One of the attractions of the Panasonic Lumix DMC FX40 is its extreme wide angle lens. This helps you to squeeze much more width into your photos. The lens gives you 5x zoom. You can also increase the amount of zoom in a maximum of 9.8x when shooting at low resolutions. Other features include 12 megapixels, HD movies and image stabilisation. The Lumix DMC FX40 is fairly easy to use.

The Lumix DMC FX40 is a well made, attractive, pocket digital camera. The wide lens is likely to be attractive to people who enjoy landscape photography or other types of photography where you look to squeeze in wide scenes.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
I am not totally convinced by the picture quality produced by the Lumix DMC FX40. There is quite a lot of detail lost from the boats as the camera finds it hard to cope with the glare of the sun. On top of this the photo is softer than I am used to seeing, especially as you move towards the edge of the shot.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
Here you can clearly see the impact having such a wide angle lens has. There is far more of the scene packed into the shot. Colours are strong with plenty of power in the skies and in the greenery of the trees.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
As in the second outdoor shot there is plenty of depth to the colours. Despite the extreme wide angle of the lens the fact that it offers 5x zoom means you can still zoom in towards your subject. The photo is softer than I am used to seeing from Panasonic cameras.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Having looked at my four outdoor shots the sharpness of the images does not match up to the same level the majority of digital cameras reach. There is a fall off in sharpness as you move towards the edges of the shots. With snapshot sized prints this will not always be obvious, but if you want to make larger prints you may well start to notice a difference.

Outdoor Portrait
This photo was taken in the shade, so I used the white balance setting of shady. This helps to give the colours a small boost and stop the photo from looking dull. I like the colours in the shot. Working much closer in also leads to a much sharper photo.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
The flash produced by the Lumix DMC FX40 is harsh. This washes some of the colour out of the shot. It also makes areas of the face reflective and they end up showing shiny areas of light.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
In my opinion this shot has a far more natural look to it than the one produced using flash. As with the majority of indoor shots taken when the light is not completely perfect a small amount of noise shows in the shot and this stops the definition from being perfect.

Colours
Panasonic digital cameras tend to produce very strong colours, although in my opinion this has been toned down over the last couple of years. What level of colour you like to see is really down to personal taste. Although I like the amount of colour in my shots, I would not want to see the colours any stronger than these.

Macro
My macro shot shows plenty of detail. In my test set up the camera finds it difficult to get lots of light into the picture.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
There is nothing out of the ordinary to report when it comes to noise. I would suggest only increasing ISO levels when you feel it is absolutely necessary.

Overall
Snapshot sized prints should not be a problem. If you want to go much larger the combination of such a wide angle lens and the number of pixels crammed onto the sensor means the Lumix DMC FX40 finds it hard to match some of the quality shown by other cameras in the Panasonic range.

Shutter lag times are standard. A single shot took 0.31 seconds with five taking 10.59 seconds. With flash times were 0.57 seconds for one photo and 15.37 seconds for five photos.

To turn the camera on and take the first picture took 2.66 seconds. This is also a standard time.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The Lumix DMC FX40 should fit into most pockets. It has a simple, unfussy design. You can buy the camera in black, red and silver..

95.3 x 52.9 x 21.5mm

128g

Lithium ion. Panasonic suggest the battery should take up to 350 shots in between charges.

40mb of memory have been built into the camera. This is enough for about 8 shots. The camera is compatible with SD and SDHC cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Very good. Although Panasonic has built a few extra features into the Lumix DMC FX40 it is easy to find your way around.

Extreme wide angle lens - HD movies - simple design - ease of use

Pictures could be a shade sharper

There are plenty of alternatives when it comes to pocket cameras. One of my current favourites is the Canon IXUS 100 IS.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC FX40 takes bright colourful pictures. I found the pictures could start to soften round the edges and is likely to start to show as you make larger prints. Aside from that point I like the features and ease of use the camera offers.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Description:	12 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom
Ease of Use:	8
Features:	8
Colour:	8
Macro:	8
Indoors:	7
Value for Money:	7
Style:	9
Movie Mode:	9
Image Quality:	7
Build Quality:	8
Total:	79
Verdict:	This camera does not quite hit the heights when it comes to picture quality that other Panasonic models offer. Aside from that the extreme wide angle lens can be very useful for landscape shots. There are a good set of features and the camera is easy to use.
Review Date:	June 2009
Related Pages:	Panasonic DMC FX40 Specification Panasonic DMC FX40 Sample Images Panasonic DMC FX40 Features

	GBP 203.99
	GBP 216.2
	GBP 219.99
	GBP 219.99
	GBP 239.99
Click a flag for prices from other countries:

Camera	Rating
Panasonic DMC FX60	86
Canon IXUS 120 IS	86
Sony DSC TX1	86
Canon IXUS 110 IS	86
Canon IXUS 100 IS	86
Panasonic DMC FS62	85
Samsung ST550	85
Nikon Coolpix S570	85

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Panasonic DMC FX40