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9.2 out of 10

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 / DMC-FS30

14.1 megapixels

Information found in: from 85 sources in 17 countries

Great Deal: $122.99

  • User Score (989)
    8.8 8.8 from 989 reviewers
  • Expert Score (11)
    8.0 8.0 from 11 reviewers
  • Design (4)
    8.6 8.6 from 4 reviewers
  • Value for money (25)
    8.2 8.2 from 25 reviewers
  • Features (36)
    7.5 7.5 from 36 reviewers
  • Ease of use (34)
    8.5 8.5 from 34 reviewers
  • Performance (8)
    7.3 7.3 from 8 reviewers
  • Picture quality (38)
    8.7 8.7 from 38 reviewers
  • Durability (3)
    8.6 8.6 from 3 reviewers
  • Reliability (4)
    10 10 from 4 reviewers
  • Overall quality (7)
    10 10 from 7 reviewers
  • Display (27)
    9.2 9.2 from 27 reviewers
  • Ergonomics (6)
    9.0 9.0 from 6 reviewers
  • Portability (21)
    8.0 8.0 from 21 reviewers
More grades Less grades

  • Score Distribution

Experts:
9-10
(3)
7-8
(8)
5-6
(0)
3-4
(0)
1-2
(0)
Users:
9-10
(537)
7-8
(203)
5-6
(46)
3-4
(30)
1-2
(39)

  • Expert Reviews

  1. Camera Labs

    Camera Labs
    8.3/10
    1 July 2010

    The Panasonic Lumix FS30 / FH20 is an affordable compact super-zoom camera with an 8x optical range, 14 Megapixel sensor and 2.7 inch screen. It can shoot 720p HD video and has plenty of automatic features like face detection AF and scene recognition making it a good choice if you're looking for a capable super-zoom without the added cost and complication that more advanced models bring with them. Read more

    • 8x stabilized optical zoom., Dedicated Intelligent Auto mode button., Fast and accurate scene recognition., Good low light performance.
    • Dated styling with switches., Poor flash performance., Poor menu design., No zoom while filming video.

  2. Imaging Resource

    Imaging Resource
    25 January 2010

    For a basic tote-anywhere camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 is a good option especially since it's readily available for less than $175 at legitimate online retailers. It's extremely compact but has an 8x optical zoom that starts out at a nice 28mm wide-angle and reaches 224mm at telephoto. Read more

    • 28-224mm eq. lens is wide with surprising telephoto reach, Compact form factor, Very simple control layout, Decent 2.7-inch LCD screen rated 230K dots, Auto Power LCD ...
    • Image corners are pretty soft, Entire image soft at full telephoto, Strong barrel distortion at wide-angle, moderate pincushion at telephoto, Moderate to high chromati...

  3. DigitalCameraInfo.com

    DigitalCameraInfo.com
    14 January 2010

    It's hard to know how impressed you should be about a camera untill you know how much you're paying for it, and Panasonic won't release that information until 30 days before the FH20 starts shipping. And, of course, image quality is unknown at this stage. At first glance, though, Panasonic gets points for visual style, compact design, a sophisticated full auto mode and plenty of scene modes. Read more

  4. Digitalcamera HQ

    Digitalcamera HQ
    7 April 2010

    It's been a few years since I played with a Panasonic. Back then, I personally felt that there was a risk in purchasing (or recommending for purchase) any camera made by a manufacturer that didn't begin with C or N. Brands like Panasonic made excellent cameras too, but they tended to be hit-or-miss. When in doubt, I always knew I could turn to a Powershot and expect a solid level of performance, and I still think this today. Read more

  5. consumersearch.com

    16 November 2010

    The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 (also known as the DMC-FS30) has a couple of advantages over other under-$200 pocket digital cameras, reviews say: it comes with an 8x zoom lens, and experts say its 14.1-megapixel sensor produces reliably good photos in bright light. Like the Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS (Discontinued) , the Lumix DMC-FH20 shoots 720p HD video (neither camera allows you to use the optical zoom while shooting movies) and has a myriad of modes you can select for... Read more

    • 8x optical zoom, Shoots 720p HD video, Good image quality in bright light
    • Shutter lag with autofocus, Low-light photos, No optical zoom while shooting video, No HDMI port

  6. CNET

    CNET
    7.0/10
    14 October 2010

    Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FH20 is a very good value for anyone in need of a basic point-and-shoot with a midrange zoom. Read more

    • Easy to use; flexible lens in a compact metal body; very good value for features, performance, and photo quality.
    • Feature set might be too basic for some.

  7. TechRadar UK

    TechRadar UK
    8.0/10
    6 August 2011

    A final distinct drawback to the FS30 in our tests was the performance of the flash, which seemed a little underpowered with the lens zoomed in, despite Panasonic's claims of good coverage at nearly 10 feet. Read more

    • Good image quality, No shutter lag, Crisp video
    • A little too light, Screen could be nicer, Not the most desirable design

  8. etechreviews.net

    etechreviews.net
    1 January 2011

    Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 is a compact sub $180 camera having 8x zoom wide angle lens, HD movie capture, and .. well, nothing else. That is all you get; I am not complaining but this is pretty basic camera made for entry level users. The photo quality and shooting performance could have been improved; the speed is OK and so are the results. If you are looking for some advanced features here, I won’t recommend this camera to you. Read more

  9. CNET

    CNET
    8.0/10
    26 August 2010

    The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS30 is a competent compact camera, with an 8x zoom. There's nothing revolutionary about it, but it lets you point, shoot and get decent results with minimal fuss. Read more

    • Fairly priced, Decent build quality, Easy to use and responsive, Consistent results, Diminutive size
    • Boxy design, Zoom stays fixed once video recording has commenced, No HDMI output

  10. REVIEW STREAM

    REVIEW STREAM
    8.0/10
    27 May 2010

    This camera has 14 mega pixels and I am truly amazed at the pictures on this camera. All of the pictures that I take on this camera are always crystal clear and this is the best camera that I have used. I love the fact that the pictures on this camera are not blurred even if they are taking while the camera is moving. Read more

  • User Reviews

  1. Disappointed!! NEVER again Panasonic Lumix!!

    Amazon
    4.0/10
    Reviewer: P. Seiter "foto hobbyist", Amazon
    3 weeks ago See Product at Amazon ($249.99)

    I have been using this camera for almost a year, and after printing my holiday pictures, I am totally disappointed with the Lumix brand. ALL indoor pictures are pretty much horrible. Although this camera takes good outdoor shots (most cameras do)the bad indoor shots make me regret no returning this camera. I took the Lumix DMC-FHK20K on my 50 day cross-country trip, and my older 7 MP Kodak camera took better outdoor shots as well. Read more or see product

  2. Frame Your Photos with (Lumix) Silver

    J&R
    10/10
    Reviewer: Bajan Smurf, J&R
    7 February 2011

    For such a modest price, this camera sure has it all - great zoom, outstanding quality, ease of use, compact size. On my recent trips I've captured the vivid colors of carnival, a castle's burnt out ruins, a museum's treasures, and a dear friend's wedding. Indeed, once I see the picture, my Lumix provides the frame. I get nothing but praise for my photos, so I highly recommend this camera. Try it! Soon, you too will be framing your photos in Silver. Read more

    • Easy To Use, Fast/accurate auto-focus, Good Image Quality, Good in Low Light, Good price - GREAT value, Great Zoom, Large Clear LCD, Nice Body Color, Small cam - BIG p...
    • Too many features

  3. Very poor indoor flash pictures

    Digitalcamera HQ
    4.0/10
    Reviewer: George, Digitalcamera HQ
    3 January 2011

    Very poor indoor flash pictures The flash seems woefully in adequate and I go very poor indoor flash pictures. Even at just 4 feet or so the flash is not strong enough and it gets worse if one uses the telephoto end. Also with IA (Intelligent Auto mode, the default, which is what I used) I found several blurry pictures and I was not shooting sports action Since it is too late to return the camera, I would really appreciate if users can guide me on how I can overcome... Read more

  4. "Zoom and stabilizer are highlighted"

    CNET
    7.0/10
    Reviewer: Kaiser-1980, CNET
    7 April 2011

    The picture quality is not as great, lacking in pictures and apply compression freedom in control. Also, there was a lack of control for low-light environments, where we could get photos without using flash. Lenses are average, generating light curva.Os factors ISO has large scale, could be 50-50 or 100-100 and more control of noise. Zoom and stabilizer are highlighted. Read more

    • nice colours in pics,zoom 8x,quality photos,stabilizer
    • Feature set poor,not pleased at sites of low light without a flash generated dark photos, almost imperceptible and lacked control over ISO

  5. Great camera for the price

    Newegg
    8.0/10
    Reviewer: Newegg
    16 June 2011

    For the price, it's a great buy for a small digital camera to capture your memorable moments. With the right lighting and some good editing, you can have some excellent looking pictures. For cameras in this range, I would have to think this is one of the better ones. Read more

    • Small size, metal body feels sturdy, HD video capability is nice. Has some cool effects features. Color stands out.
    • Zoom is not too great. HD Video requires really good lighting conditions (as is the case with most lower priced HD cameras).

  6. Great Camera!

    10/10
    Reviewer: sftball12, epinions.com
    4 weeks ago

    The Panasonic Lumix FH20 is a great compact digital camera. Read more

    • 8x optical zoom, Intelligent Mode, HD video recording, quick start-up, quick between photos
    • poor red eye correction, low volume

  7. Wonderful little camera for the price!

    Ebay
    10/10
    Reviewer: vtray39, Ebay
    8 September 2011 See Product at eBay ($199.00)

    What a great little camera! I have had about a half dozen digital cameras since my first Minolta Dimage5 in 2000. This little instrument has 14 MP and an 8X optical zoom plus several manual settings. There are two Auto settings and the "IA" never seems to fail. I have taken a lot of pictures in the last dozen years mostly with manual settings but this camera is smarter and more consistent than I am. The one feature missing is the LED only. No optical viewfinder. Read more or see product

  8. Excellent little camera

    Comet
    8.8/10
    Reviewer: GadgetQueen123, Comet
    31 October 2010

    I bought this camera as my boyfriend has a fancy (but bulky!) SLR camera. We're going on honeymoon next year and wanted a smaller camera to take good quality pictures, quick and easily! I've just been away (on a hen few days!) and gave the camera a bit of a 'test-run'! I'm not disappointed! The picture quality is great! The camera is very easy to use - has quite a lot of functions that I'm not sure what they do yet - but will keep experimenting! Read more

  9. CNET

    CNET
    8.0/10
    Reviewer: JacobHunt, CNET
    5 February 2011

    I got this fantastic little camera only yesterday and have been nothing but impressed with the features, quality and all round performance. The auto intelligent mode (a small button on the top right) is brilliant for people more unsure what settings are best and allows the camera to take care of everything. There are also enough features, settings and different modes for people more confident and happy to play around with it, and produces some fantastic quality photos. Read more

    • Easy to use camera, Picture quality is impressive, Start up speed, Zoom is very impressive
    • Proprietary usb cable , Battery pack not AA

  10. Great camera for the price

    Amazon
    8.0/10
    Reviewer: Sarah, Amazon
    7 December 2011 See Product at Amazon ($249.99)

    I purchased this for my husband last xmas as we have a very young son, and whenever we tried to take a picture with the camera we had, it took so long from pressing the button, we missed the shots we wanted to take, as babies don't keep still. I spent a lot of time researching, looking for a camera with really quick shutter speed, but a camera that was compact and not expensive so we could take it on holiday. I can honestly say that this does the trick. Read more or see product

  • WikiFreak Description

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 is a compact digital camera designed with 14.1 effective megapixels, 8x DC Vario optical zoom lens with wide angle setting of 28-224mm equivalent, and true optical image stabilization system for reducing camera shake. Apart from having a 2.7-inch LCD display, its screen also support up to 230,000 dots of high resolution, plus also a nine-point multi-area auto-focus system which includes a single-point high-speed focus mode and it is also equippe…

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 is a compact digital camera designed with 14.1 effective megapixels, 8x DC Vario optical zoom lens with wide angle setting of 28-224mm equivalent, and true optical image stabilization system for reducing camera shake. Apart from having a 2.7-inch LCD display, its screen also support up to 230,000 dots of high resolution, plus also a nine-point multi-area auto-focus system which includes a single-point high-speed focus mode and it is also equipped with a face detection function. The Lumix FH20 is available in blue, black, red, and violet enclosure.

Features

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 features 14.1-megapixel resolutions with 8x DC Vario optical zoom having a wide angle setting of 28-224mm equivalent, 1/2.33-inch Optical sensor size, a built-in flash, 2.7-inch LCD monitor with 230,000 dots of colour high resolution that comes with LCD viewfinder, Auto Power LCD mode and a two-steps aperture that ranges from a maximum aperture of f/3.3 up to f/10 at wide-angle, or f/5.9 to f/18 at telephoto. It also comes with an Intelligent Auto (iAuto) mode that recognizes and adjusts scene conditions and lighting, enhance natural skin tones, and reducing blurring effects. The iA mode will activates six detection and correction functions also known as the MEGA Optical Image Stabilizer which include the i-Portrait, i-Scenery, Macro, i-Night Portrait, i-Night Scenery, and i-Sunset feature, to compensate any hand-shake error, an Intelligent ISO sensitivity control ranging from 80 to 1,600 (maximum of 6,400), shutter speeds from 1/1,600 to 60 seconds, capable of recording HD movie with 1,280-by-720-pixels at 30 fps in format of Motion JPEG and Face Detection AF/AE to focus on faces in the frame and remove unwanted red-eye. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 is also equipped with SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card and SDXC Card to cater its storage capability. It has a total built-in memory of 40 MB and in terms of interface connectivity it is compatible with USB2.0 full-speed connections, an AV output of either NTSC/PAL or NTSC. It is powered by custom Lithium-ion CGA-S/106B 3.6V 740 mAh rechargeable battery and has a battery life of up to 300 pictures and it comes with a dimension that measures at 3.9-inch-by-2.2-inch-by-1.1-inch (100mm-by-57mm-by-28mm) and weighs in at 159grams (5.6 ounce) including its battery and card.

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  • Manufacturer's Description

This Stylish Compact Does It All from Wide-angle to Zooming28mm Wide-angle LensThe 28mm wide-angle lens* lets you easily capture large groups of people indoors or expansive architectural structures and scenes with dynamic width and rich perspective, even from short distances.* Converted to standard 35mm camera equivalent, at the maximum wide position. Powerful 8x Optical ZoomThe DMC-FH20 sports a powerful 8x optical zoom lens (35mm camera equivalent: 28-224mm). This g…

Specifications

  • Alternative names
    DMC-FH20R Lumix Digital Camera - Red, FH20

Release Date

  • First seen
    8 January 2010

Ask the community

Need more advice? Ask the community a question.

Questions asked: 4 Answers: 2

Previous questions about this product

  • Why does the camera not focus correctly.

    The camera has been worked on in the MacAllen TX facility and still will not focus correctly. It all looks good on review screen but when pics are downloaded they are all out of focus. I will be attempting to return this camera for something that actually works. I have traded cards SD HC - SD and nothing works to get clear pics - Really disappointed with this product and the service I've received. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA TO ANYONE.

    (No answers yet. Write an answer!) 2010-12-18

  • Image size

    Need image size compaible with Windows XP -- 350+KB, not 14MB

    (No answers yet. Write an answer!) 2010-09-16

  • ....

    Q_Q pity me…. Lost the chance to join live interview Fnactic “cArn and dsn”… Cool skill, handsome boys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X-zEWVm7_s&feature=player_embedded#! http://0rz.com/tmV9 but seems have another chance to see them~WOW http://beatit.msi.com/home.php

    (No answers yet. Write an answer!) 2010-06-23

  • Memory Card Size

    Is the 2 GB memory card enough for this camera or should I get a bigger card? If so, what size? Thanks

    Answered by seh03 2010-09-04:

    Hi, With the 2GB you can shot 783 (14Mpix) photos but for video, of course it is memory consuming. But, assume that you are going on short two days trip are you going to consume more than 2 GB? because if you do so you will easily full your PC hard disk in a couple months! but in terms of speed, 2GB and below are SD cards and are slower than SDHC (4 GB and more) memory

    Answered by inclark 2010-10-11:

    I use an 8GB in mine-- and keep a spare since I take a zillion pix. I also bought a second battery off ebay-- some last longer than others, so I bumped up the new one to max available. Between the two upgrades- it speeds it up and lasts longer. Inexpensive enhancements + good travel

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