoe, SDHC support, 16:9 movie / still mode, Venus III Engine (upgraded from the Venus II), and an Intelligent ISO that adjusts up to 1600 on the fly, this hybrid megazoom packs an impressive spec list. Reviewers were quick to praise the high-end feature set, and felt that it outpaced the competition in terms of amenities, but did point out that image quality suffered due to the small sensor used to compensate for all those megapixels. The biggest digs came from the added noise and bleeding colors found at any ISO above 100 (like many Panasonics), but these qualms were quickly solved by downsizing the images for normal viewing / storage. Overall, DPReview slapped a “Highly Recommended” tag on the FZ50, and apparently weren’t too dissatisfied with the image hiccups, as they pronounced it “the best equipped, best specified, and best handling bridge camera on the market today.” With a claim like that backing it up, dropping $650 on this shooter doesn’t seem all that painful.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Filed under: Digital Cameras

The big-company's-little-camera-division-that-could has been doing it over and over for years now, and CNET Asia caught a preview of their new DMC-TZ1, the smallest 10x optical digital camera around. They seemed to find the 5 megapixel shooter's OIS and pixel binned 1600 ISO to be decent  (despite the expected exaggerated noise at higher ISOs, of course), and its travel functions useful -- though its unique folded optics design seemed to impair zoom-in time, and the TZ1's removable lens cap raised an eyebrow or two. CNET still seemed to find it "very good," though, so being that it's a straight up point and shoot, if you're cool going without manual camera functions this thing might just be in your future.

[Via DP Blog]