Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33

This is the most awesome camera I've ever owned. I can take the best pictures I've ever been able to take! I can sit in an almost completely dark room and take a picture of something that I can barely see on the display screen, but when I look at the actual photo it took it looks as if I was in a well lit room! And I can take great close-ups I could never get with my old standard film camera. I LOVE this camera and I haven't even begun to play with all of its great features. I definitely recommend this camera to anyone, especially to novices like me! This camera works for great photographers or beginners.(Reviewed by wife, the recipient of the camera.)

This product is a great combination of small size, ease of use and features - could benefit from a stronger flash, though.
Mike

I really like the Panasonic FX-33. To have a shirt-pocket-sized camera with a high quality Leica lens, optical image stabilization, wide-aspect ratio 8.1MP chip. From reading on the Internet and comparing the Panasonic FX series to the Lica D-LUX 2 the Leica camera is programmed with Leica's prepriority software and Panasonic has their own software. The main reason I bought the Panasonic FX-33 is that is has a Leica lense and is about half the cost of the equivalent Leica model and I can carry it in my pocket. I'm tired of carrying around a big camera bag.

The only thing I've noticed that I don't like is that skin tones seem to be light or have to be adjusted in Photoshop when the camera is set in the iA mode this is no problem for me.

When shooting in the Normal Picture Mode there is an adjustment for Soft Skin Tones which I haven't tried yet.

Otherwise, I really like the camera. When ordering, remember the camera does not come with a Secure Data card so you might want to consider ordering one when purchasing the camera. Also, my camera did not come with a case.

DES-Arizona

I picked up this camera to replace my wife's 3.1 MP Canon from 2003. As the camera will be strictly used as a point-and-shoot, I wanted to know how it performed straight out of the package. On an overcast day in summer with good and even light (2.00 p.m.) I took about 50 photos with it, first in full auto (auto fill-in flash, anti-shake and auto-ISO), later with ISO limited to 100 to reduce noise.

My first impression: All images suffer from visible noise and lack of detail. Even shots of static, high-contrast objects (30 yards away) were sometimes simply out of focus: At ISO 100, zoom set to wideangle and at 1/320s shutter speed you can rule out camera shake as a reason for blurry images - especially with the image stabilizer on.

As the camera appears to prefer high shutter speeds it will not stop down to give you better resolution of more depth-of-field. As a result, if it focuses on the wrong part of an image your main object might appear blurry. The Canon models I used recently (IXUS 850IS and A640) were much better at this.

Adjusting the zoom lens from wide-angle to a more "normal" or light "telephoto" setting, things actually got even worse: In the "long" setting (100mm equivalent) I was simply not able to produce a single shot that I would call "sharp". In fact, some of the images from that old 3.2 MP Canon had better resolution and sharpness than what I got from the FX33.

Even though I liked the natural skin tones, the good macro and the camera's ability to cope with high contrasts situations, I think I will return the camera tomorrow.

I ordered the silver model but received the blue one instead. I didn't care, it's identical to the silver so it was just fine. It was just kinda surprising to open the box and see a blue camera when you're expecting a silver. That being said, it's a good camera. I should mention that I must have left it on accidentally the other day and it was dead the next day. The battery was totally charged before and I was surprised that the camera didn't shut itself off after 2 minutes or something. I need to re-read the instructions about that part. That just irked me because I was all ready for a day full of photo-taking and it was dead.

I really like the intelligent auto feature. And the image stabilization is great for walking & taking pictures. It makes them come out really clear quite often.

The screen is nice and big. The buttons are easy to use. I kinda wish the on/off switch was a button because if I put the camera in the wrong way in my camera bag, it accidentally turns on and that is none too good. I am careful to put it in the way that keeps it off.

The battery life is good and I love rechargeable lithium ion batteries instead of double A's.

All in all, a nice upgrade for a compact camera for me. I had a 3.2mp before and wanted a better camera for going to Europe for 3 months. I'm here now and the pics have been awesome. Very happy with it and the price was totally unbeatable.