nobody else has to know (yikes!)

Just had to share this new camera review from Fashion Wire, an online magazine:

“Using built-in Beauty Retouch modes, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP7 digital camera boasts the ability to tone down wrinkles, whiten your teeth and amp up rosy cheeks with just the touch of a button.

We concentrated on two modes: Esthetic, for clearing skin texture and whitening teeth, and Make-up, to add color options for foundation, eyes, and lips and cheeks. After you take a photo by simply pressing the large shutter button on top of the camera, touch the playback button on the LCD and the smiley-face icon in the lower right hand. An arrow will point to the face you want to ‘fix,’ and you simply swipe it to begin. You’ll be taken to a close-up of that visage and given a choice of two mode icons in the top left corner. Once you choose one, you’ll have three options, and each one will let you suggest the percentage of work you want to apply (20, 40, 60 or 80) by pressing the up and down arrows on the top right side of the screen. The first is Esthetic, and it’s far and away the best feature. Start with clear skin, head to shine removal, and finish off with teeth-whitening. We suggest going either 60 or 80 percent for best results.

Next is the Make-Up Retouch where you’ll have four choices: Foundation, Lip Color, Cheek Color and Eye Shadow. Instead of the percentages, this time you’ll be asked to choose colors. We unilaterally skipped the foundation because it made everyone look chalky, no matter what shade we tried. The lips were fun to play with, offering pink, coral, red and buff tints. Rather than an opaque layer of lipstick, it was more like adding a subtle pigment, brightening up lips that already had lipstick or perking up a naked mouth. The cheeks allowed both shapes and shades, letting you choose where you apply the blush in the five peach-to-pink hues. The eyes trailed foundation as our least favorite feature. Shadow colors come in neon green, dark brown, light brown, midnight blue and a very odd, shocking purple. The browns were hard to notice, and the other colors looked like a child had a go at her mother’s makeup drawer.

Once you’re done, simply hit the OK button and you’re taken to before-and-after screen shots so you can check out your work. Press OK again and voilà, a brand-new image will be saved along with the original.

The results can be jarring. Our subjects showed a huge change in skin tone, wrinkle removal and general smoothing of the skin, as well as a whiter set of choppers. The makeup was subtle if you used the right settings. Again, stay away from foundation and eye shadow. But both the cheeks and lips could add nice, restrained pigment.

The takeaway? Though other camera makers, like Sony, Olympus, Kodak and HP, promise to make you look tanner, thinner and smoother before you take a photo, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP7 offers a fun and easy way to instantly upgrade your appearance after you take a shot.

You’ll look younger, fresher and smoother, but keep it simple with the makeup. And shhh, nobody else has to know.”

- The Fashion Wire