At first look, there isn’t an awful lot to differentiate the FZ100 from the FZ45, despite costing £80 more. Look closer, though, and the differences become clear. Although the 24x zoom lens and 14-megapixel sensor are identical, the FZ100 is aimed at the enthusiast who wants a little more. There’s a hotshoe to attach an external flash for better shots. You also get a 3in articulated screen that opens and can face any direction.
At £212 inc VAT, the S4000 is relatively cheap for a superzoom camera, especially with a 30x zoom lens. And it feels more expensive than it is thanks to excellent build quality and a reassuring heft. Rubber fins around the lens barrel and the hand-grip make it easy to get a firm grasp. A 3in screen dominates the rear of the camera, and this has a 460kpixel resolution: higher than several pricier models here.
There are no corners cut on features. The command dial includes aperture and shutter priority modes, as well as a manual mode. There’s also a scene-recognition mode that recognizes what you’re trying to shoot: try to focus close-up, and macro mode is enabled. The panorama mode is effective, too, especially with a tripod.
Panasonic has ruled the enthusiast camcorder sector for some time now, and it’s HDC-SD90 and HDC-TM900 models recently reinforced that position. Now Canon aims to topple Panasonic with the LegriaHFM41.
It’s one of a range of three M-series camcorders with similar specifications. The HFM41 we tested is the most expensive at £64S inc VAT, with 32GB of storage; there’s also the 16GB HFM46 at around £526, and the HFM406, with no memory for £487. These cheaper models have the same optics and sensor. The HF M406 would be our pick, as the HFM41′s viewfinder is too small to be practical, and at that price it goes head-to-head with the Panasonic HDC-SD90.
This Sony is the longest in the tooth or test and hence there’s a good deal to be had on it. In return for not much dosh you get excellent build quality and sophisticated features, with a 14.1-meg sensor riding an image-stabilized, 10x optical zoom to glory. You also get bold, well saturated 72op video -the best on test.
This is a versatile camera. The big zoom offers a wealth of compositional opportunities and you also get Sony’s Sweep Panorama — pan the camera across a landscape and it stitches a rapid-fire burst of images into one elongated frame – face and smile detection and intelligent auto modes for point-and-shoot ease.
