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.)

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 took this camera to my 7-day Japan trip and here are my
observations. In summary, this is a very good camera for
most occasions.

Pros:

- The small & lightweight nature allows me to carry this camera
in my pocket throughout the entire trip
- The lag from switch-on to ready-to-use is short and enables
me to capture many scenes that could have been missed if I use
the older Optio 450
- The image stabilization is very helpful, especially for
those moving targets. There were cases it caught flying
eagles flawlessly.
- The auto face-recognition feature is also a big plus.

Through my trip I set the camera to IA mode most of the time,
combined with abovementioned features, this camera is not only
easy to use and is also extremely handy to capture whatever
scene comes to your eyes.

Cons: (Of course, being a sub-compact digital camera, it also
has its deficits)

- It has very limited manual control which makes it not so
good on special weather conditions.
- 3x optical zoom is good but not sufficient for travellers
who want to zoom in to much farther objects (my older Optio
450 has 5x zoom)
- The battery life is much shorter than my expectation. I had
to recharge the battery twice during the trip which surprises
me very much and makes me feel that I may need to purchase and
carry a spare battery in my next trip


2009-09-23

I have now owned Lumix DMC FX33 for more than 15 months and have
taken it with me to two oversea trips. Because my daughter also
used this camera a lot, few more things were noticed in this
year's trip and I would like to share them.

Good,
- the 16x9 scenic pictures taken are really beautiful
- the 640x480 videos recorded are sharp and clear (they are also
suitable for YouTube/Facebook)
- those preset scenic modes are really helpful for good pictures
under different circumstances (but you need to remeber to switch
to the correct scenic mode)
- the compact battery charger is very convenient (even I have to
charge the battery every other day, I am still using the
original battery)
- the camera body is sturdy. In this year's trip, we accidentally
dropped the camera to the concrete ground (from about 5 ft. high)
and it came up with only minor dent on the body. Everything
continues to work. *** very amazing (& lucky) ***

Not so good,
- the video sound quality is not so good,
- the zooming function doesn't work when recording. you have to
move camera forward to get a closer view.

Regardless, I have built up strong confidence on Panasonic, my next
digital camera will definitely be Panasonic Lumix.

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.