Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33 review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33 is low and compact, so it's a pleasant surprise to find they've packed in so many features. Still, for £200, we expect plenty from a compact, especially when there are so many cheaper 8-megapixel cameras with 64mm (2.5-inch) screens and 3x zooms.

7.5

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33

The Good

Wide angle lens; optical image stabilisation; diminutive frame; lots of features.

The Bad

Lack of manual control.

The Bottom Line

There's a lot to like about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33, with it's succinct design, MegaOIS function and efficient wide angle lens. A lack of manual control and unspectacular image quality barely detract from the feature-packed fun of this sturdy, sylish compact

Design
There's not an ounce of fat on the FX33. The LCD display is the usual 64mm (2.5-inch), although Panasonic compensates for not giving us a bigger screen by making the camera frame little bigger than the screen. Apart from the small area to the right of the display where the controls sit, the rear of the FX33 is all screen, with no wasted real estate.

The controls sit on the bottom right of the camera, as most of its back is all screen

The impressive 22mm depth, flush-folding lens and long, low profile make the FX33 seem more like a mobile phone in size and shape. The weighty all-metal body feels extremely sturdy, with a snappy little metal door covering the USB slot. Colours available are classy black or silver.

Features
The FX33 tops the usual 3x zoom with a Leica 3.6x lens, with a pleasingly wide 28mm equivalent, as opposed to the typical 35mm or disappointing 38mm on some compacts. However, the 8.1-megapixel sensor is the usual small 25mm.

Panasonic's excellent MegaOIS optical image stabilisation system is present and correct, which is truly impressive in such a small camera. In the OIS menu you can access an onscreen levels display that shows how much the camera is moving in real-time. It's fun, and educational, but unfortunately you can't see the indicator of how much your hands are shaking when you're actually in shooting mode.

Pointing and shooting is obviously the focus here, with lots of scene modes but a shortage of manual options. There isn't even shutter or aperture-priority mode. Instead, Panasonic have added a new 'intelligent auto' function, similar to Pentax's 'green mode', which does almost everything except press the shutter for you.

In this mode you are only able to adjust the more obvious features, like turning the flash on or off. This mode prioritises faces, using the face detection feature. It's clever enough to switch to macro mode if the autofocus decides your subject is close enough.

Macro option of 50mm from your close-up subject isn't bad. There is a choice of 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios.Video mode allows you to shoot 848x480-pixel resolution widescreen movies at 30 frames per second, with sound. Intelligent ISO mode caps the ISO sensitivity level to ensure that noise doesn't creep into your pictures while you're not looking. ISO levels go up to a maximum of ISO 6,400, which is pretty high for a compact.

There was no loss of focus towards the edge of the image, thanks to the Leica-branded wide angle lens

In playback mode, text and dates can be stamped onto photos, with the original saved or overwritten. Another useful feature is category sorting, which sorts images into categories like portraits, scenery, date-stamped images or movies, so you can review or make slideshows of a particular type of image. The last image taken can also be reassessed at any time with one-touch review.

If you're short on memory (and with only 27MB onboard you will be, without an SD card) the 'Clipboard' function allows you to take around 70 photos and preview them onscreen, without saving them to the memory card. It's an unusual feature, designed to keep information to hand, for example, by photographing a train timetable. How useful it will be will probably come down to personal taste.

Performance
Start-up time is OK, although a logo telling you what mode the camera is in is annoying more often than it is useful. In single-shot mode the FX33 respectably captures images with half a second between pictures, or two seconds for the flash to cycle. Autofocus is also fast, utilising several focus point options and an autofocus assist lamp.

Continuous shooting modes are disappointing, however. The FX33 has two continuous shooting modes. Unlimited mode would probably have continued shooting forever, but was so arthritically slow we certainly couldn't wait that long. In one test the camera managed a painful 60 frames in an interminable two and a half minutes.

By contrast, normal continuous mode is lightning quick, but only captures four images at maximum resolution and even then has to pause a moment to process the pictures. Lower image sizes allow for more pictures to be taken.

Image quality
Image quality is good, if not spectacular. The intelligent auto mode manages exposure well, with the only quibble being occasional white balance issues. Colours are vibrant, especially in portrait mode.

As on most compacts, noisy higher ISO settings combine with intrusive noise reduction to render images at the maximum ISO 6,400 unusable. However, this is rarely a problem as the higher sensitivity settings are not accessible through the standard ISO menu, and you can cap the sensitivity level so the camera cannot ramp up the ISO levels without you noticing.

The Leica-branded wide angle lens performed excellently, with no sign of distortion or loss of focus towards the edge of the image.

Conclusion
The Pansonic Lumix DMC-FX33 is a decently-specced camera with an excellent lens, and a number of well-implemented features. The inclusion of optical image stabilisation and a wide angle lens in such a compact package is extremely impressive, and picture quality is solid enough not to ruin the party.

The intelligent auto mode is clever enough to put the FX33 head and shoulders above other idiot-proof point-and-shoots like the similarly-priced Olympus Stylus mju 780 or the substantially cheaper Kodak EasyShare M873, but the lack of manual control won't win over more experienced photographers. That said, as a back-up compact, the FX33 is an undemanding blast to use.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday