Casio Exilim EX-Z850 Review

Announced just before PMA in February 2006 - almost exactly a year to the day after the camera it replaces - the EX-Z850 is Casio's latest ultra-compact flagship model, offering a huge feature set in a very slim, all-metal body. The EX-Z750 was very well received when it was launched, and remains to this day the most highly-specified 7MP ultra-compact on the market. The EX-Z850 doesn't change the basic formula much but does offer a raft of small improvements; there's an extra megapixel, a couple new Best Shot modes, improved screen brightness, a more powerful flash (with some extra modes) and a movie light. As is becoming standard on this type of camera the Z850 also includes a 'high sensitivity' mode, with up to ISO 1600 on offer.
8.12 Megapixel CCD
3x optical zoom lens
High speed start up and operation
2.5-inch TFT super-bright screen and optical viewfinder
MPEG-4 movies at up to 640x480 / 30fps
34 Best Shot scene modes
440-shot battery life (CIPA standard)
In-camera special effects
Post-shot white balance and exposure adjustments
Aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure options
EX button for fast access to shooting controls
White LED light enables both still images and movies to be taken in low light conditions and acts as an AF assist light

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi (Black) Digital Camera

Digital Camera Resource Page
DCRP Review: Canon Digital Rebel Xti
If you can't decide between the Rebel XTi and the Nikon D80 (and don't already own some of their respective lenses), that's a tougher question to answer. I much prefer the D80's design and build quality, but it is more expensive than the XTi. If you want that nicer body and a real LCD info display, then it may be worth spending more to get the D80. There's also the upcoming Pentax K10D, which offers a sealed, weatherproof body and image stabilization for around the same money. The bottom line is try as many of these cameras as you can, prioritize what features you require, and then make your own decision.

Olympus SP-500UZ Review

Five and a half years ago, long before Panasonic launched the FZ series, before Canon, Kodak, Minolta - or anyone else for that matter - had joined the 'big zoom' party there was the Olympus C-2100UZ. With its image-stabilized 10x zoom, electronic viewfinder and SLR-styling the C-2100UZ was a big success when it launched mid-2000 (the only alternatives at the time being Sony floppy disk cameras with camcorder lenses).
Fast forward to 2006. The super zoom market has got a lot busier and Olympus has lost its early lead, failing to offer a serious alternative to popular models like the Canon S2IS or the Panasonic FZ20, despite fairly regular upgrades to the compact C7XX series of ultra zoom cameras. The biggest problem is the lack of image stabilization, something that in today's market means 'budget' - and that's where the new, lower-priced (but still IS-free) SP-500UZ comes in.
The six megapixel SP-500UZ - announced last August - offers a 10x zoom, full manual control, RAW capture and a wealth of photographic and digital features. With a feature list as long as your arm, lots of beginner-friendly scene modes, a predictive AF function, which predicts the location of a moving subject at the moment the shutter closes, a nice 2.5-inch screen and a 3cm macro mode, the SP-500UZ certainly seems to offer an excellent 'bang for your buck', but is it good enough to compete in such a crowded area of the market? Lets find out, starting with a quick run-down of the key selling points:
6.0 million pixels
10x zoom lens (38-380mm equiv) F2.8-3.7, plus 5x digital zoom
Electronic viewfinder with 201,600 pixels
2.5” LCD
Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and manual exposure
21 scene modes
Focusing options: iESP auto focus and Spot incl. option for selectable AF area with 143 points, plus Predictive AF for back or forward moving subjects
Super Macro mode up to 3cm
Histogram function in shooting mode and playback
Recording in JPEG or RAW format
10MB internal memory plus xD-Picture Card slot
TruePic TURBO image processor
Optional macro, tele and wide lens converters can be attached

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Review

Panasonic's LX series has always been home to the company's most ambitious compacts, offering a range of photographer-friendly features in a small, stylish and solid body festooned with external controls. It's been two years since the launch of the LX2 and the market has changed a lot in that time - the level of features offered even on inexpensive models has grown and the cost of all cameras, particularly DSLRs, has fallen drastically. Both of these trends risk reducing the potential market for premium compacts if their features are available on cheaper compacts, and much better photographic tools (in terms of flexibility of purpose and image quality) are available for only a little more money. So the LX3, more than its predecessors, has to play to its strengths - it needs to offer some of the best compact camera image quality, a good degree of user control and a body that is more convenient and pocketable than DSLRs can be.
And Panasonic seems fully aware of these challenges. When announcing the camera, the company pointed out that more pixels on the same sized sensor does not always result in better image quality and described its approach with the LX3 as: "boldly reversing the industry trend of pushing toward ever-higher pixel counts." It's an admirable position (though one that would be easier to acclaim if the company hadn't, on the same day, released one of the most pixel-dense cameras we've ever seen), and one that seems promising - the benefits of newer sensor and processing technology without those advances being strangled by the downsides of smaller pixels. (And we believe that if you offer more pixels with the hard drive clutter and slower camera operation they bring, then those pixels must be good at the pixel level, otherwise, what benefits do those additional pixels bring?)

Headline features
24mm wide 2.5x optical LEICA DC lens
F2.0-2.8 maximum aperture range
MEGA O.I.S.(Optical Image Stabilizer)
Venus Engine IV
Joystick-operated manual control
Large 3.0” 460k dot LCD monitor
Raw and JPEG recording modes
Up to ISO 3200 sensitivity
Up to 1280x720 (30 fps) pixel movie capture
Manual exposure and focus options
1/2000th to 60 sec shutter speeds
Available in black or silver