Panasonic Lumix Problems After a Year of Use - Not Recommended

Update 10/1/08
My Lumix is history and I do not recommend this camera.
I'm sort of relieved that my Lumix FX-01 is dead at Panasonic after I refused to pay $111 to have them fix my lens, which bent to the side, due to their design of an on and off switch on the top of the camera that is too easy to push "on" unknowingly. The lens then extends.

3 reasons not to buy this:
1) bad in low light. Requires figuring out their "special settings" to work around this problem.
2) bad design
3) photo quality is "harsh," not nuanced

More importantly, after a year of use I can say if it's important to you to be able to take photos in evening light - anything that isn't pure daylight - you need a different camera. The Lumix has all kinds of whizzbang "intelligent" settings for different events but most don't seem to work unless there's plenty of light.

Ironically it takes good night pictures like of close up fireworks but anything else comes out WAY dark. As I experienced when first using the camera, you look at the preview thinking you're going to get a beautiful pic and it always comes out a couple of shades darker than you expect.

I HIGHLY recommend getting a Canon instead of this if:
1) You like photos to be exactly how you see the image with your eye.
2) You like being able to take photos without a flash.


Original review
The Lumix DMC-FX01 has so much going for it. I bought it because of the 28mm equivalent lens, the image stabilization, and the reputation of Leica lenses.

My last two pocket sized cameras have been Canon S-series. The con of the Canon was the harsh too-bright flash. The major pro was its ability to take beautiful low light photos and the fact that photos taken without flashes usually came out just as seen in the display or even better.

The DMC-FX01 has been a huge disappointment in low light. In the display, the low light images look bright. However when taken at ISO 400 or Auto mode, with all settings turned to help in low light (even on Candlelight and Night modes) - the result has been completely unacceptable.

I'm going to feel like I need to carry my S-400 with me to take low light photos and the FX01 for daytime.

Update: I learned that I have to manually change the shutter speed to be slower if the light is low. This obviously is less than optimal for snapshots but at least it's a way to improve on the weak low light feature.