The touch-screen FX500 won't replace your digital SLR, but it's a classy little camera that handles a lot.

High-quality optics ; Effective modes and auto exposure

A bit pricey ; Manual modes' interface needs finessing

The camera's responsiveness was excellent, with almost no lag time between when I pressed the shutter and when pictures wrote to the card, even at the highest quality setting. This characteristic, combined with the FX500's quick, accurate autofocus ...

You've seen photos that freeze the action as a baseball hits the bat, a race car bounces over a curb, fireworks burst in the sky, or a droplet splashes into a glass of milk. Even a hobbyist photographer can take shots like these easily with the Casio ...

Unique slow motion abilities ; Sharp telephoto shots

Wide-angle zoom could be wider ; Storing so many frames takes time

At $1000, the Casio EX-F1 isn't cheap. But for subjects such as sports and wildlife photography, where high frame rates and HD video stand out, it could be worth every penny

The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd offers a host of advanced features at an affordable $400 price, but its biggest strength is the versatile 18X zoom lens. It covers a 35mm film camera's range--specifically, the equivalent of 27mm to 486mm--providing true ...

18x zoom lens with image stabilization Auto face-detection and red-eye removal

Images could be sharper Slow startup time

The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd is a good all-rounder at a reasonable price. It offers plenty of automated assistance, but lets you tweak settings manually when necessary. It makes a good choice for anyone seeking a single camera for all occasions

The least expensive camera in our megazoom roundup, the $350 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18K offers an 18X optical zoom, a 28mm wide-angle lens, and a host of manual controls for a very reasonable price. An amateur photographer who hasn't used many advanced ...

Excellent 18x optical zoom Leica lens Burst mode returns clear photos

Zoom disabled in video mode Battery life is disappointing

Besides its manual controls and its wide-angle lens, the Lumix FZ18K has other goodies for more-advanced photographers and image editors; for instance, images can be shot in RAW format--but keep in mind that the image size will be about six times ...

Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-H50 has some outstanding features. But it also has a few kinks that may or may not hang you up, depending on how picky you are about certain functions.

Powerful 15x optical zoom Tilting 3-inch LCD screen

Slow startup speed Short battery life

But the DSC-H50 has some shortcomings. The LCD produces a somewhat jumpy image when panning, which I found irksome. Battery life is less than ideal: Our lab tests yielded 291 shots on a charge; in the field, it was noticeably short. While most of the ...

This lightweight model has a zoom lens that plays well at both wide-angle and telephoto extremes.

18x zoom lens with image stabilization ; Auto face-detection and red-eye removal

Images could be sharper ; Slow startup time

The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd is a good all-rounder at a reasonable price. It offers plenty of automated assistance, but lets you tweak settings manually when necessary. It makes a good choice for anyone seeking a single camera for all occasions

It's the oldest megazoom camera in this roundup, but it's hardly a dinosaur. Canon's $400 PowerShot S5 IS, released In May 2007, represented the company's latest foray into the advanced, high-zoom digital camera market. Like its 2008 competitors, it ...

Sturdy and fully adjustable LCD screen Top-notch image stabilization

Poor manual focus No RAW support

Despite a handy function menu for the most commonly used options, the S5 IS has an overabundance of hey-let's-just-throw-it-in features that can clog menus (a wolf-howl sound effect for the self-timer? Really?). This feels indicative of the uneasy ...

Olympus's entry into the megazoom class delivers the greatest magnification rating of any of the products we tested for our roundup. At 20X, photos taken at a distance of up to 30 feet from the subject looked as though the photographer had been right ...

20x optical zoom is the highest in class iESP focus targeting

Delayed shutter release Autofocus sometimes searches fuzzily

We also had a bit of trouble getting the autofocus to lock onto targets in low light. The autofocus would scan from one end to the other trying to sharpen the image, and sometimes took up to 2 seconds to fully lock on to a focal point. In bright ...

The king of the high-zoom cameras offers sharp long-distance pics and quality ergonomics.

20x optical zoom is the highest in class ; iESP focus targeting

Delayed shutter release ; Autofocus sometimes searches fuzzily

We also had a bit of trouble getting the autofocus to lock onto targets in low light. The autofocus would scan from one end to the other trying to sharpen the image, and sometimes took up to 2 seconds to fully lock on to a focal point. In bright ...

This lightweight model has a zoom lens that plays well at both wide-angle and telephoto extremes.

18x zoom lens with image stabilization, Auto face-detection and red-eye removal

Images could be sharper, Slow startup time

The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd is a good all-rounder at a reasonable price. It offers plenty of automated assistance, but lets you tweak settings manually when necessary. It makes a good choice for anyone seeking a single camera for all occasions