After the triumph of Panasonic's small bridge, the FZ18, its successor has created a lot of expectation. The new model, the FZ28 has just arrived, and it's a camera with similar styling and the same optical zoom capabilities. But has Panasonic ...

18x zoom with optical stabilization, - Good quality images up to 400 ISO, - 1 cm macro mode, - HD video at 1280 x 740 pixels, - Practical, useful automatic modes

Electronic noise handling could be better, - Casing is rather light ; screen too bright, - White balance only perfect after manual adjustment, - RAW mode too slow, - No click wheel access to manual modes

– it's now 2.7 inches instead of 2.5, but the resolution of 230 000 pixels has not changed.  The screen is still as bright as was, but difficult to use in bright sunlight, even after adjusting its setting.  The good news is that an electronic ...

The Ricoh R8 is a rather pleasant camera to use. It's equipped with a good zoom and superb LCD. Unfortunately, image quality is not up to par with the rest and in this product range we prefer the Panasonic TZ5.

The Pentax Optio W60 is a camera full of promises but results leave something to be desired. While it is indeed waterproof (which gives it a supplementary star) and equipped with a wide angle, the W60 cruelly lacks reactivity.

The little Olympus Mju 840 is a nice camera. It's thin, elegant, rather fast and very easy to use. Equipped with this brand's latest technological finesse, it produces honest images - if we don't go too high in sensitivity. On the other hand, the ...

Despite a slightly smaller zoom than the competition (a 15x vs. 18x), the Sony H50 deserves some attention if only for its rotating screen which is ideal for macro shots. Image quality is also good despite what demanding user will see as somewhat ...

- Stabilized 15x zoom, - 3 inch rotating LCD screen, - Nice image quality up until 400 ISO, - 1 cm macro mode, - Nightshot mode

- Overall, it's slow, - Presence of fringes and chromatic aberrations, - Dial a bit tricky to use in priority modes, - Significant distortion in wide angle, - A lot of smoothing beyond 400 ISO

The latest 18x bridge is unfortunately not the best. While the P80 produces image quality that is more or less equivalant to its rivals, it is handicapped by its lack of reactivity.

- Compact and stabilized 18x zoom, - Quality LCD screen, - Interesting 1 cm macro mode, - Rather fast zoom, - Numerous scene modes

- Slow autofocus even in good lighting conditions, - Too much smoothing of détails starting at 200 ISO, - No Raw format, - Overall, not a very fast camera, - Average quality video with no optical zoom

While the image quality is up to par, there is no wide angle and ergonomics are questionable.

Besides the addition of of priority modes, the FX500 and its tactile screen do not revolutionize the Lumix line. While image quality is still good, the camera is bigger, heavier and not more practical than a FX35.

Kodak's innovations seem interesting: 12 million pixels and a tactile screen. Overall, images are satisfactory; however, there are some important areas to be reviewed; notably noise control and HD video.

Despite a few downsides, the PowerShot A590 is a nicely stabilized camera. It produces nice images with fine color rendering. The A590 will largely do the job for someone on a tight budget looking for a good compact.