Of the other four cameras the Tough 6000 and W80 manage to retain just enough detail to be better than the Tough 8000 and Z33 - which both reduce the details in the image to not much more than watercolor-like smudges. The traditional 'reciprocal rule' suggests that you should aim to use a shutter speed equal to the reciprocal of the focal length to ensure sharp shooting - so a 100mm lens should really be used with shutter speeds faster than 1/100th of a second. The reciprocal rule is only a guide, of course, and one that becomes increasingly inaccurate with small-sensor cameras, but it should still be apparent that without image stabilization it'd be difficult to use a 100mm equivalent lens in light that would require 1/100 shutter speed. In this group of cameras four of the cameras feature image stabilization (the Canon D10, Panasonic TS1 and the Olympus models) while the other three (W60, W80 and Z33) use high ISO settings via scene modes to keep images sharp as light levels fall. Image stabilization is not a magic bullet that will make images sharp at all light levels at base ISO, as there are limits to how slow a shutter speed it can cope with; and as shutter speeds get low, subjects that move will be recorded as a blur anyway.

Fujifilm created the FinePix Z33WP to let you capture all the excitement of your outdoor adventures. This tiny yet rugged camera is waterproof down to 10 feet, so you can snap photos in the pool, take it along on ski trips, or make the most of a rainy day. Face detection with red-eye correction and 10-megapixel recording help you capture sharp, true-to-life pictures of your favorite people. Take clear photos of friends around a bonfire on the beach — a high sensitivity setting helps prevent blurry images of dimly lit scenes.

Underwater camera group: Image stabilization

Here the winner is clear. The D10 managed to get the balance between ambient light and flash illumination just right to produce the most pleasing image of the whole group. This was the one areas in which the Panasonic really disappointed.

One glance at these crops will tell you that the Canon D10 and Panasonic TS1 are better in terms of sharpness and detail than the other cameras in this group with the Pentax W60 not far behind. Between the D10 and TS1 the Canon is sharper across the frame (albeit aided by heavier sharpening). This is particularly evident at the edge of the frame where the tree crop is taken from. Color balance in this situation between the Canon and the Panasonic is fairly similar with the D10 producing a slightly warmer result. All of these cameras except the TS1 have very similar maximum telephoto settings of about 100mm (with the TS1 reaching 128mm). Holding the cameras with both hands, the two Olympus cameras were easier to hold still and produced many more sharp shots than the D10 with the IS turned off, with the TS1 performing between the Olympus cameras and the D10 despite being at a slightly longer focal length. With IS turned on the Canon and Panasonic both performed very well, with all of the shots captured being sharp. However, the performance of the Olympuses didn't improve by nearly such a large margin, suggesting this IS system is much less effective. FujiFilm Z33 WP, Pentax Optio W60, Pentax Optio W80 None of these cameras perform fantastically at ISO 1600, as you would expect when there are so many pixels in such a small sensor. The Canon D10 takes a fairly heavy-handed approach, applying a lot of noise reduction, which not only destroys much of the detail, but makes the image seem quite desaturated. The D10 produces the softest image in the group tested here - a complete turnaround from the results at lower ISO settings. Unfortunately you cannot control the ISO settings in Auto either, that being an option in the Manual mode. However, you can, at least, leave everything in Manual on auto and set the ISO to a lower value if this seems a persistent problem. The two Pentax cameras produce less sharp and detailed results than the TS1 and D10, but more than the other cameras in this group test. Of the two, the lower resolution W60 is better across the frame than the W80 which resolved much less fine detail in the bridge and the trees than the W60. The processing in the W60 seems much more sophisticated, producing more convincing results. The color balance of the two Pentax cameras are similar and lean towards the warm end of the spectrum (but not quite as warm as the Canon).

Product Research

The W60 has, on paper at least, one of the most impressive movie recording specification in this group. It offers 720p (1280x720) at 15 fps, with a maximum bit rate of 8.5 Mbit/sec, and VGA (640x480) at 30 fps with the same maximum bit rate. Movies are recorded in avi format with M-JPEG compression. The maximum movie size is 2GB, and optical zooming and AF can be enabled during movie recording (though they are not by default). The specifications is were the similarities end, as the Tough 8000 has the worst movie quality in this group. There are many compression and noise reduction artifacts, and the image immediately looks much softer than all the other cameras in the test. There is also moire visible, though in this area the Tough 8000 is not much worse than other cameras in this test. Sound quality is on par with the other cameras here.

MB minimum required for installation with 600 MB available when FinePixViewer is running (15 GB or more recommended with Vista, 2 GB or more recommended with XP)The camera itself is small and lightweight. It’s only just over 9cm long and weighs just 110 grammes, without the battery and memory card. I haven’t weighed it with them, but it’s probably only about 150 grammes. You can view the full specifications at http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/consumer/digital/digital-cameras/slim-compact/finepix-z33wp/Specs A camera, to me, was something I used to take fishing with me. However, I’m so impressed with the Fujifilm Z33 WP that I take it almost everywhere with me now. It’s so small that you hardly notice it, but the photographs it takes belie its compact size. In the studio scene test we saw that none of these cameras performed remarkably well at ISO 1600, and it's the same situation with the night scene test. The Canon, Panasonic and Pentax W60 (all of which performed relatively well in the daylight test) apply quite a lot of noise reduction to the image, leaving them less noisy than the other three cameras in this test, but also destroying a fair amount of fine detail and leaving many noise reduction artefacts, which are most prominently seen in the sky area to the top left of the image. The best of the three is the TS1 which applies much less noise reduction than the D10 and manages to retain quite a lot of detail in the stonework. The front of the camera sees the rather small flash and the 3x optical zoom lens, offering a 35-105mm (35mm equiv.) focal length, with a max aperture of F3.7. The lens itself doesn't have a protective cover, taking instead a glass panel in front, which means it is potentially prone to scratches. One advantage however, it that it is really easy to clean should it get dirty. Red-eye removal ON : Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.

The W80 and Olympus Tough 6000 are slightly better the the Tough 8000 and Fuji Z33, and manage to resolve better detail than the other two cameras. In good light all of these cameras should be able to produce an image that is good enough for a nice print at 8x10 or under, or for web viewing resolutions, but taking a closer look reveals that the D10 and W60 are clearly better than the other cameras in this group.SP: Auction Mode, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night(Tripod), Sunset, Snow, Beach, Museum, Party, Flower, Text The four other cameras in this group are not completely useless; certainly if you only need to produce small (5x7) prints or display images online, then all of these cameras will produce decent enough results. But considering that most of these lenses only extend to 100mm on the telephoto end, there may be situations where you might want to crop the image (and all these cameras allow you to do this in camera), or if there is that once-in-a-lifetime shot that you capture that you want to print really big it's nice to know you've got the best image quality available for your money. So on, then, to the most important part of this review. And the winners are... Test Runner Up: Pentax Optio W60 While the output from all five of these cameras falls off towards the edges of the frame (as seen in the studio shot at base ISO), overall image quality is similar to each camera's performance at 35mm, with the TS1 producing the sharpest and most detailed results (the strength of the TS1 is at the wide end of the zoom range), with the W60 and W80 falling a little behind. The W80 shows extensive CA at its wide-angle setting, however. Of the two Olympus cameras (which are the worst performers of the group on the wide end), the Tough 6000 retains better image quality than the Tough 8000 at the widest zoom setting. Olympus Tough 6000