Panasonic unleashes a trio of wide angle, 8 megapixelers: Lumix FX33, FX55, and FZ18

Panasonic just unveiled a trio of new Lumix shooters: the wide angle DMC-FX33 and DMC-FX55 (pictured) with 3-inch LCD and FZ18 with 18x optical zoom. Kicking things off are the two nearly identical 28-mm wide angle compacts. The FX33 bests its FX30 sib by packing an 8.1 megapixel 1/2.5-inch CCD and new light sensor to increase the 2.5-inch LCD's brightness when in direct sunlight. The FX55 then, brings the same pixel count along with that monster 3-inch LCD and same 28-mm wide angle, 3.6x optical zoom LEICA DC lens. The DMC-FZ18 meanwhile, brings the same CCD sensor only with a 28-mm wide angle, 18x optical zoom Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens. All three ship in a variety of colors with face detection tech and Panny's optical image stabilization which will definitely come in handy on the biggie zoom.

Gallery: Panasonic unleashes a trio of wide angle, 8 megapixelers: Lumix FX33, FX55, and FZ18

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

[Via LetsGoDigital]

Read -- DMC-FX55
Read -- DMC-FX33
Read -- DMC-FZ18

[ChrisJ @ Jul 24th 2007 5:47AM]

These are nice, well designed and reasonably priced cameras, but Panasonic should concentrate on image noise their chips produce, not on light sensors or packing even more unnecessary pixels.

[Schizoman @ Jul 24th 2007 8:11AM]

Chris is right, of all the prosumer cameras, Panasonic has the biggest problem with noise, especially at high ISO settings a good 18x camera would be great if they can fix those image quality problems.

[Christian Martin @ Jul 24th 2007 9:59AM]

What says AMD about the use of the FX55 moniker? I imagine it's just different enough but might raise an inquisitive eyebrow over there...

[bob @ Jul 24th 2007 5:46PM]

I've always liked the FZ series. For the most part, they're right on par with Canon's ultrazooms. In general, I'd say the Lumix line is a step above most.

[Eagger @ Jul 24th 2007 6:22PM]

Hi all !

I'm a sales rep in an electronic store in Quebec and from my point of view, i'm really glad Panasonic added the extra light sensor. They try to compensate for the missing viewfinder that most Canon, Olympus, Nikon, Samsung and Sony have. I talked to the Panasonic's rep last week about this problem. (I'm talking about the compacts.. I'm not including the "bridges" like the FZ8 or the FZ50 or the SLR like the L1).

As for the number of Mp... i don't think they're unnecessary.. it all depends if you're the "editing" type or the "shoot-and-show" type.

Of course, Pan's sweet image stabilizer will help out while handling the 18X of the FZ18.

I do approuve there is a slight problem with the noise, though. Some are "worse" than others but for the typical customer, even with the noise, a Pan's picture will still come out better because of the edge the stabilizer has. For more advanced users, noise is more annoying than shaking.. way more..

As for the style... well, you're looking at it! How could you not like what you see?

[Carl @ Jul 25th 2007 3:52AM]

I agree with ChrisJ. I bought a Lumix and it was so noisy I've just stopped using it. Appalling image quality...worse than the 4mp Canon Elph it was supposed to replace.