Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX78 with 3D Shooting and Smart Touch Operation

Camera Review

Secaucus, NJ—Panasonic added to its Lumix lineup with the DMC-FX78, which includes a 3D burst shooting mode.  This stylish 12.1 megapixel compact features new Smart Touch operation on its 3.5-inch 16:9 aspect LCD touch screen. It also boasts a Leica DC Vario-Summarit 24mm ultra-wide-angle lens that has a 5x optical zoom with f/2.5 aperture. The 24mm wide-angle lens offers approximately 213 percent larger viewing space compared to a traditional 35mm camera.

The Smart Touch screen allows for the autofocus (AF) to be set by touching a subject on the LCD, and also included are Touch Zoom, Touch Shutter and Touch Playback operation. Once locked on the subject, the FX78 tracks the subject with the AF tracking function, even if it moves. With Panasonic’s “intelligent scene selector” in the iA mode, the FX78 automatically switches to the appropriate mode according to the subject touched. For example, a touch on a human face switches to the portrait mode, and a touch on the background or a landscape changes to the scenery mode, while a touch on the subject close in the foreground changes to macro mode. All menu settings are now available with touch control, as is firing the shutter. The touch-screen operation also works for playback, allowing users to drag the images across the screen with a finger and browse the collection of photos as though flipping the pages of the book.

 “With its super-bright and wide-angle lens, the LUMIX FX78 is a high-performing digital camera that excels in image quality, producing exceptional full-HD videos and still photos,” said David Briganti, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “With the new touch-screen operation, the FX78 is intuitive to use and allows the user to take a photo, track a subject and even touch up a face with just the touch of the finger.”

The DMC-FX78 also features Panasonic’s 3D photo mode, which produces a realistic 3D photo by taking 20 consecutive photos and overlaying the two best to create a 3D  image that can then be played on a Panasonic Viera 3D HDTV. The format of 3D images is compatible with MPO, and can be played back on other MPO-compatible equipment, such as a televisions, digital photo frames and printers.

Panasonic also added the Lumix Image Uploader, for seamless sharing via Facebook or YouTube. Users can checkmark the photo or video files they want to share, connect the camera to a PC with the included USB cable, or by inserting the SD memory card into the PC’s card slot, and the uploading automatically launches.

Also notable is the FX78’s 1,920×1,080 Full-HD video recording in AVCHD and high-speed continuous shooting. The AVCHD format almost doubles the recording time in HD quality, when compared with Motion JPEG. The FX78 also employs Dolby Dolby Digital Creator to record high-quality audio.

Panasonic’s iA mode now has more powerful image stabilization for video recording and taking still photos with active mode. iA, a suite of technologies that engage automatically, also provides motion deblur, face recognition, face detection, intelligent ISO control and intelligent exposure.

New creative features include the art retouch function that lets users change the original photo in brightness and color saturation and the beauty retouch mode, which allows users to digitally touch up faces by applying different effects, such as skin texture, lifting up the face and whitening of teeth. In addition, the makeup mode offers the option of changing the face’s complexion, lips, cheeks or eye-shadow coloring.

Panasonic’s Lumix DMC- FX78 is available in black, gold and white models. $349.99. panasonic.com