The first camera in the new Micro Four Thirds format is just starting to ship, and we have a full review. Micro Four Thirds, developed jointly by Olympus and Panasonic, is an effort to build smaller, more consumer-friendly cameras that offer interchangeable lenses like an SLR, but without the bulky SLR mirror mechanism, relying instead on the LCD and electronic viewfinder for framing your photos and auto focus. Panasonic's Lumix DMC-G1, a compact 12-megapixel model priced at $800 with lens, delivers on most of the format's promises, with surprisingly fast auto focus, good lab scores and lots of photographic control. It is on the pricey side, though, and nowhere near as portable as a point-and-shoot. To see if this is the right camera for you, read the complete review.
 

Hot from the hands of Ashton Kutcher, we got hold of Nikon's Wi-Fi enabled S610c. This 10-megapixel, 4x zoom camera costs $299.99, and lets you upload for free from thousands of locations via the Wayport Wi-Fi  network, or any unlocked Wi-Fi hotspot you happen to have available. While we weren't too enthused by the staid camera design, we liked the fast startup time and excellent manual noise and dynamic range results in our tests. Read on to see just how well the S610c did overall.

The Casio Exilim EX-FH20 is the new, super-fast, ultra-zoom released by the manufacturer who made waves with the more expensive EX-F1 earlier this year. The FH20 sports a 20x zoom, the ability to take 40 frames per second at 7-megapixels, or record super-slow-motion video at up to 1000 frames per second. However, once we got the camera into our labs, we found the body to be low quality, the auto focus was slow, it went through batteries at an incredible rate, and it scored poorly in our testing. Full details follow.

The PowerShot A2000 IS from Canon is a compact point-and-shoot with a 10-megapixel sensor, a noteworthy 6x zoom, and a $229.99 pricetag. We were initially slightly taken aback by the odd wedge shape of the camera, but it slowly grew on us. In our extensive lab tests, it didn't fare particularly well, and we would have liked a greater degree of manual control. Read on for more details.

The TL34HD from Samsung is their new touch-screen, 14.7-megapixel point-and-shoot camera. Housed in a sleek metal case, it wowed us with good to excellent results in almost every test we could throw at it, especially white balance and automatic noise. While it didn't fare as well in low light or in video mode as could be desired, the TL34HD delivered an all around excellent performance, a solid feature set with some degree of manual control, in an attractive package. It retails at $299 and seems to us to be good value for a strong camera. Full details follow.
 

The 10-megapixel Olympus Stylus 1050 SW is the latest addtion to the company's line of ruggedized point-and-shoot cameras. It doesn't match the level of indestructibility achieved by the brawny 1030 SW we reviewed earlier this year, but it's fine for the pool or ski slope, with waterproof performance to 10-foot depths and freeze resistance down to 14 degrees F (-10 degress C). We like the style and strong metal construction, but our lab testing was not kind to the 1050 SW. And while Olympus is proud of its admittedly innovative Tap Control system, we found it more gimmicky than practical. For the full story, click through to the complete review.

Our search for inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras offering good performance for not much money leads us to the 8-megapixel Pentax Optio V20, a compact model with a big 3-inch LCD screen and a 5x optical zoom that provides far more flexibility when composing shots than the 3x lens typically found in this camera category. The V20 lists for $249.95, though we've seen it selling at closer to $200 from several discounters, a nice price considering the large screen and extended zoom. Lab testing results overall make the V20 an average performer, a bit behind the pack in some areas, a skinch ahead in others. To determine if this is the camera to fill your photo album without emptying your wallet, read the complete review.

 
The newly announced Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3 takes the 10-megapixel sensor, 4x lens, 4GB internal memory and the user interface of the DSC-T700, sticks it in a new body, and adds what is the most full-featured Wi-Fi we've ever encountered on a camera due to its built in fully functional web browser. However, since the innards are the same as the T700, it potentially means that the problems we had when we reviewed the older model will carry over, though we hope it won't. The G3 is currently available for $499.95.

We had the opportunity to take the G3 for an extended test drive at the Consumer Electronics Show. Here's what we discovered.

For a $299 camera, the Fujifilm FinePix F60fd has some intriguing features, including a 12-megapixel sensor, 3-inch LCD, a nicely constructed metal body and aperture- and shutter-priority shooting modes for enhanced exposure control. Lab testing turned up some significant problems, though, including higher-than-expected image noise and positively pokey performance on most speed tests. To see how advanced camera capabilities and real-world performance balance out, read the complete review.