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“The first thing you notice about the G1 is that it really is quite small. In fact, it’s smaller in every dimension than the ‘world’s smallest SLR’ (the Olympus E-420), which is one of the benefits promised by Micro Four Thirds’ elimination of the reflex mirror. From a design point of view it is, in almost every respect, very careful to mimic DSLR design, with a large grip and command dial embedded in the front of it. And the result is a camera that will be instantly familiar to users familiar with DSLRs and, perhaps more importantly, one that is consistent with the expectations of users aspiring to own a DSLR.”

“The H3 is essentially a long-zoom point and shoot camera that performs well as long as you let it do its thing in Auto mode. Once you develop an ambition to set your own shooting parameters things get a bit more tricky. This is partly because some manual settings are simply not available, but also due to the fact that changing the settings that are actually there can be a fairly time-consuming process. This is owed to the slightly counter-intuitive menus and user interface in general. The lack of a manual White Balance option is particularly unusual on a modern digital camera. It is even more painful if the white balance presets are not particularly reliable (as we experienced in our studio tests). The H3 does not offer Aperture or Shutter Speed Priority modes although there is a fully manual ‘M’ mode. But, with only 2 possible aperture settings at a given focal length, its use is seriously limited.”

“Ultimately, while neither groundbreaking nor particularly inspiring, it’s difficult not to be impressed with the A720 IS. It’s a good little camera with a simple and consistent user interface that allows the user to take good photos for a very reasonable amount of money. These may sound like the qualities that all compact cameras should offer by default yet there are still many manufacturers that struggle with these basics. As long as their expectations are not utterly unreasonable, it’s hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with the A720IS; an unpretentious little thing.”

“We described the Fuji S8000fd as trying to be all things to all people, but that was before we really got to grips with the Olympus SP-560UZ. The number of features and options available on the Olympus is frankly comical. You could use this camera for years without ever finding all the (often fairly pointless) things it can do, so numerous and deeply buried in menus are they. The SP-560UZ has more features than most users will ever discover, let alone want to use. This isn’t helped by the rather brief manual that glosses over much of the camera’s functionality only being included as a PDF on a CD. This kind of cost-cutting isn’t unique to Olympus but is hard to justify in a camera this feature-laden. The mysteries of “one-touch” white balance and area auto focus mode are only clarified by spending time clicking through the PDF manual.”

Panasonic’s second digital SLR is a far more conventional affair than its first attempt, the DSC-L1. It’s also quite obviously aimed at a very different type of user - the beginner / first time user / upgrader from a compact. To this end the L10 has perhaps the most compact-like operation and user interface of any SLR to date (and if you were being cruel, the most compact-like JPEG image quality too). And though it may look a lot more conventional, in typical Panasonic fashion it has a few unique tricks up its sleeve, mainly centred around the sophisticated live view capabilities.

So then, the W80 is a camera that is capable of producing surprisingly good results in good light at ISO 100 and is perfectly usable at ISO 400-800 in low light if you don’t want big prints (the church interiors in the samples gallery, for example, are better than I expected), but a camera that falls down in what I consider to be one of the most important areas for a camera such as this; pictures of people indoors in low light - with or without flash. If you’re after a ‘walk around’ camera for scenery then it’s not a bad buy for $200-ish, but if you actually have friends and family, and are still awake taking pictures after sunset it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend it when there are so many better alternatives out there.