Customer Rating:  
Summary: Noise levels are heartbreaking
Comment: On the surface, the FX500 seems like an almost ideal point and shoot digital camera with a good balance of pocketability and breadth of function for both novice and more advanced users but it has a significant achilles heel that shouldn't be ignored. The noise levels on photos in even lightly shaded\darkened conditions are horrendous. I have a 3 yr old point and shoot digital camera that handles such conditions significantly better. Details just get blown out and I can't imagine prints ever being worth the time.
I had seen complaints online about the noise but after viewing photos taken by other FX500 owners online which didn't display much noise, I thought this was an issue that could be managed through learning to use the camera, much as with other cameras I've had before this. But I'm sincerely baffled as to how to make the best of it in this case - trying to adjust the noise reduction setting seems to make absolutely no difference in the amount of detectable noise in a photo, whether it's set to +2 noise reduction (the most noise reduction) or -2 (the least). And as for those photos I saw online - the ones which exhibited little or no noise were the ones taken with ample lighting. I should have paid more attention.
So this one is going to get returned. If it weren't for the noise, I think I'd be in love by now. But the noise levels are absolutely a dealbreaker.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Comment: This is an amazing camera. It is very easy to use and takes great pictures.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Poor image quality, especially in low light
Comment: There are many things to like about this camera (touch-screen controls, manual overrides, large viewing screen, image stabilization, Leica lens) unfortunately image quality is not one.
While daylight exposures at ISO 100 or lower are OK albeit not outstanding, the noise and fuzziness of the images at higher ISO's makes the camera unusable at those settings. The images look great on the camera screen but get them back to your laptop or printer and the lack of sharpness is appalling. It's so bad I thought something was wrong with the camera, but reading all the other reviews I see I'm not alone. I've tried overriding the factory noise reduction setting but to no avail, it produces different results of similarly poor quality. Wish I was still within my 30-day return period.
Not recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lumix FX500
Comment: A gem with super wide-angle and good movie. All for 16:9 HDTV. It's a pity that component cable as option only.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Quality of pictures is first-rate!
Comment: I used this camera on a two week vacation and was very pleased with prints of the pictures taken. So, it follows that I have to disagree with those who've written about the quality of the shots taken with this camera!
It's true that "intelligent auto" isn't the best choice for shooting in low light. (That mode, however, works very well for other shots, including those with action that needs to be stopped at high speed.) But, as several have noted on the other side ... e.g. in reviews of the FX500 silver ..., there are other choices in the Mode selection that work very nicely in low light conditions.
I'm very pleased that I choose this camera instead of similar Canon or Sony models!
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