Though it was mostly overshadowed by Thursday’s announcement of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 interchangeable lens compact camera, the company also announced a new ultracompact point-and-shoot, the Lumix DMC-FH7. Though the FH7 is a smidge larger and heavier than its predecessor, the DMC-FH5 (which was only announced four months ago), it’s got a somewhat sleeker design, with softer, more rounded edges and a lens barrel colored to match the body (which comes in black, gold, or pink).
Specs wise, the FH7 is nearly identical to the FH5, with the addition of a new 3-inch touchscreen LCD. Highlights include:
- 16-megapixel CCD sensor
- 4x optical zoom lens (28-112 mm equivalent, f/3.1-6.5)
- HD video recording (1,280×720, 24 fps)
- 3.0-inch, 230,000-dot touchscreen LCD
- Optical image stabilization (shake detection)
- Face detection with digital red-eye removal
- Motion detection with auto ISO control
- Scene detection with auto scene mode selection
As is typical for Panasonic (with some exceptions), pricing and availability were not announced along with the product, but with the FH5 currently priced at $149.99, it’s likely to be just incrementally higher than that.
