Panasonic Lumix FX30

Panasonic have announced a new ultra-compact camera, the world's thinnest at 22mm, with a wide angle 28mm lens. The zoom is 3.6x, so as well as the wide angle for capturing large group shots, landscapes or buildings, you still get the 100mm top end for far off subjects.

It's 7.2 megapixels, has a 2.5 inch LCD screen, high ISO setting and Panasonic's latest image processing engine, Venus III.



It has some other nice tricks up its sleeve as well, like optical image stabilisation, 848 x 480 widescreen video mode and a clever additional zoom that lets you go up to 5.3x but only using the centre of the CCD at 3 megapixel resolution, potentially very useful in certain situations where resolution isn't paramount.

Certainly looks like a really interesting little compact and, if it takes good pictures, it could take over from the Canon 850 IS as my new favourite. I'll be on the lookout for the first reviews.

It will be available in the UK in March. Panasonic UK site.