Panasonic Lumix FT11

The Panasonic LUMIX FT1 is the company’s first extreme compact and sports a relatively functional, utilitarian design with lots of straight lines, screws and a brushed metal-like matt finish.

The Panasonic LUMIX FT1 has a predominantly plastic finish considering the price, but it still feels well put-together. Underwater, you can use it down to a depth of 3m and this should be more than adequate for most requirements, while it’s also shockproof from 1.5m should it accidentally take a tumble.

The Panasonic LUMIX FT1 has a decent wide-angle coverage – 28mm at the wide end to squeeze more into the frame, while it can reach to 128mm. To reduce camera shake, the FT1 employs Panasonic’s MEGA O.I.S. optical anti-shake system. There’s a 12.1Mp sensor with an ISO range of 80-1600, which can be expanded to 6400 using the High Sensitivity scene mode, though resolution is sacrificed and dropped to 3Mp. There’s a single underwater scene mode, along with a Beach and Surf mode on the main command dial. Here you’ll also find Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto mode, which detects the correct scene mode along with controlling anti-shake, ISO and activating Face Detection if needed.  
The Panasonic LUMIX FT1 has a finely grooved shutter button and metal 4-way control pad. Scene modes are clearly labelled, if the icons are a little small, while main menu controls are easy to toggle and set.

www.panasonic.co.uk