The primary distinguishing features of the Panasonic DMC-FX01 are:

• wide angle 28mm lens
• image stabilization
• compact size
• ~200,000 pixel 2.5″ screen

I primarily bought this camera for:

• taking landscape/sports shots (wide angle + fast reaction is good)
• taking mountain bike videos (attached to helmet, image stabilization is good)

Positive

• 28mm/wide angle is useful and still surprising rare on small cameras
• light weight, small size, good battery life
• unexpectedly good macro mode (flower/insect closeups) (or maybe just average, since in the past my entry-level Sony cameras had poor macro modes)
• good video quality in some conditions
• good videos in low light (like dusk/night time)
• relatively fast startup, focus and shot times.

Negative

• Almost any direct or reflected sun causes vertical purple bars in video mode (no issue for photo mode)  This was a big disappointment and very distracting for videos.  I would understand this issue when the sun itself is directly visible, but this happens often from sun reflected on windows, car windshields, taillights, headlights, bright bits on skis, bikes, helmets and also fields of snow.  I don’t believe this to be an issue with this one instance of the camera, but rather how this series of camera has been designed.  I suspect this can be better on some other cameras, and others have about the same.  I have personally seen videos from a Canon A610 that show none of these, however a video from a Canon SD700IS which showed most of these flaws.
• Outdoor exposures on average seem somewhat overexposed.  I now set the camera to take all pictures about 1/3 stop darker on average to compensate.
• Too much compression in some situations.  Even though the camera has a ‘high’/’low’ quality mode, I always use ‘high’ and in some situations find this is too high.  In many photos this is not noticeable.  However primarily areas like – fields of flowers/lawn/tree leaves; or mountain side of snow full of ski tracks.  Here these areas become mottled and not very sharp.  This must be a result of an overly aggressive compression algorithm.
• Camera failed (colors completely strange) after a few months.  Repaired free under warranty, but introduced problem where date/time memory lost when replacing battery.  This repaired for free again under warranty.  Not a big problem except loss of use of camera during repair time.

I encourage you to check www.dpreview.com or www.dcresource.com for other more standard review details of this camera.