Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 Review
Review Date: February 10th 2009
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12.1M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around 4-5Mb.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25's image quality is good. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing obvious levels of noise. The noise and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely unusable 1600 setting. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were soft straight out of the camera and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop (unfortunately you can't change the in-camera sharpening level) and and, on the Standard default setting, colours were a little washed out. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is excellent for night photography, and the quality of the after-dark images is very good. Macro performance is above average for a compact camera, allowing you to focus as close as 3cms away from the subject, with the new digital zoom setting also proving useful. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25. Noise is readily visible in images taken above ISO 200, leading me for the most part to steer well clear of ISO 800 and 1600. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
ISO 80 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You cannot change the in-camera sharpening level.
Original
(100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
12M
Fine (5.13Mb) (100% Crop) |
12M
Normal (2.49Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review. There's very slight purple fringing between areas of high contrast, but it's only noticeable on really close inspection, as shown in the example below.
Example
1 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 offers an AF Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle, and there's also a new Macro Zoom mode which digitally zooms in by another 3x. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
AF Macro Shot |
AF Macro Shot (100% Crop) |
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Macro Zoom Shot |
Macro Zoom Shot (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 are Auto, Auto/Red-Eye, Forced Flash On, and Forced Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
Flash Off - Wide Angle (29mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (29mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (145mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (145mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting and the Red-eye reduction modes caused any amount of red-eye.
Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-eye Flash |
Flash - Red-eye Flash (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds in the Starry Sky Mode scene mode, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds, f/3.3 at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took a handheld shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 80. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length | Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/4 sec / 29mm |  |
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the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
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