Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS22

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS22 was released in May 2010 and boasts a 16.1 megapixel sensor and 3 inch touch screen. The camera is available in black, pink and silver for £159.99.


Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS22: Features
The FS22 has a high resolution 16.1 megapixel sensor and a 4x optical zoom which is a 35mm equivalent of 28 - 112mm. When using the Intelligent Resolution mode the zoom ratio can be extended to 5x. On the rear of the camera is a 3.0 inch LCD touch-screen where you can operate both the AF and shutter release.
The FS22 has several shooting modes which make picture taking easy such as Beauty Retouch Mode as well as various effects such as clearing the skin texture, teeth whitening, colour of foundation, lips, cheeks or eye-shadow.

To reduce blur the camera has MEGA OIS (Optical Image Stabiliser) and the camera also has iA (Intelligent Auto) Mode which detects the correct camera settings automatically. Other features available are Intelligent ISO Control, Face Detection AF/AE, AF Tracking, Intelligent Scene Selector and Intelligent Exposure.
Movies are recorded at 720p HD at 24 fps and can be easily uploaded to YouTube and Facebook as can images. Just select the pictures and videos you want to share and next time you connect your camera or memory card the files with be uploaded automatically.

Key Features:

• 3.0 inch Smart Touch LCD monitor
• 4x optical zoom Leica DC lens (35mm equiv: 28 - 112mm)
• Mega Optical Image Stabiliser (OIS)
• Intelligent Auto (iA) Mode
• Touch AF Tracking
• 720p HD movie recording
• 5x Intelligent Zoom
• 16.1 megapixel CCD sensor

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS22: Handling
If you are looking for a compact digital camera which will fit in your pocket when out and about the FS22 certainly ticks that box. It is stylish looking and the 3.0 inch touch-screen adds to the appearance, with just a couple of buttons found on the top of the camera, these being a sliding on/off switch and the shutter release which is surrounded by the zoom rocker. The touch-screen is responsive, there are occasions when you are having to press twice and if you really find it a struggle, Panasonic provide a stylus.
The menus are fairly easy to navigate, but as we've found before on previous Panasonic compacts, when cycling through options such as recording settings and scene modes, there is just a symbol rather than any text. If you press and hold a symbol, text appears, but you have to be careful about how you remove your finger if you decide that option is not the one you are looking for.
In use the camera is quick to focus and is ready to shoot within a couple of seconds of switching on. The battery life is rated at 240 shots which might not be quite enough if you are out shooting for a full day, so a spare is likely to be a useful addition. The camera has 3 different continuous shooting modes. Burst (full size) achieves around 1.1fps, Hi-speed burst (4:3 3m, 3:2 2.5m, 16:9 2m, 1:1 2.5m) around 3.5 - 4 fps, and flash burst (4:3 3m, 3:2 2.5m, 16:9 2m, 1:1 2.5m) shoots approximately 0.5fps.