Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT20 review

Despite these limitations, the FT20 acquitted itself reasonably well in our image quality tests. Automatic exposures were expertly judged, and while Panasonic’s colour output isn’t quite as flattering to our eyes as Canon or Nikon’s, it’s arguably more honest. Focus was generally sharp, although it deteriorated a little when we zoomed in. There was evidence of noise even in brightly lit shots, but noise reduction kept skin textures looking reasonably smooth and lifelike, avoiding the syrupy, smeary mess that 16-megapixel compact cameras often suffer from. Dense textures such as grass were handled less well, though.

The 16-megapixel resolution doesn’t bode well, but Panasonic has managed to keep smeary noise reduction artefacts to a minimum in bright conditions – click to enlarge

Moving indoors, strong noise reduction took a heavy toll on details, to the point where the 16-megapixel photos looked more like 2-megapixel photos that had been digitally enlarged. Still, this successfully kept noise at bay, and they actually looked pretty good once we’d resized them to fit a PC screen. In short, these aren’t the sort photos we’d want to print out at A4 size, but viewed on a computer or HD TV, they’re up to scratch.

Focus is a little soft at long focal lengths, despite the best efforts of the digital sharpening – click to enlarge

It’s reasonably nippy camera too, taking just 1.3 seconds between shots in normal use. Continuous mode wasn’t much faster at 1fps, but there’s a 3-megapixel, 6.3fps mode for when capturing action is more important than a huge resolution. The controls are quick to use, too, with a Q.Menu button that provides access to the most important settings. The zoom buttons aren’t as easy to use as a lever but we can see the sense in keeping all the controls flush with the camera’s body.

Details become very soft at fast ISO speeds, but it’s not a problem when photos are resized to fit a screen – click to enlarge

Videos are recorded at 720p in AVC format with active zoom and autofocus while recording. Noisy zoom motors are a common problem, but in this instance the zoom was silent and it was the autofocus that peppered the soundtrack with little whirrs and clicks. It was only noticeable in quiet environments, though. The picture looked quite heavily processed to accentuate sharpness, and we noticed the same strange ghosting effects in dimly lit, fast-moving scenes that we first saw in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7. Still, with clip lengths up to 30 minutes, it’s better than most video modes we see at this price.

This camera is far from flawless, but it’s inevitable that it won’t offer the same features and quality as the pricier FT4. The screen is our biggest concern, but the bottom line is that the FT20 is tough enough to withstand abuse, and its photos and videos are fine for casual use. At this price, it’s a good deal.