Measuring a shade over 24mm the Panasonic DMC FX3 is just about pocket sized. It weighs around 125g without the battery and memory card. This makes it one of the more lightweight digital cameras as well.
The camera comes in two colours. You have a choice between black and silver.
This camera is a good choice if you are looking for a lower priced, small camera. At the time of writing Panasonic are also including a 512mb memory card in the box with the DMC FX3. Check before you buy to see if your retailer is including this in the deal. If they are not then it could be worth shopping around to find someone who is.
In terms of features the DMC FX3 is a quite a straightforward camera. It has all the features you need in a point and shoot model and image stabilisation provides a worthwhile bonus. This is a feature that does not appear in too many pocket sized digital cameras just yet.
The camera has six megapixels and a standard three times optical zoom lens. A rechargeable battery and a charger come with the camera. Panasonic suggest that 320 pictures can be taken before the battery needs to be recharged. Whether or not you are able to get this many photos in between charges will depend to a large degree on how you use the camera. For example using the flash on a regular basis, shooting movies and constant review of photos you have already taken will increase the speed at which the battery is depleted.
As with an increasing number of digital cameras the DMC DX3 does not come with a memory card. This is because Panasonic have built some memory into the camera. This is a relatively small amount of 13.5mb and you will need to increase the capacity with a memory card before you can get any serious use from the camera.
In terms of ease of use I find Panasonic digital cameras some of the more easy ones to use. A large part of the reason for this is that I find the menu system quite simple. The screens Panasonic use are also bright and clear and I think this makes the menus easier to read than is often the case.
The LCD screen is 2.5" in size. I found it to be very good for seeing even in bright sunlight. It also has a special setting called high angle. By using high angle you can see the screen more clearly if you are holding the camera above eye level. You might wish to do this to take a photo over the heads of a crowd of people.
One area where the DMC FX3 offers plenty of choice is with the selection of aspect ratios it offers. The aspect ratio is the relationship between the height and width of a photograph. It is not as straightforward as you might think for a camera to cover all angles here, but this camera gives you as much choice as any. The ratios are 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9. Let me try to explain what this means. If you are planning to produce 6 x 4" prints from your photographs then a 3:2 ratio is ideal. This means that you will not need to have your photos trimmed to fit onto the paper. 16:9 matches that of a widescreen television. Therefore if your photos are primarily for TV viewing then this is the ideal ratio. Finally for other screens, such as computers the standard 4:3 ratio is the one to go for.
Panasonic are also one of the first digital camera companies to incorporate into their cameras a special widescreen aspect ratio for movies. This means that you can shoot movies with the correct dimensions for playback on a widescreen television.
