Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5: overview, specs, manual, reviews

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 - a protected camera, packed with almost all modern functions. It replaced the FT3 and became even more resistant than its predecessor. Among the new features include a higher resolution image sensor (16 megapixel instead of 12 megapixel), Wi-Fi, NFC, fast serial shooting, video recording in 1080 / 60p format and much more. The battery life was also improved by 20% due to the use of a more powerful battery, which is always welcomed in cameras with energy-intensive functionality such as GPS and Wi-Fi.

Camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5: description of design

Once in the hands, this camera immediately declares its strength and reliability. Its body is almost entirely made of metal, and the visible screws on the front and back panels make it more like a tool than a camera. The lens is protected by the surrounding metal protrusion. The model is available in four colors: orange, blue, silver and black.

DMC-FT5 has 5 degrees of protection. The camera is waterproof at a depth of up to 13 m, withstands a fall from a height of up to 2 m, a shock of 100 kg, frost-resistant to -10 ° C and is protected from dust. The lens has a water-repellent coating, which also prevents its fogging. According to users, the water really drains from the optics, although it gathers at the bottom of the ledge that surrounds it. On the lens are fingerprints, so you always need to have a napkin at hand.

Displays of most of the protected cameras usually have low brightness in the open air, especially OLED. Panasonic has found a way to provide good visibility with the automatic screen power monitoring feature. Of course, this reduces the battery life of the device.

Although the FT5's flash parameters are impressive (5.6 m in wide-angle and 3.1 m in telephoto), they do not reflect its true capabilities, since they are designed for automatic ISO sensitivity, the maximum value of which is 1600, which leads to very noisy photos. If it is reduced to ISO 400, the range will be reduced to 1.4 m and 0.8 m, respectively.

How to disable alerts

All cameras of this type are accompanied by a variety of warnings about the use of outdoors, especially under water. They remind you that there should be no debris on the seal, and all covers must be closed before it is exposed to the elements. Panasonic went the other way, pestering the user every time the camera was turned on, until he understood how to disable it.

To prevent the warnings from appearing, go to the "Settings" menu and select "Precautions". Despite the inscription on the first screen, you will need to scroll through all 12 pages of warnings before you can press the Set button, after which the warnings will stop appearing definitively.

Shooting modes

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 has a lot of features for those who do not want to bother with the settings. The most important of them, of course, are the intelligent automatic mode, which selects the scene, recognizes faces, adjusts the contrast, and Auto ISO, allowing you to detect movement and set the appropriate sensitivity. In addition, the camera can include manual night shooting modes and HDR, if it deems it necessary. For more control over functions, you can switch to Programmed Auto.

There are many plots available. The most notable of these are the manual night shooting (which combines several frames into one, reducing noise and blur), HDR (combines 3 frames with different exposures, increasing the brightness range) and "Starry Sky" (manual exposure). There is also a frame-by-frame shot that captures pictures for a certain period of time, which can be saved separately or as a video. Although there is no doubt that HDR restores the details of light areas and brightens the shadows, everything has to be paid for. The HDR image can turn out to be much softer and very fuzzy. This may be due to the automatic setting of the ISO sensitivity. Also available are 4 scene modes for a more "adventurous" photo. These are Sport, Snow, Beach and Diving. The last two offer a version with an underwater color rendering, removing a bluish tint, which often appears on such pictures.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5: an overview of creativity

The camera supports many special effects that Panasonic calls Creative Controls. This includes the usual set, including expressive, providing bright colors, a toy camera, a miniature effect, a soft focus and a selective color. An additional advantage of the camera is the manual exposure control. Pressing the Mode button and selecting M mode, you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture. The shutter speed range is from 4 to 1/1300 s. The aperture requires a more detailed explanation. Each focal length allows you to set 2 variants of the aperture. For example, in the wide-angle position, you can select F3.3 or F10. In telephoto these values are F5.9 and F18. But in reality there are no such small holes - because of the diffraction, they would make the pictures horrible. The camera imitates them with a neutral density filter, which reduces the amount of light passing through the optics by 3 divisions of the diaphragm. You can also manually adjust the white balance and exposure compensation. There is also auto bracketing, which guarantees correct exposure.

Panoramic overview

Camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 has a mode that allows you to cover up to 180 ° of the surrounding space. Just press the shutter button, turn the camera in the desired direction and press the shutter again. The image will be formed instantly. The manufacturer advertises the FT5 as the first model, allowing to apply special effects to panoramas. All creative controls are available, with the exception of soft focus and star filter. The maximum size of horizontal panoramas is 8000 x 1080, and vertical - 1440 x 8000 pixels.

Wireless connection

The camera has extensive, but inconvenient Wi-Fi capabilities. At first glance, everything is fine: the camera can be controlled remotely, send photos to a mobile device or PC, and view them on the TV screen. Moreover, the device supports NFC communication, which allows you to connect it to your smartphone by simply bringing it closer to your camera. With the phone, the W-Fi connection is established well, but trying to connect a Mac or PC or using NFC is driven to desperation. In addition, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 Orange takes Wi-Fi very poorly. There are two ways to wirelessly connect. You can go to an existing network or create your own. The first option is simple, if the network is open or supports WPS. Otherwise, you will have to enter the password using an inconvenient keyboard that requires a lot of clicks.

After connection, you can take a picture remotely, view the footage on a DLNA-compatible TV or mobile device and send the images immediately after the shooting.

When using a smartphone, you need to download the Panasonic app for iOS or Android. After that, you can connect to the camera via a public network or set up a peer-to-peer connection. In theory, if there is a smartphone with NFC support, then you can do everything, including transfer the footage, just touching them to the bottom of the camera. According to the feedback of users who tried to establish NFC-communication in practice using several phone models, they failed to do this. The company-manufacturer has not been able to ensure reliable operation of this function. The simplest option is to use the camera as a network node and a smartphone application to connect to it. All the rest simply does not work, despite the reference to the manufacturer.

Geo-positioning

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 has a pretty good GPS system. It determines not only the longitude and latitude, but also the height and depth (by pressure), the direction of the camera, and also indicates local landmarks. The only thing that is missing is pre-installed maps. But there is a decent base of seats that covers most of the world. If the camera makes the wrong choice, then you can use other options - type your own name or completely delete it.

Another great feature of GPS is the record of the history of altitude above sea level. If a user goes hiking in the mountains, he can see a graph showing the height for a certain period of time. The camera is also capable of tracking the route, which can be output as a KML file, and then import it into Google Earth. By default, GPS locates very slowly. But if you download the auxiliary data from the manufacturer's website, the process will be much faster.

Videography

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 was the only protected camera that could record video with stereo sound in 1080 / 60p format. This means that the camera shoots a smoother video than the 30p without an interlaced frame sweep of 60i. If you do not want to use AVCHD, then you can switch to MPEG-4, which is easier for some to edit and distribute, although the frame rate drops to 30 per second. You can record up to half an hour of continuous video in AVCHD format and a bit less in MPEG-4, limited to 4 GB.

According to user feedback, during video recording the camera allows you to use optical zoom and image stabilizer, and the focus can be adjusted continuously. To illuminate the subject is provided with an LED, although its range is limited to only one and a half meters. The user is provided with a single manual setting in video recording mode - a wind filter. The footage can be edited. This allows you to remove unwanted frames. In the video, you can embed GPS data.

Performance

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 reviews users call a pretty fast camera. The inclusion takes only 0.9 seconds, and the AF speed in bright lighting is impressive. Unfortunately, when there is not enough light, it takes about 1.5 seconds. With the auto view function turned off, the delay between the pictures is very short. The next photo can be done in 0,7 s. With the flash, this time increases to 3.5 seconds, which corresponds to the average.

The camera offers a number of serial modes, from 2 to 10 fps. According to the manufacturer, at a speed of up to 5 fps, you can capture 100 frames with a focus adjustment in front of each image. However, users testing 5-fps mode with super-high-speed SDHC (95 MB / s) card showed that the camera can make only 11 frames before a significant deceleration. A faster series (10.3 fps) is also available, but is limited to 7 frames. In intelligent automatic mode, the camera based on the movement of the object can independently decide what frame rate is needed.

Like other compact cameras, the FT5 can produce continuous shooting at ultra-high frame rates. The camera is able to capture frames at a speed of 40 or 60 k / s, but the resolution will be reduced to 5 and 2.5 Mp, respectively.

Battery life

The camera can be removed for a long time, since it is equipped with a 4.5-watt Li-ion battery. Its CIPA rating is 370 photos on one charge, which is quite enough for a compact. However, with the GPS enabled, the maximum screen brightness and the use of Wi-Fi, the battery charge will run out much sooner. According to user feedback, the camera can hardly last for a day. The battery is charged outside the camera and takes about 3 hours.

Image quality

The digital camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 is not inferior to other compact cameras of its class. The colors are bright, the exposure is good. FT5 does not reduce the detail of light areas, like some competing cameras, and even if this happens, the HDR function can solve this problem. However, the camera lubricates the low-contrast details of the image. Most users will not be bothered if they do not intend to enlarge the images, making giant prints or aggressively cropping the frame. There are also problems with chromatic aberrations that you do not expect from the Leica optics, especially around the edges of the frame. At high ISO, the camera demonstrates quality higher than expected. For printing posters, they are not suitable, but are good enough for Internet pages and small prints. The best results would be achieved by supporting RAW format, but this option is not implemented in this model.

When shooting under water, there are always a lot of unsuccessful pictures (usually due to fuzziness), but Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 Silver has a percentage of such pictures more than usual. According to user feedback, photos are often obtained with a bluish tinge, which often occurs underwater. If the picture appears too blue, then using the underwater shooting modes or in the playback mode, you can try the Color Reproduction option. The "Beach" and "Diving" scenes provide an ISO level below 200, which allows you to keep noise under control.

Since the FT5 lens is not very bright, users are strongly recommended to shoot at small focal lengths. The telephoto compresses the maximum aperture to F5.9, passing very little light. This means that to get a sharp shot, the photosensitivity and, hence, the noise level should increase. 16 megapixel is enough to crop the frame at will, so large-format photography gives more possibilities.

Advantages and disadvantages

Like most secure cameras, the DMC-FT5 is more consumer-oriented than the photography enthusiast. Automation takes on the choice of the scene, face recognition, intelligent contrast and sharpening function. Also available is a large selection of scene modes, including HDR and a lot of creative special effects. Paying tribute to more sophisticated users, the manufacturer offers the possibility of manual exposure setting. However, the owners are limited to only two variants of the diaphragm, or rather an equivalent hole, since the camera uses a neutral density filter.

Built-in GPS from Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 reviews of users are called one of the best on the market. Wi-Fi is disappointing: a small antenna does not take a signal well, and when entering a secure network, you have to enter a password (sometimes repeatedly) using an inconvenient on-screen keyboard. NFC could protect wireless communication, but it does not work reliably. The camera allows you to shoot 30-minute clips format 1080 / 60p with stereo, using the codec AVCHD. During video recording, optical zoom is available, and the camera keeps the subject in focus. Users welcome the support for MPEG-4. The video quality for the compact is pretty good.

According to the owners, the camera starts and focuses very quickly, but in low light conditions its performance is not so impressive. The details of the image are smeared even at the base ISO sensitivity values, there are strong chromatic aberrations, the lens is slightly light-sensitive, and the flash output is not high. At the same time, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 photo for its class makes excellent, the case is very durable and reliably protected from dust and moisture, the screen is clear, manual exposure adjustment is provided and the battery provides continuous operation of the camera provided inactive Wi-Fi modules and GPS.

Conclusion

For active travelers, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 camera, whose characteristics provide high reliability, a good display, video shooting capability and support for Wi-Fi and GPS, will do the most. But photographers planning to shoot in low light conditions and use a flash, it is worth looking for a more suitable camera.