Casio QV-2000UX

In the 1980s Casio established itself as a household name with its range of digital watches and calculators. In the 1990s it continues to be a dominant force in consumer electronics, and picked up an award in Labs only last month for its E-105 palmtop. The 2000UX is its latest offering: a feature-rich digital camera, boasting a 2.1 million pixel CCD and a maximum image resolution of 1,600 x 1,200. In last year's round-up this would have been one of the highest specified cameras but it's merely a standard figure this time around - a clear sign of the steadily increasing capabilities of digital cameras.

The camera has a chunkier appearance than the 5500SX, thanks in the main to its stocky lens cover. Sliding this open halfway switches on the camera and pops up the built-in flash, while fully opening the cover extends the 3x optical zoom-equipped lens. Sliding the cover back will then turn off the camera, retracting the lens, but the flash has to be manually replaced.

The LCD on the 2000UX impressed us with its camcorder-like clarity, in stark contrast to those found on the Kodak cameras. When reviewing pictures on the LCD, pressing the display button brings up relevant information such as resolution, and the time and date stamp. The quality of the LCD allows for a very clever feature, namely a Panorama mode that takes a standard still picture and creates a ghost border of the right edge of that picture over the left edge of the LCD screen, allowing you to line up everything. With the aid of a tripod and the supplied software, a perfect 360-degree shot can be created. Another innovative feature is the camera's ability to create mini movies as either a series of JPEGs or AVIs. These can be transferred to the PC using the supplied Photo Loader software. This won't take long either, as the 2000UX is equipped with a USB connection.

In the end, despite its innovative features, the relatively poor quality of the 2000UX's still images, and its relatively high price, make other cameras tested in this Labs more attractive propositions.