Panasonic ZX3 Now in the Face-Off

Product Unavailable Our suggested alternatives: Editor's Choice Sony Cyber-shot HX9V Lower-Cost Superzoom Canon PowerShot SX230 HS Quality Budget Snapper Canon Ixus 220 HS

Some DigitalVersus readers have been eagerly awaiting our test of the Panasonic Lumix ZX3. This compact camera is a cross between one of Panasonic's TZ superzooms and one of its ultra-compact FX cameras, and I'm pleased to announce that it has now arrived in our test lab. While we're busy putting together a full product review, you can already take a look at the ZX3's test shots in our product face-off.

The ZX3 closely resembles the ZX1, and has the same lens and camera body. The new model does, however, have a 14-Megapixel sensor and a new image processor, which notably allows for AVCHD-format video recording.

It still doesn't record stereo sound like the TZ10, but with its separate video-record button, the ZX3 can still feasibly be used for shooting videos now and again.

The ZX3 arrived at our offices last week and has been sent straight to the test lab. However, over the last two weeks we've accumulated something of a backlog of cameras to test, so we're unfortunately not sure when we'll be able to publish a full review of the ZX3. In the meantime, though, you can take a look at the ZX3's photo test results in the product face-off and compare them to shots taken by all kinds of other cameras. This should help give you some idea of the overall quality of Panasonic's ZX3.

So which camera should you compare it against? I reckon the Fuji F80EXR is a good place to start. It's a model we tested just last week, which sells for a similar price to the ZX3, has a slightly more powerful zoom (10x) and a Super CCD EXR sensor, but which also has a tighter wide-angle mode. The two cameras take very different photos and the results are really quite interesting to compare.

> Product Survey: Compact Digital Cameras

> Buyer's Guides: Our Pick of The Best Products