Sleek and Super Slim Profile with 25mm Wide Angle Lens – Panasonic’s DMC-FX60 Featuring POWER O.I.S

Beautifully designed and packed with high-end features, Panasonic is pleased to announce the new DMC-FX60, an eminently worthy addition to the Lumix line of advanced digital cameras.  Featuring a 25mm ultra-wide-angle(1) LEICA DC lens and powerful 5x optical zoom, this 12.1-megapixel ultra elegant compact camera is set to be a firm favourite.

Looking at the Lens
The new DMC-FX60 packages a 25mm Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT high-quality lens with 5x optical zoom, offering F2.8 brightness. Comprising 7 elements in 6 groups, including 3 aspherical lenses with 5 aspherical surfaces, this advanced lens unit passes Leica's stringent standards and delivers an exceptional optical performance. Notably, Panasonic achieved the world’s first incorporation of 0.3mm super thin aspherical lens and the industry first 0.3mm spherical lens in the DMC-FX60(2). This makes it possible to fit the 25-125mm high performance lens in an astonishing slim and compact body. The 25mm ultra-wide-angle lens records almost double the viewing space at the same shooting distance compared to ordinary 35mm cameras. Further, in 3-megapixel resolution mode, the Extra Optical Zoom function provides additional magnification, extending the zoom power to 9.8x by using the center part of the CCD.

Outstanding Performance thanks to the Enhanced Venus Engine V
The common concept shared by all new LUMIX products for 2009 second half is seamless operation, which is indispensable for stress-free photography. In order to respond to the foremost desire of all photographers – to catch every possible shooting opportunity, Panasonic went back to the basics and developed an industry-leading, ultra high-speed AF that is twice as fast as its predecessor FX40. Not only is AF speed much improved, start-up time has been much reduced also.

To realize the ultra high-speed AF, a number of re-engineering and further improvements are made including the adaptation of higher-speed actuator, the optimization of algorithms and the parallelization of software processing element. The result is ultra high speed yet accurate AF performance for users to enjoy a freedom of shooting never possible before. Panasonic also replaced its linear program processing with parallel processing to achieve an ultra high-speed start-up of 1.1 seconds – remarkable!

In image processing, luminance noise and chromatic noise are reduced separately before and after signal processing. This is further refined by separating noise two-dimensionally into high-frequency and low-frequency noise. The circuits then effectively reduce only the low-frequency noise to minimize the unwanted noise and help produce beautiful, sharp still and motion images.

This multi-task image-processing engine has a super-fast response time. The shutter release time lag is as short as approx. 0.006 seconds, making it easy to capture sudden, spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities. In burst shooting mode, the FX60 can snap approx. 2.3 shots per second at 12.1-megapixel full resolution(3). In High-speed Burst shooting mode, it fires off an incredible approx. 10 shots per second(4) and the Flash Burst mode makes it possible to take consecutive shots with continuous emissions of the flash(5).

In addition to its outstanding performance, the high performance engine is also more energy efficient and extends the battery life up to 360 shots (CIPA) per a single charge.

Intelligently Speaking
With the DMC-FX60, taking great photos is that easy. Panasonic incorporated the Intelligent Auto mode in pursuit of the ultimate ease of operation and the reduction of mis-shots. In iA mode the camera does all the work, leaving you free to compose shots and capture moments. Just press, aim,and shoot. This mode is now further advanced with the inclusion of POWER O.I.S. and Face Recognition for the DMC-FX60.

Taking advantage of Panasonic's accumulated optical technologies, MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabiliser) has been incorporated into Lumix cameras from the early stage of digital camera development. This helped to show all digital camera users the absolute need for hand-shake compensation, and led to its prevalence throughout the industry. MEGA O.I.S. has now evolved into the new POWER O.I.S. on the DMC-FX60, with a noticeable performance improvement - twice the shake suppression capability of previous models.

Camera hand-shake , which is physically generated when pressing the shutter button or when shooting at night with a slow shutter speed, is recognized as a low- frequency vibration, for which the new POWER O.I.S. is particularly effective. This greatly improves the quality of shots taken at night or indoors where a flash cannot be used, or where the photographer doesn't want to use a flash because it would spoil the mood. It captures beautiful photos in situations that previously resulted in blurring.

The DMC-FX60 features Face Recognition(6), a function popular in the previous FX40 but with several upgrades. Three face images can be registered for each person, to dramatically raise the detection accuracy. And when the angle of view is changed horizontally, the name display also rotates for easier reading.

Once you enter iA mode, these functions happen automatically along with AF Tracking, Intelligent ISO Control, Intelligent Scene Selector and Intelligent Exposure - so you can shoot without the bother of adjusting settings every time conditions change. You can enjoy easy, trouble-free shooting in any situation and get the satisfaction that comes with capturing clear, beautiful images.

The Fun of Photography
Highly specified, yet remaining easy to use – the new FX60 includes a variety of features to expand the fun and convenience for users. For example, all Lumix cameras can take 1920 x 1080 pixel HD (high-definition) quality photos that perfectly fit a wide-screen (16:9) HDTV for full-screen viewing. The new DMC-FX60 even records dynamic HD motion pictures in 1280 x 720p at a smooth 30 fps, in addition to WVGA (848 x 480) and normal VGA (640 x 480)(7). With HD component output capability, you can enjoy watching still and motion pictures in stunning HD quality taken by your DMC-FX60 by simply connecting the camera to a TV via an optional component cable (DMW-HDC2).

In addition, with the included software PHOTOfunSTUDIO 4.0, it is easy to view and edit your recorded contents. You may also choose to upload your videos to YouTube or burn them to a DVD disc for archiving.

Available in silver, black, violet, and blue(8), the FX60 is a truly distinctive camera, with higher specifications that clearly distinguish it from other slim, stylish models. The DMC-FX60 will be available from September 2009.

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