Point-and-shoot cameras are meant to be just that -- fuss-free picture-taking devices without the complications that come with manual controls. But most of the time, that convenience comes at the expense of indifferent image quality.
Click. Mum has blue teeth.
Click. She's frantically waving her six hands at the camera.
Automatic cameras are generally not terribly brainy at times. Under tungsten lights white often turns out to be blue and the shutter setting is usually not fast enough to track mum's sign language. In fact, there are very few cameras that can take photos with the correct focus, exposure, white balance and shutter speed without you having to do more than just pressing the shutter button.
The new Panasonics claim to measure up differently. Instead of having just one hero feature (such as Fujifilm's notably high ISO), the Japanese firm has cobbled up a mega-hero-feature that it calls the Intelligent Auto Mode. This approach works by automating and simultaneously co-ordinating several features like face detection, scene selection, light sensitivity and optical image stabilisation to capture an image. In non-geek speak, the camera is trying to make an educated guess about which settings to use.
Design
Panasonic has launched two cameras in the lead up to Christmas 2007, the dSLR-like FZ-18 and the compact, pocket-sized FX33. So while it may be small, at 132 grams some may accuse it of being weighty, although it barely strained our back pocket except for the telltale bulge.
The FX33 has a set of minimalist button controls: there's a small control wheel for quick function switches, but its stiffness takes some getting used to. The shortcut buttons are equally small. However, as they are well-spaced, big-thumbed folks aren't going to be frustrated ... much.
Because the FX33 is built to be operated in auto mode most of the time, the user interface is simple and unlikely to throw anyone off. The in-camera menu is made up of just two tabs and the quick access menu (which is displayed as an overlay during shooting) has tweaks for image stabilisation, burst mode, white balance, ISO, rate of megapixel capture and image fineness.
The 2.5-inch LCD is just average for its class, but there's a nice enhancement -- hold down the LCD mode and you can select from three brightness levels. Choosing the highest setting will render the LCD so bright that its viewing angle is increased to the point that you can hold the camera over your head and still see the screen.
Features
Just a year ago, a wide-angle lens was considered a premium feature for compact cameras. Today, it's a little less so. But still, the FX33's 28m wide-angle lens coupled with its 3.6x optical zoom places it among the leaders.
For a camera marketed for its independence in taking decent pictures with minimal user input, we were not expecting many features. So while we were not surprised by the absence of shutter and aperture priority modes, we were mildly pleased that we could set the custom white balance and determine the light sensitivity.
Nonetheless, you'll be relying on the 22 scene modes if you decide not run the Intelligent Auto Mode.
Potential buyers should note that Intelligent Auto Mode allows you to tweak only the aspect ratio, picture size, image stabiliser, burst and colour mode. For stuff like white balance, ISO, image quality and auto-focus area, you'll have to switch back to the normal camera settings.
There's also an Intelligent ISO mode that caps the maximum permissible ISO level (either 400, 800 or 1,250) which is good for maintaining minimum noise speckles in your pictures. And while the maximum sensitivity setting on the FX33 is ISO 6,400, it's only accessible via the high-sensitivity mode and not selectable through the normal ISO menu.
Performance
In our lab tests, the FX33's time to first shot of 2.9 seconds didn't compare favourably with other 8-megapixel shooters, such as the Canon IXUS 950 IS (1.2 seconds) and the Sony Cyber-shot T100 (1.2 seconds). However, its shot-to-shot times (0.54 second without flash, 2.17 seconds with flash) was one of the speediest. Its burst mode was average for a new camera -- 1.83 frames per second.
The auto white balance performs very well on the whole, whether it is under flourescent light or in an outdoor environment. Image quality at lower ISO levels (ISO 100-200) is very good, with slight noise at ISO 400 and very visible speckles appearing at ISO 800. Beyond that, detail softening and noise make higher ISO levels only suitable in the worst low-light situations where flash is not permissible.
But the most important question is -- how did Intelligent Auto Mode fare?
Well, for one, there were misses. Sometimes the white balance wasn't spot on. But it scored more hits than misses primarily because of the way this camera is designed -- with very few onboard manual controls. It makes sense to leave it on auto-pilot rather than attempt to fly it without a control stick. Pictures usually turned out better in auto.
