Information Engineer

The Panasonic DMC-FS5 combines easy operation with a slim and sleek look, enabling both beginner and advanced users to take beautiful digital photos with a camera they can slip in their pocket. Featuring 10-megapixel resolution and a 30mm wide-angle Leica DC lens with 4x optical zoom, the FS5 also has Intelligent Auto Mode, an advanced intuitive system of technologies that help users take better photos more easily.
Additionally, the fourth generation high-performance image-processing Venus Engine IV LSI helps produce higher-quality pictures with an advanced signal processing system. It adds a new high-performance noise reduction system that helps reproduce even the most delicate parts of images naturally and without color bleeding. The Venus Engine IV reduces shutter release time lag while still enabling high-resolution picture taking, making it easier to capture spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities.

Lumix DMC-FS5 Highlights :
- Mega O.I.S.: Gyrosensors detect hand-shake and the lens system shifts to compensate, helping to prevent hand-shake from creating a blurry image.
- Intelligent ISO : The FS5 can determine if the photo subject is moving and change the ISO setting and shutter speed accordingly, thus giving a blur-free photo.
- Intelligent Scene Selector : It senses the ambient conditions, recognizes the shooting environment and will automatically select the appropriate scene mode from: Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode.
- Face Detection : It detects faces anywhere in the frame and automatically chooses the optimal focus and exposure settings so portraits come out clear and crisp.
- Quick AF : The system starts focus on the subject by just pointing the camera to the subject, thus minimizing the AF time.

Technical Details :
* 10-megapixel resolution captures enough detail for poster-sized prints.
* 4x wide-angle optical zoom; Mega Optical Image Stabilized.
* 2.5-inch Intelligent LCD screen; Face Detection.
* Intelligent ISO; Intelligent Scene Selector.
* 50 MB built-in memory; captures images to SD memory cards (not included).

Customer Feedback :
This camera has performed exceptionally well on the snowy and overexposed summit of a 14,000 ft peak, and the quality of the pictures are more than I had hoped for. It’s very easy to understand, especially for someone who isn’t great with modern gadgets. The zoom can get very detailed close ups of animals, and there are many options for different scene modes, including candlelight and starry sky scenes, but if you’re into not thinking about it the intelligent auto mode is very efficient and consistently takes nice shots. Manual adjustments can be made to compensate on different exposures, one can edit the picture from the camera before downloading it onto a PC, and it often finds and focuses on faces automatically.
Another nice addition is trip planning and the calendar, where if you’re going out of country or far away you can set the time of your journey and pre-set the time ahead or behind, which I think is great because I like to know when I took pictures and in what order. The manual is easy to understand, too.