Panasonic DMC-FT5 waterproof camera gets NFC and Russian GPS

At CES 2013 the Panasonic DMC-FT5 rugged camera was unveiled with a host of new features, including improved GPS and built-in NFC.

Designed to withstand pretty much any environment the 16.1-megapixel DMC-FT5 is waterproof to 43ft, shockproof to 6ft 6in, dust proof, pressure resistant to 100kg and freeze-proof, too.

The DMC-FT5 has a built-in barometer to measure depth, which then automatically adjusts the camera’s colour balance. This should compensate the camera’s underwater photos from looking dull and colour-less due to depth.

New for this year is a support of GLONASS (the Russian satellite positioning system) and standard GPS. The combination of the two should ensure faster and more reliable positioning from the camera.

It’s interesting to see that NFC makes its debut here, too. Simply touch the camera to your NFC-enabled device running the Panasonic App, and a Wi-Fi connection between the two is made and your selected images are transferred from the camera. In the demo we saw, it worked incredibly well and saves faffing about with menus on the camera to join it to a Wi-Fi network.

The same range of features, bar the ruggedness, can also be found on the top-of-the-line DMC-TZ30, which also has a brand-new 18.1-megapixel sensor and a 20x optical zoom.

Both cameras will be on sale in the UK from March. Pricing in Panasonic’s store will be £349 for both, but street prices of £299 will be more realistic.