Electronics : Panasonic DMCFS5 Digital Camera - Black (10.1MP, 4x Optical Zoom) 2.5'' LCD

Rating: - Compact camera with useful zoom and wide angle
A good-sized compact camera that is small enough to put in a shirt pocket but has large enough controls to manipulate easily. The camera feels solid and the Zeiss lens seems very sharp, with the 2.5 inch screen being of a reasonable size. The 4x zoom is easy to operate and the quick zoom button is also quite useful. The wide-angle (30mm) capability was the feature that most attracted me to this camera and it works well, both for landscapes and for interior photography. With a capacity of 10 megapixels the camera should be able to cope with most projects and this resolution can be reduced for day-to-day snap taking. Menus are fairly intuitive and are quick and easy to negotiate and there appears to be a good selection of useful modes including face detection etc. The camera use SD cards but also has an internal memory so you can carry on taking pictures when the card is full. The instruction book is fairly comprehensive and, if not exactly well written, it can be followed with care and a bit of re-reading.

I bought the camera because I wanted a small camera I could pop in a pocket rather than lugging my digital SLR around, this camera gives me that option and it is the same resolution as my much bulkier SLR! At this price I think it represents a good compromise between a small, basic point and shoot camera and something a bit more sophisticated, and it has useful zoom and wide-angle functions that can still be used without fuss on automatic.