The six megapixel SP-500UZ -  offers a 10x zoom, full manual control, RAW capture and a wealth of photographic and digital features. With a feature list as long as your arm, lots of beginner-friendly scene modes, a predictive AF function, which predicts the location of a moving subject at the moment the shutter closes, a nice 2.5-inch screen and a 3cm macro mode, the SP-500UZ certainly seems to offer an excellent 'bang for your buck', but is it good enough to compete in such a crowded area of the market? Lets find out, starting with a quick run-down of the key selling points:

• 6.0 million pixels
• 10x zoom lens (38-380mm equiv) F2.8-3.7, plus 5x digital zoom
• Electronic viewfinder with 201,600 pixels
• 2.5” LCD
• Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and manual exposure
• 21 scene modes
• Focusing options: iESP auto focus and Spot incl. option for selectable AF area with 143 points, plus Predictive AF for back or forward moving subjects
• Super Macro mode up to 3cm
• Histogram function in shooting mode and playback
• Recording in JPEG or RAW format
• 10MB internal memory plus xD-Picture Card slot
• TruePic TURBO image processor
• Optional macro, tele and wide lens converters can be attached