INBOX:To get ahead in the digital camera market you have to stand out from the crowd

THESE DAYS, if you try and buy an average digital camera – say, under €200 – you face a swathe of models from big names to ones you’ve never heard of. All of them compete on a range of features, which means it’s hard for any one camera to stand out from the crowd.

Go into any camera shop and ask for a camera in this range and, likely as not, the assistant will give you a black look, as if you had just asked them to pick “the best” chocolate digestive out from an entire packet. They all look more or less the same.

To get ahead in this market you have to stand out from the crowd and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7 appears to have made this race a little more interesting.

Most of the cameras it will come up against have a very plastic body, but the DMC-FS7’s immediately stands out with a brushed metal finish.

True, the large LCD screen slightly protrudes slightly from the back, but this is unnoticeable. You’ll find the usual controls, backed up by a large bright 2.7-inch LCD screen. There’s not a great deal more to it externally.

However, there are aspects of this camera that make it stand out from the crowd. Most noticeably, switch on is fast, which makes getting up and running a breeze. Set the camera to Intelligent Auto mode, a kind of “automatic plus” mode, and it will automatically select the best scene mode for the shot such as portrait, macro or scenery.

It will also activate the optical image stabiliser and face-detection systems, and choose the best ISO and shutter speed. That means you can get a lot out of this little camera that others may not be able to offer, or as fast.

If you want more control, use Normal Picture mode, such as setting the maximum ISO speed you want and adjusting shutter speed around those settings.

And for a more affordable camera, the screen interface to the DMC-FS7 is quite intuitive. You can select Intelligent Auto, Normal, Scene and Motion Picture and also add a frequently used scene mode to the menu list.

Beneath those there are 25 more options, even including one for shooting through an aircraft window.

The DMC-FS7 has a 4x optical zoom in the form of an 5.5-22mm f/2.8 Leica lens, equivalent to 33-132mm in the 35mm format.

Not as handy as some competitors, however, the speed and ease of use makes this camera competitive.

A Quick Menu button gives you fast access to other features like image stabilisation mode, drive mode, AF mode, white balance, ISO speed and file size.

Overall, the DMC-FS7 looks good, feels good and performs well against its peers. It’s easy to use and likely to please the average digital snapper.