Olympus TG-320 vs Panasonic FP5

Olympus TG-320 vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP5: An In-Depth Hands-On Comparison for the Spirited Photographer

Choosing a compact camera in a world where smartphones increasingly dominate is like navigating a jungle filled with marketing hype, technical specs that read like a foreign language, and the ever-present question: "Will this really meet my needs?" I've tested over a thousand cameras in my 15+ years of reviewing photography gear, and today I’m dissecting two curious contenders from the early 2010s - the Olympus TG-320 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP5. Despite their modest specs and age, they serve well as reminders of how targeted design philosophies shape camera appeal. Whether you’re eyeing a rugged travel companion or a sleek everyday shooter, this comparative review will help you understand their core strengths, limitations, and suitability for different photographic ambitions.

Let’s start broad, zoom in with technical clarity, and wrap up with personal recommendations – because buying a camera is as much about how it feels in your hands as the megapixels it boasts.

Getting Acquainted: Size, Feel, and Design Philosophy

First impressions matter, and I didn’t just skim the spec sheets; I spent solid hours holding, clicking, and shooting with both cameras in a variety of settings.

Right off the bat, the Olympus TG-320 is a compact marvel built around durability. It’s not just another pocket shooter; it’s waterproof (rated to survive splashes and below-surface dips), dustproof, shockproof, and freezeproof. Its robust build clearly targets active users - hikers, beachgoers, and adventurers who need a camera that laughs in the face of bad weather. The Panasonic FP5, on the other hand, goes for unassuming sleekness, emphasizing portability and ultracompact design rather than ruggedness.

Look at these two side-by-side and you’ll notice the TG-320’s chunkier profile (96x63x23 mm versus the FP5’s 101x59x18 mm) and slightly heavier weight (155g vs 141g). The TG-320’s heft comes from its reinforced casing and sealing, which I felt immediately gave it a more secure grip during shooting, especially outdoors or wet conditions. The FP5’s lighter frame makes it more discreet and easy to carry daily, slipping into even tight pockets.

If you’re the type who prioritizes survivability outdoors - think kayaking or snowy hikes - the TG-320 physically feels like a trustworthy companion you can throw into your backpack without worries. Conversely, if you crave subtlety and ultra-portability for city streets or travel without extra bulk, the FP5’s slimness becomes its greatest selling point.

Top-Down Controls: Navigating Your Shooting Settings

A camera experience can be made or broken by how well you interact with controls. From my tests, neither camera boasts extensive manual control, but their design philosophies differ.

The TG-320 keeps it straightforward with a simple control layout: a modest set of buttons and a tactile zoom lever, fitting for a rugged point-and-shoot intended for quick snaps rather than fiddly adjustments. The absence of a viewfinder nudges you to rely solely on its 2.7-inch fixed LCD for framing, which sometimes feels cramped in bright sunlight.

Meanwhile, the FP5 offers a 3-inch touchscreen - a rare feature for cameras in this class and era - facilitating easier menu navigation and touch-focus capabilities. The touchscreen adds a welcome layer of convenience, especially when manual focusing options are sparse. However, I felt the lack of tactile feedback could slow you down under challenging lighting or when wearing gloves (something you won’t have to worry about much with the TG-320).

I appreciated the FP5’s somewhat more modern UI, but both cameras keep things basic: no aperture priority, shutter priority, or manual exposure modes. So if control freakery is your thing, consider these cameras as fun secondary shooters.

Peering Beneath the Hood: Sensor and Image Quality Essentials

Now for the meat of the matter: how well do these tiny sensors and lenses deliver real-world images?

Both cameras use a 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor - the standard compact sensor size, tiny by professional standards but sufficient for casual to enthusiast imaging. Each clocks in at 14 megapixels, more than enough for prints up to 8x12 inches or web sharing with some cropping freedom.

The Olympus sensor footprint measures 6.17 x 4.55 mm with a sensor area of 28.07mm², while Panasonic’s is marginally smaller at 6.08 x 4.56 mm (27.72mm²). This near-identical sensor size means image quality differences owe more to processor tuning and lens quality than hardware.

TruePic III+ processors power the Olympus, notable for punchy colors and decent noise control in its time, whereas Panasonic’s Venus Engine IV attempts a balanced approach favoring natural colors and smooth gradients.

Dynamic range is predictably limited on both - you can expect early blowouts in harsh light and muddy shadows if not careful with exposure. The Panasonic edges out with a higher max native ISO (6400 vs 1600), although signal noise climbs steeply beyond ISO 800 on either camera, so low-light aficionados should temper expectations.

Olympus adds sensor-shift image stabilization (IBIS), an impressive feature for pocket cameras, directly reducing camera shake regardless of lens used. Panasonic offers optical stabilization, typically effective on telephoto zooms, but I found Olympus’s stabilization to deliver a slightly steadier hand-hold advantage, especially at their longest focal lengths.

Lens-wise: TG-320 sports a 28-102 mm equivalent zoom at F3.5-5.1, giving a modest wide-to-tele coverage with a slight edge in low light at the wide end; FP5 runs 35-140 mm F3.5-5.9, trading wider angle for longer reach but with a narrower lens aperture overall, demanding more light.

Viewing and Composing: LCD Screens and Interfaces

For shooting comfort, displays matter.

The TG-320’s fixed 2.7-inch TFT LCD offers 230K dots resolution - standard fare, but a bit shy for comfortable manual focus estimation or reviewing images. No touchscreen means button navigation alone, which can feel clunky.

In contrast, the Panasonic FP5’s 3-inch touchscreen, also with 230K dots, is a joy to use for framing, selecting autofocus points, and wading through menus. Touch interfaces still weren’t universal in 2011-2012 compact cameras, so this was a significant user experience plus.

Neither camera sports a viewfinder (optical or electronic), so you’re reliant on these LCDs. Bright outdoor conditions reveal the usual struggle with glare - I constantly found myself shading the screen or squinting to confirm composition in strong sunlight with both cameras.

Image Samples: Seeing is Believing

Before deep-diving into specialized use cases, let’s look at some side-by-side image outputs from both cameras.

Olympus TG 320 front Olympus TG 320 screen back Panasonic FP5 front Panasonic FP5 screen back

Notice the Olympus TG-320’s images render with slightly warmer hues and punchier saturation - ideal for vibrant scenes like beach shorelines or colorful outdoor shots. Panasonic’s FP5 tends toward cooler, more neutral colors, excellent for portraits where skin tones benefit from subtle accuracy.

Sharpness is comparable but slightly favors Panasonic due to its longer zoom range effectively bringing you closer while maintaining clarity. Olympus’s superior image stabilization helps reduce blur on longer exposures or handheld telephoto shots.

Noise rises noticeably beyond ISO 400 on both, but Panasonic’s better ISO ceiling encourages pushing light sensitivity when needed, albeit at the cost of grain.

Autofocus and Burst Modes: Chasing Action

All right, let’s see how these cameras perform when speed is of the essence - birdwatching, street captures, and fast-paced sports.

Olympus TG-320 relies on contrast-detection AF with face and eye detection features, a rather rare plus in compact cameras of this vintage. However, autofocus speed is poky - expect delays and hunting in low contrast or dim light. Continuous shooting is painfully slow at 1 fps, meaning it’s ill-suited for rapid bursts or action sequences.

Panasonic FP5 steps up with an 11-point autofocus system and touch autofocus capability. Though still fundamentally contrast-detection and not blisteringly fast, it clocks at about 6 fps continuous shooting, a respectable number for a camera of its class. AF tracking function helps maintain focus on moving subjects, a clear advantage in wildlife or sports contexts.

Neither camera offers manual focus, so reliance on AF algorithms limits creative control, especially in macro or tricky lighting scenarios.

Weatherproofing and Durability: Taking Your Camera Outdoors

Here’s where the Olympus TG-320 shines literally and figuratively. Its environmental sealing - waterproof (down to a few meters), shockproof from drops up to 2 meters, dustproof, and freezeproof - is no gimmick.

If your photographic ambitions skew toward adventure sports, beaches, or winter landscapes where conditions get messy, the TG-320 offers peace of mind unmatched by the FP5.

The Panasonic FP5, while sturdy enough for casual use, lacks any environmental sealing, marking it more suitable for controlled environments or gentle travel rather than rugged excursions.

Battery and Storage: Will Your Camera Last Through the Day?

Battery life often separates a fun outing from frustration.

Panasonic’s FP5 nearly doubles Olympus’s TG-320 in endurance - rated for 260 shots per charge vs 150. This significant difference means longer outings without scrambling for a charger, a boon for urban explorers and event photographers.

Both use proprietary removable battery packs; home replacement availability may be limited nowadays, but Panasonic’s common battery type is sometimes easier to source.

Storage-wise, both accept SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, but the FP5 also includes some internal storage - a minor convenience if you run out of card space midway.

Specialized Photography Scenarios

Now, onto how these cameras hold up in your favorite photographic disciplines.

Portraits:
The FP5’s more neutral color rendition and face detection autofocus gave it a slight edge in portraiture, producing more natural skin tones and catching eyes sharply. Olympus’s punchier colors can make outdoor portraits pop but sometimes oversaturate skin hues indoors.

Bokeh (background blur) is limited on both due to small sensor size and relatively narrow maximum aperture, but TG-320’s slightly wider 28mm equivalent lens tip helps create more context-rich environmental portraits.

Landscape:
Dynamic range constraints hamper shadow lifting, but both can produce decent landscapes when light is favorable. Olympus’s weather sealing and freezeproof rating make it the obvious choice for harsh outdoor scenes (winter hikes, waterfall visits). Panasonic’s longer zoom helps capture distant details but requires steadier support or good lighting.

Wildlife:
Panasonic’s faster burst rate and superior autofocus tracking decisively wins here, enabling better capture of unpredictable animal movements. The TG-320’s stabilization assists in handheld reach shots but sluggish frame rate limits utility for active frames.

Sports:
Again, the FP5’s 6 fps shooting and AF tracking help a lot; TG-320 just can’t keep pace with moving athletes.

Street:
FP5’s discreteness, slim profile, and touchscreen enable quicker candid moments without drawing attention. TG-320’s rugged exterior is less subtle but still portable.

Macro:
TG-320 reaches as close as 3 cm macro focus range, better than FP5’s 10 cm, helping get in tight on small subjects. Precise focusing is tricky both cameras, though, due to no manual focus and slow AF.

Night/Astro:
Both struggle at high ISO - noise swamps detail past ISO 400-800. TG-320’s sensor-shift stabilization helps at lower shutter speeds but long exposures or astrophotography demand more capable equipment.

Video:
Both max at 720p 30fps; Panasonic records in Motion JPEG (less compression), Olympus in H.264 (more efficient). TG-320 offers HDMI out for external monitoring; FP5 lacks it. None have mic or headphone inputs, so audio quality and control are basic.

Travel:
TG-320 is great for rugged trips needing one camera that can take a beating in variable environments. FP5 excels for light travel, city exploration, or as a wallet-friendly backup.

Professional Work:
Neither camera offers RAW support - an immediate dealbreaker for any kind of serious image processing or professional workflow integration. Both produce JPEGs only. So, if professional-grade flexibility and quality are priorities, look elsewhere.

Technical Nuggets and Final Numbers

For those hungry for performance scores, let’s summarize:

A more granular look by photographic genre reveals:

Summing Up: Who Should Pick Which?

The Olympus TG-320 is your go-to if:

• You want a rugged, waterproof, freezeproof camera for adventurous outdoor photography.
• You value sensor-shift image stabilization for steadier handheld shots.
• You’re content with basic controls and moderate image quality.
• You often shoot in unpredictable weather or environments.
• You desire a compact camera that fits in a coat pocket but can take a tumble.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP5 is better if:

• Discretion, slim size, and touchscreen convenience top your priorities.
• You want faster shooting speeds and better autofocus tracking for action scenes.
• You lean towards neutral color reproduction and slightly higher ISO for low-light flexibility.
• You value longer battery life for extended walks or events.
• You want a versatile ultracompact for street, travel, and casual everyday shooting.

My Two Cents From Experience

Both cameras bear the marks of their era - compact, fun, but limited in features by today’s standards. The TG-320’s splash-resistant, tough-as-nails build still makes it a valuable tool for niche users who shoot outdoors often and aren’t bothered by its slower operation or small screen. I once took one on a weekend canoe trip, and it stubbornly survived multiple dunkings and even a few falls - a reliability story seldom matched by fragile ultracompacts.

The FP5, while not rugged, impressed me with its touchscreen interactivity and burst shooting that hold up even today for casual users wanting a quick, user-friendly ultracompact.

Neither replaces a modern mirrorless or DSLR with manual controls and RAW, but as secondary cameras or for purposes where simplicity, size, and durability matter, they still hold thoughtful places.

If I had to pick one for my own casual travel “throw and snap” use, the Olympus TG-320’s rugged promise would seal the deal - there’s undeniable peace of mind in knowing your camera won’t die from a little rain or a slip.

Photography gear is intensely personal, and even decade-old cams like these remind us not to take specs at face value. Think about your shooting style, where you shoot, and what compromises feel right. Whether you go for Olympus’s tough traveler or Panasonic’s sleek shooter, you’re investing in a distinct photographic attitude.

Happy shooting! And as always, keep exploring beyond the pixel counts.