Merely having a long zoom isn't enough for a camera to succeed these days - big lenses have to be squeezed into stylish packages to raise the pulses of increasingly fussy consumers.

Casio's elegant EX-V7 managed a 7x zoom in a compact chassis and now Panasonic unveils a 10x zoom in an all-metal body no thicker than 36mm.

But that's not all. The second headline feature of the Leica-branded lens is its genuine wide-angle setting of 28mm. And, in a nutshell, that's why you'll buy the TZ2.

The optics are sharp enough, Panasonic's optical stabilisation (now found throughout its range) is as reliable as ever and there's very little sign of chromatic fringing. This is all in a tough, friendly body that's only a shade heavier and larger than many 3x snappers. This means that the TZ2 still fits (just) into a trouser pocket, and is light enough to carry all day long.

Don't let the slightly geeky, super-long lens fool you, though, this is no SLR substitute. The TZ2 is all about scene modes and auto-everything simplicity, rather than tweaking aperture settings and choosing contrast levels.

You can crudely adjust the exposure if you think a scene is too light or dark, but basically you're trusting in Panasonic and its 20-plus programmed scene modes. Some programs are over-specialised (when was the last time you needed Aerial Photography or Baby with Auto Age Calculation modes?) although Panasonic has included the bare essentials (Portrait, Sports, Night Scenery and so on).

Menus are speedily navigated with a precise four-way pad, although the mode dial is both unnecessarily crowded with icons and too easy to knock accidentally.

A Func button pulls up a quick menu to adjust white balance, drive mode, sensitivity and image quality. This only responds if you hold down for a second or two - slowing the Panasonic down just when you need it at its quickest. There's little speed on offer with its burst mode, either. You get a couple of frames at 1fps, then it settles down to clunking away at about 0.8fps.

The 2.5-inch display is first class, combining sufficient resolution with a high level of responsiveness - move from light to shade and it will recover before your eyes do. That makes the absence of a separate viewfinder tolerable, if not ideal.