Image via CrunchBase

It’s always the same: no sooner has a new champion been crowned than a gaggle of young pretenders are challenging him for his title, whatever it may be.  A scant month back we had blogged about TIPA crowning Pentax’s Optio WG-2 ‘The Best Rugged Camera’.  The latest contender who wants to lance the WG-2 off its saddle is Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-FT5.

In his review on Pocket-lint, Mike Lowe refers to it as “the tank of compact cameras” which is “tough enough to flatten most traditional compact cameras’ specifications.”  Or maybe tough enough to flatten most traditional compact cameras, full-stop?

Let’s begin, however, by examining the DMC-FT5 qua camera (rather than qua tank).  It boasts 16 megapixels and that’s a big plus straight off the bat because “[e]very major manufacturer has its tough and waterproof compact camera range these days but . . . many models . . . tend to consider the key camera component as an aside to the tough concept.”  Not so this Lumix which also has an able zoom with an attractive range of 28 to 128mm (36×24 equivalent).

On-board are a variety of autofocus modes and several exposure modes including a programme mode and full manual yet straightforward shutter-priority and aperture-priority have rather oddly gone M.I.A.  On the positive side its performance and specs in burst mode and in shooting video are clearly a cut above other cameras in this class.

Though it is a chunky beast, the DMC-FT5 is also quite ergonomic according to Pocket-lint.  It certainly looks that way with the well-labelled buttons being perfectly positioned for the right thumb to control.

So far, so good.

This Lumix’s freeze-proof and dust-proof qualities mean that you can lug it from K-2 to the Kalahari where its GPS, NFC and WiFi could prove very useful.  And, if Lowe is to be believed, you can perhaps use this shock-proof kit in lieu of a tennis ball as well: “we’ve lobbed it around a fair bit without worry and every ground and surface the camera’s met hasn’t made a single dent or scratch.”

Read the full review to find out whether or not this tough-compact is your cup of tea but the gist is that its image quality is “as good as any other tough compact camera out there, which does put the FT5 in the mix as a tough cam favourite” because it has the edge in toughness and technical features.

Do we have a new champion?  Let’s see what TIPA has to say about the DMC-FT5 next year. . . .