Product Reviews

This exceptionally stylish ultra-compact camera is packed with enticing features. The lens is the highlight, with a 3.6x zoom range for wide-angle shooting plus highly effective optical image stabilisation. The back of the camera is less remarkable; there are a few buttons and a 2½in screen (the DMC-FX55 costs £200, and is essentially the same camera with a 3in screen). However, it's inside that the real interest lies.

Face detection is now standard in new cameras, but the DMC-FX33's implementation is one of the best. It accurately recognised multiple faces at skewed angle, even in profile, and produced superbly exposed portraits against bright and dark backgrounds. An Intelligent ISO function made smart decisions about the ISO speed based on both the available light and any detected movement. Best of all is Intelligent Auto, a sophisticated and fully automatic mode that controls these features. It also controls the scene preset, macro function and others to give the best possible photos in a range of situations. Having a fully automatic mode is nothing new, but Panasonic's much-hyped Intelligent

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Auto mode does seem to live up to its name.

The DMC-FX33's performance continues Panasonic's impressive track record, with fast autofocus and a speedy processor culminating in a shot every 1.5s in normal use, every 2s with the flash, and at 1.5 frames per second (fps) in continuous mode. Switching to Intelligent Auto mode reduced performance slightly, but not enough to put us off using it. Battery life was disappointing, though. It seems to be a trend that ultra-compact cameras can no longer manage the 400-shot average to which we've become accustomed.

Our test shots were great, with excellent colours in evening sunlight and artificial light, and not a single bad exposure. Detail was usually impressive, too, particularly when using the flash. However, even in bright light there was evidence of noise. Dense foliage looked vague, which suggests that digital sharpening struggled to make sense of it, although the same sharpening worked well for simpler subjects. Indoors, problems with noise were greater. Despite image stabilisation, the DMC-FX33 struggled indoors without the flash, sacrificing detail for the sake of noise-reduction processing. Shots at ISO 200 were up to scratch, but at ISO 400 they were a little blotchy and more blurred, while at ISO 800 and 1600 they were hopeless. It's disappointing, but hardly surprising given the 8-megapixel sensor's tiny 1/2.5in size.

Even so, the FX33 joins the frontrunners from our premium compact camera Labs (Shopper 238), with similar features, image quality and price to Canon's Ixus 950 IS. Of the two, the FX33 gets our vote. However, it doesn't outperform the winner, Pentax's cheaper Optio A30, which gives superior image quality.