Digital Trends

There’s an old saying in photography—the best camera is the one you have with you. Meaning something is always better than nothing for capturing snapshots. That said, while we all have cell phones with built-in cameras, for any function other than quickly sharing photos with another mobile handset or via online outlet, quality is pretty poor.

This year, we’ve already tested one excellent solution in the 12MP Canon PowerShot SX200 IS, a handy carry-around camera. Panasonic’s new DMC-ZS1 is similar in many ways, including a compact body, a potent 12x wide-angle zoom, intelligent auto and other features. It also costs $50 less since it’s a 10 megapixel digicam rather the Canon’s 12. So is this our new top pick of grab-and-go camreas? Let’s start shooting and find out…