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With its wide angle lens and optical image stabilisation the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01 stands out from the crowd of virtually identical 6-megapixel 3x zoom ultra-compacts. It is well made, looks superb and takes very good pictures, with excellent noise control and good low light performance. All in all, a pleasant, simple elegant camera that’s perfect for social snapshot photography.

Panasonic’s expressed its commitment to what it calls the culture of photography. The company really believes that taking pictures makes the world a better place. With the Panasonic TZ1, they very nearly had a hit on their hands, with an innovative design in an inexpensive body, delivering a compact 10x zoom for the masses. But unfortunately, the Panasonic TZ1’s lens flare issue starts to raise its head at about 4-5x and only gets worse, blowing contrast across the frame with a random purple haze. 

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With its excellent stabilized zoom lens, live preview, and bright-image DOF capability, the L1 offers some significant benefits over most other DSLRs. Is it worth the $1,900 price tag? If you subtract the value of the Leica 14-50mm stabilized lens, you’re getting a well-built DSLR with a dual-position pop-up flash, tons of controls, and Extremely High image quality at most ISO speeds for only about $600. Try to beat that!

So overall, the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 is a stylish, easy to use, point and shoot camera with that 28mm lens as its main attraction, just like the older FX01. The noise issue is by no means a show-stopper, particularly if you live in a sunny climate or tend to shoot mostly outdoors, but it does stop me from recommending this camera more strongly. If only Panasonic had spent more time trying to reduce the noise levels without losing detail at ISO 200 and 400…

At a time when the sales of digital single-lens reflex cameras are booming, it is a relief to see that the “megazoom” class too undergoes continuous development. Panasonic is a leading brand in this field and their LUMIX DMC-FZ7 is a perfect example that with a fast 12x zoom lens, virtually any photographic challenge can be overcome without the need for interchangeable lenses. Moreover, the camera is a far cheaper option than any D-SLR package.