Not to be outdone by the reigning princes of the point and shoot market, the new GE 1255W 12 Megapixel camera enters the ring as a serious contender loaded with extras. Packed with a cornucopia of features including a 3" LCD screen with brightness adjustment, 5x optical zoom, 4.5 digital zoom, and a 28mm wide angle lens, its all business for this sleek model.

As with all new electronic gear, I had to take this model out for a test drive. I found the panoramic feature a sweet surprise. Simple to operate, I captured some great shots. Photo quality outdoors was outstanding. A nice collection of crisp colors and stable images without tweaking were the end product. As usual with limited lighting, indoor shots were give and take at best but still usable.

Simplicity at its best, this light weight camera also covers the bases with auto scene, face and smile detection. Usually with point and shoots, the onboard red eye removal tool is hit and miss. Not with this camera. Image stabilizer is pretty standard. It goes without saying that the best stabilizer is still a good old fashioned tripod. My only gripes are that the controls are a bit small and the obvious omission of a viewfinder.

Even though this model has a limited 24 megabyte internal memory, no worries. It operates with both SD & SDHC cards. The GE 1255W is packaged with a rechargeable lithium ion battery, battery charger, USB cable, AV cable, CD ROM, Guide, operating manual, and a wrist strap. One big selling point is this particular model easily slips into my shirt pocket.

Arcsoft Photo Impression 6 album software is also included. After looking over the photo software its okay, but not something I wish to add to my computer. The best free photo working software out there is still Google's Picasa 3. Its packed with outstanding tools and does not hog up space on your computer. The GE 1255W comes in Black, Silver, Pink and Red finish. GE backs this product with the standard one year warranty.

As an avid photographer, I am not generally impressed with many point and shoot cameras. There are a few that hold their own. Surprisingly I find the GE1255W strong with plenty of potential. Economically priced and packed with more features then most of the name brands, this model sells itself.

For those that want to jump into the realm of digital photography, I would recommend this product as a good starter camera. First time digital camera buyers won't be disappointed in performance or price.