Panasonic releases several new Lumix compact cameras at CES

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Posted on 7 Jan 2010 at 22:15

CES 2010: Panasonic announced several new models for its Lumix range of digital cameras during its press conference in Las Vegas.

The first was the Lumix DMC-F3, a new entry-level digital compact camera designed with simplicity in mind. Despite this, Panasonic says that it hasn't overlooked the importance of style and performance with the Lumix F3.

Its sleek and stylish body packs a 12.1 megapixel sensor and a 28mm wide angle lens with 4x optical zoom and digital image stabilisation, which is pretty impressive given the F3's small size. In addition to that, Panasonic has added an Extra Optical Zoom function, which extends effective zoom power to 7.8x without a massive loss of quality compared to digital zoom.

On the rear of the camera, there's a 2.7in 230,000 dot resolution LCD which Panasonic says is "designed so the user can clearly see it while shooting still photos and videos."

Next, the firm talked about its 12.1 megapixel Lumix FP1 and 14.1 megapixel Lumix FP2 and FP3 ultra-slim compact cameras. All three cameras share the same design and feature a 4x non-extending optical zoom lens (35 to 140mm equivalent focal range).

The FP1 and FP2 both share the same 2.7in 230,000 dot LCD, while the FP3 boasts a 3.0in touchscreen LCD with the same resolution. Panasonic says this allows intuitive hybrid operation when combined with the buttons.

All four cameras include Panasonic's Intelligent ISO Control, Face detection and Intelligent Scene Selector technology, which selects from one of six scenes that best fits the environment. The three FP-series cameras also support iA (intelligent Auto) mode and Mega O.I.S. (optical image stabilisation).

In addition still photography, the new Lumix cameras record high definition video in 720p at 30 frames per second, as well as 848 x 480 (WVGA) and 640 x 480 (VGA).

Expected availability and pricing haven't been released, but Panasonic said that it would announce that when the cameras near their respective street dates.

Author: Tim Smalley in Las Vegas