Panasonic has stuck with a tried and trusted design in the NV-DCF7ENA model, resembling the PalmCam series of cameras that have done particularly well overseas. Unfortunately there is nothing remotely in the offing for a name change. Suffice it to say that Panasonic themselves refer to it as the DCF7.

While the camera looks like it needs flares and has a name like it never made it off the drawing board there are some features that make this camera an attractive buy. One is the low price. $1,400 for a 1.3 megapixel camera means there is little complaint on the score of potential bang for the buck. Also the DCF7 boasts two CF card slots. The slots are accessible from the side making it convenient to swap cards on the fly rather than the hassle of powering off and levering a hatch to get access to the slots.

Better still, fill one card and simply tell the camera to switch to the other card. The only limit to you snapping away till you drop is the number of cards and the life of the batteries! Panasonic rate the DCF7 carrying a maximum of 64Mb but whether that means per slot or in total we're not sure.

The other specifications put the DCF7 at the lower end of the performance scale. Maximum image resolution is a modest 1,280 x 960 pixels compared to the 1,440 x 1,080 resolution of the Agfa CL30 which is $500 cheaper. The user interface accessed through the LCD is also very basic with only a handful of functions configurable like toggling resolution and selecting flash options.

We had wildly differing results for the DCF7 across the range of tests we subjected the cameras to. It was rock bottom for the Pantone test where the greatest variation was seen-plus or minus 32 per cent across the spectrum of process colours. However there was greater consensus amongst our panel for the way it handled the still life flower arrangement and our human subject. The flash was not overpowering and the results were definitely 'softer' in shade which compensated for the lower resolution compared to the higher end competition.

Outside the DCF7 appeared to lack depth. The shots of the car were reasonable but there was no definition in the trees across the road. The white balance made it seem that the auto exposure needed to lose an F-stop.

All up, the Panasonic DCF7 is a competent camera with a few subtle deficiencies.