Labs

The F10 Zoom won our last digital camera Labs test (Labs, Shopper August 2005), so we were interested to see if it could repeat its success. Since then, its price has fallen by £17, which is enough to replace the pointless 16MB xD card with a 256MB version.

There's plenty to like about this camera. Its aluminium case is reasonably compact, but still

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includes a 21/2" screen and a chunky lithium-ion battery that holds almost three times as much charge as those included with certain cameras. It is also quick to take photos, taking just three seconds from powering up and two seconds between shots.

Image quality in low light is the F10's greatest asset. Rather than always using its flash, the camera automatically switches to a high ISO speed, capturing a bright image with a fast exposure time to eliminate blur due to camera shake. The usual downside of this technique is excessive image noise, but this was rarely a problem with the F10. In our other tests, the images produced were high quality but bettered by those from the Canon A610, Centon and Sony cameras. Detail in shots was only average, and high-contrast subjects tended to come out a little too dark.

The F10 is still a great camera, but the three that outperform it for image quality also offer better manual control.