Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33 review Cameralabs gallery

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33 gallery

The following images were taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33. The FX33 was set to 8M Fine mode with Auto White Balance and Standard Colour mode. All images were taken handheld using OIS mode 1.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

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Panasonic FX33 - silver

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Landscape: 3.71MB, Normal mode, 1/250, f8, ISO 100, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Our first sample image was taken on a very bright day with the FX33 zoomed-out to wide angle and set to its lowest 100 ISO sensitivity. As such this represents perfect conditions. The crops contain lots of detail, and there's no fringing despite the high contrast areas of the yacht. Look closely though and there's evidence of noise even at this lowest sensitivity. It's minimal, but pixel-peepers will see it.

Landscape: 3.69MB, Normal mode, 1/800, f5.6, ISO 100, 4.6-16.4mm at 16.4mm (equivalent to 100mm)

						Another sunny day at 100 ISO, but this time with the FX33 fully zoomed-in to its maximum equivalent of 100mm. Again there's lots of detail and no coloured fringing to mention, but viewed at 100% on-screen, there's evidence of noise. Again to be fair, this is becoming par for the course on modern compacts, but it's still worth mentioning.

Landscape: 3.57MB, Normal mode, 1/10, f2.8, ISO 100, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

				Our final 100 ISO sample was again taken with the lens zoomed-out to wide angle, but this time under very dim conditions. The camera's auto mode selected a relatively slow shutter of 1/10, which has allowed the water to blur. The FX33's image stabilisation has however allowed us to handhold this shot without camera shake. If you compare this shot against our other compact reviews, you'll also notice the 28mm of the FX33 capturing a noticeably wider field.

Portrait: 3.35MB, Normal mode, 1/800, f5.6, ISO 200, 4.6-16.4mm at 16.4mm (equivalent to 100mm)

						This portrait shot was taken with the FX33 fully zoomed-in to an equivalent of 100mm and the sensitivity increased to 200 ISO. There's no control over aperture on the FX33, but here it's selected the smallest f-number anyway. The resulting depth-of-field is still quite large though, so if you were hoping for blurred backgrounds, you may be disappointed. Despite the increase in sensitivity though, the crops still retain a decent amount of detail.

Macro: 3.75MB, Macro mode, 1/250, f8, ISO 400, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						For this macro shot we increased the sensitivity to 400 ISO and positioned the camera as close at it would focus. It's not as close as the best models in this respect but you can still get some good results. The crops reveal an increase in noise when viewed at 100%, although it remains acceptable for most situations or normal-sized prints.

Indoor: 3.68MB, Normal mode, 1/40, f2.8, ISO 400, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Here's another shot taken at 400 ISO, this time taken in dimmer indoor lighting conditions. As before, there's visible noise when viewed at 100%, and this is apparent in both shadow areas or those with solid colours. Again though within this noise is a reasonable amount of detail which makes 400 ISO on the FX33 acceptable for smaller-prints.

Indoor: 2.99MB, Normal mode , 1/20, f2.8, ISO 800, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						This shot was taken with the FX33 increased to 800 ISO and there's an inevitable increase in noise as you'd expect. The impressive thing though is there's still a decent amount of detail in the crops and the colour balance hasn't been adversely affected. Compare it against the same shot taken with other compacts and the FX33 comes out quite respectably.

Indoor: 3.63MB, Normal mode, 1/160, f2.8, ISO 1600, 4.6-16.4mm at 4.6mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Our final shot was taken with the FX33 set to 1600 ISO. This is the maximum sensitivity offered at full resolution, although the High Sensitivity preset offers up to 6400 ISO at a reduced resolution of 3 Megapixels. The crops for this image reveal a big increase in noise and loss of fine detail as a result. You'd only want to use this in emergency situations, but again that's par for the course for compacts these days.

All words, images, videos and layout, copyright 2005-2008 Gordon Laing. May not be used without permission.

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