User's friendly, 28mm wide-angle, 2.5" vivid lcd screen and with the Intelligent auto mode, just point and shoot and you'll have a great picture

Pros: Very fast burst mode, LEICA lense, slim compact body, Optical Image Stabiliser, 15 faces recognition, anti-blur works

Cons: a bit low with startup time, no manual control, no view finder

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

This camera just feels good. This particular (black) body is rubberized (but all-metal underneath the rubber coat), something not apparent in the pictures or description. It's a small camera, smaller than the Canon SD870, but not as small as the Canon SD1000. Slim and pocketable, easily.

I was trying to decide between these three cameras, and I got the Lumix because of it's optical image stabilization (SD1000 does not have this) and because it felt better in my hands than the SD870.

This camera has a wide-angle lens (28mm equivalent), which REALLY makes a difference when you're taking a group picture in a small room or trying to fit a cathedral into a shot when you're standing in front of it.

Optical image stabilization will help remove your hand jitter in low-light situations. Possibly the best new, real feature to hit digital cameras since 7 megapixel resolution.

The other major feature on this camera is the new "Intelligent Auto" mode which works great, but it basically detects between 4 different scenes, not every single scene mode as I was led to believe. Face detection really does work, but I don't think it's any better than any other autofocus system.

Image quality is average, whatever that means. For a point and shoot though, nobody should be expecting SLR-quality shots on such a tiny camera, tiny lens, and tiny CCD sensor. I think it's ridiculous how anyone expects SLR quality at all. Physics people! So for it's size, the pictures come out great, and I am not disappointed.

Video quality is great - it supports a really high 848x480 (widescreen) resolution, higher than most (if not all) other compacts out there right now. The audio quality does suck. To me, it sounds like it's underwater compared to my old Sony or Nikon digital compacts. However, it's good enough, and if you want better, get a real camcorder. Caveat - the "Video" mode is on the opposite side of the mode dial from "Picture" mode. Somebody missed the usability memo.

Screen is sharp and is covered by glass, not plastic. This means greater scratch resistence, but since the glass protrudes a little from the body of the camera itself, it might also attract more scratches, too.

The only major downside to this camera is that from power-on until picture-taken, it's about 3-4 seconds. This is bad for when you just have to get that once-in-a-lifetime shot. However, if that moment only lasted 3 seconds, I don't think anyone could have gotten a good picture of it.

Look to this camera as a real alternative to the insanely popular Canon digital elph line. Hands down, Lumix cameras look cooler and have all the important features Canon has. I agonized between Canon and Panasonic, but I have no regrets with my choice. Do it!

After long and arduous research, I finally decided to buy this Panasonic FX33K. Usually having invested so much time into researching and comparing products, I come down to a select few products, picking one, and end up somewhat regretting not picking another one. This has not been the case with the FX33K.

I am a very particular person when it comes to buying anything. My requirements for buying a digital camera were that it has to has to be black, it needs to have the best anti-shake available (as I have very shaky hands), it needs to be reasonably priced (at most around $200) and it needs to take high-quality pictures. That being said, after thorough comparison, I am assured I have found what I've been looking. If you're looking for an ultra compact camera that has great anti-shake, a bright screen (which you can adjust to make it multiple times brighter) looks chic and takes great pictures (look at the pictures in the "customer images" section), look no further. I bought this camera on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Black Friday) and so it met my criteria for price. Panasonic makes some compact cameras that fit similar criteria for a lower price, but don't look as fashionable as the FX33K or have the intelligent auto-adjust ability, which allows the camera to automatically adjust to the environmental settings, and tries to figure out what sort of picture you're trying to take and adjust itself accordingly.

I've never bought anything from Panasonic just because of their brand name before, but because of this camera, I'm considering going to them for many more of my electronic needs.

I love this camera! I stopped taking pictures because I hated carrying around my bulky camera. Hopefully my kids won't hate me for the two year lapse in the photo album. Picture taking is fun again. I purchased the Epson Power Mate Dash 260 to go with it and I have never seen such beautiful pictures. I just push print and there they are.

The negatives are minor. You can't charge the battery in the camera with the USB cable connected to your computer. An extra battery with tax and shipping was $73 and you have to order direct from Panasonic. You can't purchase the battery in any stores. For really fast moving people it blurs the picture a little.

Overall I give it 100.

panPanasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3A 7.2MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)
This is it. It was easy for me to set up and I'm 61, so anyone can take pic's with this camera. Point and shoot, it's great. If you want more control of your pic's you can get high tech also. Great camera

If you're looking for a no-fuss, yet high performance compact digital camera in the $250-300 price range, this is the one. For starters, my number one feature requirement was an equivalent-28mm wide-angle lens. After many years living with 28mm as virtually standard in the pre-digital age, having to put up with a 35mm minimum (without paying a fortune) was starting to get really unacceptable. Being able to work with 28mm again, this time on a compact digital, is a real delight.
Even at the $300 level, I only really found this Panasonic and a Canon Powershot offering this feature. So choosing was easy - I just had a choice between two items. I chose the Panasonic because it has a Leica lens (power of the brand) and because it has a super high sensitivity rating of 6400 ISO which, in practice provides real advantages. I have been amazed by the photo quality when forcing off the flash in lower light conditions--to the extent that the non-flash photo of a same scene (e.g. in a normally lighted room) is often far more pleasing to the eye than the flash version.
Finally, the combination of electronic stabilization and Intelligent ISO (very effective in 95% of cases) means that the fully automatic setting does a fantastic job in just about every case of general photography.

Obviously there are a whole host of features that make the item very desirable, and most are present on both cameras. If both items had been absolutely equal, I still would have taken the Panasonic, because it just so happens that the brand takes up more of my mind-share than Canon (which means "photocopiers" to me).
I recommend this superb Panasonic item whole-heartedly and would encourage you to supplement it with a high-quality high-speed SD card such as the SanDisk 2GB Extreme III SD Secure Digital Card SDSDX32048901 / SDSDX3-2048-901. Don't make the mistake of going budget shopping for SD cards!

Buscaba una cámara digital 1) que el flash no me provocara salir con los ojos cerrados, 2) con funciones de una profesional pero amigable y 3) compacta-ligera pero no frágil. Mis opciones eran: Canon PowerShot SD850, Olympus Stylus 790SW y Panasonic Lumix FX33. Finalmente me decidí por la Lumix y ¡estoy fascinada! me encanta mi cámara, se siente super en mi mano y al usarla. Sólo faltó que saliera Shakira de la caja.

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

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.)

First of all, the camera looks far more appealing than most cameras I've seen around. The compact size and the easy-to-hold black material are a real bonus when you need to take pictures on the go. The camera has a quick start-up time, which lets you take a picture a few seconds after you turn the power on. In addition, the quality of the pictures is amazing - I get clear shots with perfect coloring every time. Even when someone else (who doesn't have steady hands) will use the camera, the optical image stabilization will kick in and the pictures will not be blurry or anything like that. The videos are superior, too, since they're taken in a MOV format (versus most others which take AVI's).

This is a camera for anyone who's looking for the best quality and affordibility.

I own a Rebel XTI, but I can't carry it in my pocket. So I wanted yet another camera. Of course, just about any digital camera made by the major manufacturers produces jpeg photos of excellent quality. In fact, cameras of the "point and shoot" variety have sensors so incredibly minuscule that any supposed differences in lens sharpness are negligible. The word "Leica" on the front of the camera is meaningless.

So why did I choose this model? Reason 1) It was available at a great price with two 2 gb memory cards and a little protective case at my local warehouse store. Reason 2) Image stabilizer. I like to use the lowest possible iso setting. I also like to take natural light photos sans flash. And shots zoomed out to the maximum telephoto setting can always benefit from I.S. 3) 28mm wide end. I will never buy another point and shoot zoom without a lens this wide. 4) This camera is black. Some people won't care, but I hate that Canon doesn't make black point and shoot cameras. (I have always used Canon cameras. I am stuck with some expensive Canon slr lenses, so I use Canon products most of the time.)

Ultimately, I like this camera very much. It has the "shade" white balance setting. (Very important for portraits.) It also has a "warm" color mode. (Also very important for portraits.) The screen looks pretty good in bright light (better than my Rebel XTI.) And the flash recharges quickly for the next shot (which makes fill flash outdoors a pleasure to use.)

Okay. So what do I dislike? First off, the camera requires some minus exposure compensation in bright conditions. All of these point and shoots seem to have this problem!!!
Dislike # 2) The flash power cannot be adjusted (which does NOT make fill flash outdoors a pleasure to use.) And MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT...

One of this camera's most important settings, "Color Mode", is buried in a menu. Holding down the "function" button allows one to access white balance easily. The flash has a dedicated button. Exposure compensation also has a dedicated button. But "Color Mode" requires the old scroll through the menu routine. Damn. Canon has a slightly better system for accessing these settings on its point and shoots, but only slightly. So, I think I'll keep my Panasonic. After all, it is black :)

As an avid amateur photographer, I was looking to pick up a second, very pocket-friendly camera for those spontaneous shots that are difficult to obtain with my larger, manual control model that I own. This Panasonic does not disappoint. The 28MM wide lens was the final, deciding factor in my choice. Great for close quarters and landscapes. The battery seems to outlast many I have encountered before with similar cameras. The images captured have great detail, with lifelike color. They rival my more expensive Sony camera, and in many ways are actually better. The Intelligent Auto works very well, and it does save some time in selecting various scenes from the menu. If you want a simple to use, great quality camera that can go anywhere with little to no hastle, give this gem a try. I believe you will be glad you did. Remember - the 28MM lens is a huge plus and difficult to find on many of these types of cameras. Don't settle for the standard 35MM-36MM so-called wide lens setting that is out there!

I just received this camera Thurday, 3/6 and am loving it so far. I haven't "figured it all out" yet but am really pleased with the ease of use and picture quality. As said in a previous review, the colored casing (I got blue) has a really nice feel to it. I originally wanted the black but most places were sold out. I am actually glad I got the blue - it's a really dark blue and gives the camera a good look to it. I am also enjoying the motion picture feature, though I need to read up on how exactly to make it work (I'm a "figure it out yourself" kind of person). I got the video to work Friday night but couldn't do it again Saturday, so a bit of reading is called for. But as far as taking pictures right off the bat, very easy. Especially like the "Intelligent Auto" feature - automatically figures out the best setting for your conditions. The only thing I don't like (and again, need to read up on it)is the red laser light that comes out of it during flash pictures - can be slightly blinding. All in all though, VERY PLEASED with the camera.

Panasonic has always made great products and this camera is one of them. I don't know way other camera company's. don't see how important a 28mm wide angle lens is to everyone who shots pictures. During holidays I can get much more of the room and people in the shot without having to back up against the next wall, or take half the group at a time to fit everyone in. The camera is compact and the 2.5 in screen is easy to see the image before and after the shot. I bought an extra battery (off brand), that way I make sure to always have power. The charger is small and cordless so it plugs directly into the wall. I love every thing about the camera. The main selling points for me where 28MM wide angle len, Image Stabilizer (anti shake),Leica Lens, 2.5 inch screen, and it's small size that fits in shirt pocket(without the case). Like with 35mm cameras, the lens has a lot to do with the quality of the image. The digital processor can do wonders but the lens still provide a degree of quality to the final image when details become important. If you can get this camera with all these features at a price of less than $200, why settle for less. If you could spend a little more money, you should consider the New 2008 Panasonic DMC-FX35 lumix which has a really wide 25mm lens and 10.1 megapixels. Over all the quality and feel of the camera is great. I can use the anti shake feature and the wide angle lens to take indoor shots without a flash in many vacation spots. This is a quality camera at a great price. Very, very happy.

I dont know much about cameras, and this makes it simple. There are options to change and select if you know what you are doing. But for someone like me i can leave it alone and still take great pictures.

The manual does not do a good job of fully explaining the options, (it tells you how to change them from one to another, but not what they mean)
So you need some camera knowledge to understand some of it... but like i said, i take great pictures and haven't messed with any of the different options. And if i was motivated i could probably spend 5 mins online and figure it out. So i dont want this to detract too much from how great this little camera is!

The display is nice and big and the battery is AMAZING and seems to last forever compared to my last camera and my friends cameras. (and the charger is nice and compact)

I also love the fact that it can take a 4-8 gig memory card, so i dont have to keep trak of 3-4 different memory cards and remember what pictures are on what card.

All-in-all this is an amazing little camera!

I bought a black 7.2 model and fell in love with it. After comming off a Nikon I wondered if this camera had it...And it does and more...You guess Panasonic just has better electronic than a camera manufacturer..I just bought this model for me as my wife took the other away with her This one has more mega pixels anyway and has a 28 mm lens which is way cool, as extra lenses in my Nicon d 70 is major bucks. I want to see how the burst works taking a series of shots and I want to see if the lens speed can do sports clearly...I feel good about it though..I use my d 70 nicon for the real stuff that pays...It so cool looking too, and hey, blue is OK for me. If they want to charge less...so be it.

Great Color accuracy, Amazing Intelligent Auto makes it almost impossible to get a shot out of focus (unlike my previous HP M417) and stabilization feature is unbeatable. You do not have to take pictures over and over again to get the shot you want. And the video mode is the best I've seen for a digital camera. I only paid 170.00 for this camera but I would have paid more if not given the option.

It takes great picture even though I am not profession.
The Video function also great!

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.

Camera takes great "normal" pictures due to wide angle - people shots are the best. Easy to use also.

The Lumix FX33 is decent compact camera with excellent pic quality, easy to use, will recommend to friends.

My past vacation pictures were typically marginal and I spent way too much time fiddling with the settings. I bought this point and shoot for our spring break vacation and the results are as hoped for. I also bought a Transcend 8 GB SDHC card for $35 and I took lots of 30 fps movies and 700 pics at maximum resolution and still did not max the card out (3.5 Gig left on the card) which left room for another 1700 pics. Here are some of the things I really liked.

- Small size with rubberized feel.
- Intelligent AUTO mode which also covered macro shoots and was used a lot of the time for instant capture.
- Burst mode (a few shots per second as long as you hold the shutter button) which came in handy for action and mid air jumping shots.
- Easy menu access.
- 16:9 aspect option (I used every available maximum resolution setting since I had a monster mem card)
- Easy to use playback mode
- Motion Picture Mode with manual on and off. While horseback riding, as an example, I just pushed the shutter button once, held the camera and pushed it again when I was done. The quality was better than expected including the audio which picked up coqui frogs specific to the island of Puerto Rico for instance. Also night scenes came out good pulling in ambient lighting.
- About 20 different manual modes which covers day, night, party, action, candle light, etc.
- I learned to prefer a camera without a viewfinder. No more nose grease smudge marks on the LCD screen.

For the price I was very happy with this camera and it met my travel camera needs and for a point and shoot darn good. The battery was long lasting as well.

This is a solid camera. It's quite small and is great as a point and click. The 8.1 megapixels are fine for a nice, crisp picture. Still getting to know the camera, but it's an excellent camera for normal use - most people would be happy.

A great unit, however chip missing, and the video quality in low lite situations is superb. The price was 200 EURO less than in Hamburg shops.

I had the 5 megapixel version of this camera and it was great. When I lost that camera I knew that there was no other point and shoot that I would want to own. The image stabilizer is phenomenal for an amature photographer and it's 100 times better than the kodak cameras that I've owned. I won't buy any other camera for everyday use.

I'm not one who needs to review things, but this camera is special. I have used many digital cameras over many years, each improved over the last model as technology improves and becomes more afordable. Having purchased the FZ18 I noticed the FX30 very is similar in menu and features which I have grown to like on the FZ. There are trade offs with the tiny cameras of optical quality(CCD size)and zoom. Looking at most all others they have similar limitations needing enough light to keep the noise down. Some have much worse quality issues, like so called "digital image stabilization" that automatically lower quality with increased noise to useless levels. The thing I wanted to share is this camera grows on you. I cannot leave it home or often worry it might loose it down the couch or worse! It is cute and needs TLC and just happens to take great pictures too!

I bought this camera for my daughter and she found it a week later in Best Buy for the same price but 10 megapixels. What a deal!! But the camera itself is great.

I gave it three stars because it falls short in one critical area - photo quality.

But first, the good stuff. Like an earlier review noted, the black rubberized finish feels good in hand. The "Intelligent Auto" mode works reasonably well - it was able to distinguish between macro, landscape, portrait and night modes most of the time. The wide angle lens really came in handy for group photos, landscape and architecture shots. Normal operation is fairly snappy, and the menu are easy to figure out. Lastly, the LCD screen's resolution is fairly high, and the gain can be adjusted with one button to aid viewing in bright environments.

However, the photo quality was underwhelming. I've owned a Canon Powershot S410 and Fuji Finepix F20 (both pocket-sized Point & Shoot cameras) and the photo quality in those cameras were superior to the Panasonic. Panasonic cameras have had the reputation of great lenses with mediocre noise reduction, and that's what I expected with this camera. However, the photos are very soft and the colors lack saturation. The noise reduction is noticeable at ISO 200, and is very apparent at ISO 400. This level of noise reduction is not unusual for this class of camera, though I prefer the Canon approach of more detail but more noise.

The camera also has an "Intelligent ISO" mode, which boosts the ISO if shaking or motion is detected in the frame. It sounds good, but it's very aggressive, and the resulting photos are usually shot at fairly high ISO where the detail is lost. There is a option to limit the highest ISO, though the option is not available in "Intelligent Auto" mode.

I haven't printed any photos from this camera, though I would suspect that regular sized prints would be fine. You can usually tell the difference in quality by zooming into a photo, but in this case, I was able to tell the difference even when shrinking the photos to fit in a web album.

It's not a bad camera. I actually enjoyed using it, but at the end of the day, when you sit down and look over the photos you took, that's where the camera underwhelms.

I bought this camera when it first came out last year. It's been great - photos are good. Photos with flash (i.e. in the dark) could be of better quality - certainly not the daylight quality, but I'm happy nonetheless.

The camera is not incredibly light, but it is small and is reasonably good-looking. Easy to use and takes great photos in sunlight.