Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS33 review

We review the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS33 digital compact camera

You’d be forgiven for assuming the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS33 is just another compact in a long line of releases that offers very little to distinguish it from the multitude of others lining the shelves. It looks the same, it shares many of the same features and feels the same as many Panasonic compacts that have gone before it.

Yet spend a day with this camera and you soon come to realise this is a supreme camera in an unassuming package. With knockout image quality and an extremely affordable price, you can’t go far wrong when considering a reliable point and shoot.

The spec sheet is pretty commendable, offering users a 14 megapixel ½.33 inch CCD sensor and a decent 8x optical zoom, with a versatile 28-224mm reach. Combine this with 1280 x720p HD movie recording, Intelligent Auto system and a 3” touch sensitive 230K dot resolution screen and you’re most definitely onto a winner.

Build-wise, the camera incorporates a brushed metal front and back plate, with chrome coloured plastic trims. It feels cool and weighty and pretty robust. The front plate is home to a fairly large AF assist lamp to help you focus in lowlight, a slim line elongated built-in flash and of course that all-important 8x optical zoom protruding a few millimetres from the main body when not in use. The top plate houses the on/off button, zoom and shutter button combo, plus a dedicated Intelligent Auto button, which is so easy to call upon time and time again.

The back plate is simple – a switch for playback or shooting mode and four single buttons stacked vertically is all you have. These buttons (Mode, Display, Menu and Quick Menu) work in tandem with the touch screen controls. Simply press a button to activate onscreen options, and then tap the relevant option on screen to confirm your choice. As far as touch screen technology goes, Panasonic has got this pretty spot on. It’s intuitive, responsive and provides plenty of options, without being a laborious finger tapping process. Press the mode button to the right of the screen and four touch screen options appear: Normal, Movie mode, Scene mode (of which there are 24) and My Scene mode (to save your favourites).

The FS33 is a dedicated point-and-shoot camera, providing timesaving options to help you do just that. The Quick Menu opens a host of shooting options for you to tweak at a tap of the screen including ISO and White balance settings. Likewise, a press of the dedicated Intelligent Auto button on the top of the camera takes care of the scene in hand by selecting optimum settings. It’s a reliable system, getting the settings spot on time and time again.

The extras the FS33 does include are all pretty handy should you want to take the time to use them. These include a selectable Auto Focus point, which is chosen by tapping the screen, plus a range of display modes, which includes a handy rule of thirds grid.

As far as performance goes, this is never going to break any records, but it manages to power up in a respectable two seconds. Shots can be recorded at a variety of settings, with a fine JPEG coming in at 5MB. Battery life is very commendable, with the camera lasting 300 shots (or a whole week’s holiday in our case).

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the FS33’s abilities in lowlight. Shooting from way up in the gods at a concert in London’s 02 is a tough task for any camera, but the FS33 produced very clear shots, even at full telephoto. Details are clear up to ISO 800.

Image quality is equally impressive. Edge to edge details are impeccable, and even at wide angle distortion is extremely minimal. You will struggle to find purple fringing even in the most contrasty of scenes and the warm colour reproduction is very pleasing (although a little overzealous on greens).

Overall this is a fantastic package for a great price. It’s slim, intuitive and leaves you plenty of time to think about composition rather than settings. It’s an easy to use camera with very pleasing results – well worth the money.