The similarly styled Panasonic DMC-FS20 and DMC-FS5 feature a 30 - 120mm wide-angle zoom lens, Intelligent Auto, and 10.1-Megapixels...The Panasonic FS5 has a 2.5" LCD, while the Panasonic FS20 boosts this to 3.0...Power comes from a proprietary Lithium Ion battery pack, which is rated for some 300 shots on a charge in the FS5, and just slightly...

But Panasonic is proving to be a dark horse, releasing models with impressive looks and good performance...It looks neat, compact and stylish and feels good to hold, with a raised bar on the right-hand side of the body serving as a rest for the middle and ring fingers...Look at the front of the DMC-FS20 and you can’t miss the Leica logo embossed on the lens cover...

Panasonic has an unusual position in the digital camera market...In terms of its specification the new Lumix DMC-FS20 is fairly close to average for current compact models...The FS20 has a High Street price of around £230, or around £180 from discounted online sellers, but either way there's no denying that for its specification this is an expensive camera...

There is a slight softness to pictures with the out of the box settings...From all the cameras I tested that had wide angle lens', this was the one that I could see NO barrel distortion at the wide angle, and 30mm is perfectly adequate for me...I've found the camera extremely user friendly with a sensible (if not substantial) range of features, plus it looks great, the 3" LCD is stunning - highly recommended...