Olympus was one of the first manufacturers to move into producing shock resistant and waterproof cameras, but they're no longer the only players in the field.  FujiFilm has recently released a new line of underwater cameras, including this FInePix Z33 WP, which works at depths of up to three metres.

Handling
The camera is well-finished, and we were impressed with its case, which is available in a range of very bright colours, or plain black if you prefer something a little less garish.  On the back is a 2.7'' screen with a resolution of 230, 000 pixels, but the vertical viewing angles are quite restricted. 

FujiFilm has rethought the controls, which, on a digital camera are traditionally arranged in either a circle or a cross, allowing you to navigate through menus and adjust the settings.  Here though, the buttons are arranged in a vertical strip, which takes some getting used to, especially because the directional controls don't quite line up in the way you'd expect, as you can see in this photo.


An automatic scene-detection mode is available, but it only works well when the conditions are favourable.  In the example photo below left, the Z33 WP has correctly identified the right mode under good light, but it too often tends to switch to night mode when light levels fall (below right).


The Z33 WP is rather slow: it takes 1.3 seconds to power up, and the gap between saving one photo and being able to take the next is around three seconds.  It struggles to reach a frame rate of 0.8 fps in burst mode.  AutoFocus however takes just over one second, which is reasonable.

Image Quality
In general, the photos of test scenes taken with the FinePix Z33 WP were good, with accurate colours.  The white balance was neutral, and A4 prints were sharp, although certain areas (especially the right-hand side of each shot) were more blurry, with visible purple fringing.  Because the flash is a little too strong, some details end up burned.

Taking photos without a tripod is risky with this camera as there is no image stabilization.  That's why we took our test shot at 1600 ISO with an exposure time of just one fifteenth of a second.  The lack of stabilization is bad news for photos in low light, as blurriness increases at higher sensitivities.


Electronic noise handling is reasonable, and at lower ISO numbers (up to 100), there is little blurring.  From 200 ISO and up, interference is more noticeable, and a definite presence at 400 ISO.  Nevertheless, you can still print out at A4 for shots taken at 1600 ISO, but the colours are little washed out.  Despite this blurriness, text remains legible.


There's nothing to complain about in macro mode, but FujiFilm has decided not to upgrade the default resolution for video from 640 x 480 pixels.  You still can't use the zoom while recording video.