This camera is easy to use with a stylish and a sleek design. You can take this camera with you and travel around the world. Without any doubt this camera have all the qualities in it. This camera may not give you the best pictures but still it’s worth buying. For more details you can see the whole review below.

3 things we like about the Panasonic DMC FS25

• Easy to use
• Stylish and sleek
• Compact and great for traveling

4 things we don’t like about the Panasonic DMC FS25

• Unpredictable results
• ISO performance is poor
• AF too slow
• Image quality is not that good

Panasonic DMC FS25 Review

To check this, I took a handheld shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 80. This feature does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Models of this size from other manufacturers typically have a 3x zoom lens that starts at 35mm or higher. Take it from me, you won’t require to go back to a “standard” zoom after using the 30mm lens on the FS25, as it offers a telephoto setting of 145mm which is perfect for head and shoulders portraits and even more candid close-ups.

The camera’s design is dominated by the lens on the front and the huge 3 inch LCD screen on the rear. Panasonic have retained but also slightly changed the joystick control from the FS20. Importantly you can no longer press it to access the menu system or set options – instead there is a new Menu/Set button above the joystick. I found this counter-intuitive at first, expecting to be able to “click” the joystick to select options, and the joystick itself is still a tiny unresponsive. There is also eight other area in terms of the DMC-FS25’s design and build-quality where Panasonic have taken a tiny backwards step – the battery compartment and SD card slot is flimsier than the eight on the previous FS20 model.

The majority of the controls are clearly labeled and common to most cameras. Unfortunately the Extra Zoom button has been removed to accommodate the IA button (you now have to select a Picture Size in the menu system to activate this function). Also the IA button looks grey and plastick-y and out-of-keeping with the rest of the design.

With the exception of the new Menu/Set button and tweaked joystick, the rear of the FS25 is identical to the FS20. There is a Rapid Menu button which provides rapid access to most of the principal creative controls, including ISO speed, picture size, picture quality and white balance (there’s 8 settings in total). You can still access all of these options from the main menu system . This system has eight main drawback – you have to keep switching between the shooting or playback modes, than pressing a button to review your images whilst in a shooting mode, as on most other digital cameras.

If you have seldom used a digital camera before, or you are upgrading from a more basic model, reading the easy-to-follow manual before you start is a nice idea. Thankfully Panasonic have selected to supply it in printed format, than as a PDF on a CD, so you can also carryover it with you. The main menu system on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 is straight-forward to use and is accessed by pressing the Menu/Set button located above the navigation joystick. There’s eight main menus, Record and Setup. Most of the camera’s main options, such as white balance, picture quality, auto-focus mode and ISO speed, are accessed here, so the Record menu has 14 options spread over 3 screens, and the Setup menu 20 options over 4 screens. As mentioned previously, the Rapid Menu button on the rear of the camera speeds up access to some of the more commonly used options. Due to the huge LCD screen and restricting the number of on-screen choices to five, the various options and icons are clear and legible.

First introduced on the FX series of cameras, the DMC-FS25 features an upgraded version of Clever Auto Mode. Panasonic have tried to make things as easy as possible for the beginner by providing this shooting mode, which allows you to point and shoot the camera without having to worry about choosing the right mode or settings. Clever Auto Mode automatically determines a number of key criteria when taking a picture, including selecting the most appropriate scene mode (from 5 commonly used presets) and ISO speed, and turning face detection, picture stabilization and rapid auto-focus on. In practice this system works well, with the camera seamlessly choosing the most appropriate combination of settings for the current situation. It makes it possible for the less experienced photographer to easily take well-exposed, sharp pics of people, scenery and close-ups by basically pointing and shooting the camera.

There’s eight different modes, Mode 1 is on all the time including picture composition, and Mode 2 is only on when you press the shutter button. In practice I found that it does make a noticeable difference, as shown in the examples on the Picture Quality page.

The start-up time from turning the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 on to being ready to take a photo is rapid at around 2 seconds. Zooming from the widest focal length to the longest is a lot slower though at around 4 seconds. Focusing is rapid in nice light and the camera achieves focus most of the time indoors or in low-light situations, helped by the focus-assist lamp. The camera doesn’t have any problems locking onto the subject in low-light situations. It takes about 1 second to store an picture, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card – there is no LCD blackout between each picture. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 has a slow Burst mode which enables you to take 1.8 frames per second for up to 3 images at the highest JPEG picture quality. Overall the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 is average in terms of operational speed.

A couple of new “fun” features have been added to the FS25, which in reality are things that you’ll probably try eight times then forget about. You can actually alter the on-screen icon which appears at the top of the LCD screen to indicate that your subject is in focus, from the default circle to a automobile or heart, amongst others. The FS25 also adds a new Photo Frame scene mode, which places a border around the frame before you take a picture, allowing you to precisely position your subject before capture. When printed, the photos look like postcards in picture frames. Unfortunately there’s 3 cheesy designs on offer, and even worse, the Picture Quality is reduced to 2 megapixels. All under-whelming.

Eight times you have captured a photo, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 has a nice range of options when it comes to playing, reviewing and managing your images. You can also select favourite images, sort images in to categories, add a text stamp and set the print order. The Dual Play mode allows you to view 2 images onscreen simultaneously, useful if you require to compare similar images. Slideshows have been enhanced with the addition of five new transition effects (natural, slow, swing, and urban) complete with music, although the default tunes are terrible and I could not find any way to add my own. When taking a photo, pressing the Display button toggles between displaying the detailed information, gridlines to aid composition, and no information at all.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25’s picture quality is nice. The 12 megapixel images were soft straight out of the camera and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop (unfortunately you cannot alter the in-camera sharpening level) and and, on the Standard default setting, colours were a tiny 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 nice. 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 eight that works well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto finish of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure.

Final Words and Conclusion

Images are hit or miss when using the FS25, often leaving us with unsatisfactory pics when the conditions were blown out or the light changed. But let’s call the FS25 what it is: a beginner camera that offers little in the way of control over output.

If you are looking only to upload to the web or print out 4×6’s, this camera is for you. But with a small sensor chip as well as a resolution of 12 megapixels, the noise will certainly get the best of you when you are trying to make an enlargement.

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