An impressive effort by Canon, the IXUS 65 produces solid photographs with sublimely accurate colour along with great features and design. A complete package.

With several advanced controls and 6.3 megapixel imaging, the FinePix E550 should suit intermediate photographers on a tight budget.

A camera that offers quite a bit, and would have scored well, but it is let down by pictures that are absolutely horrible. The purple fringing is like nothing we have ever seen before, and makes it impossible to recommend no matter how well implemented some other features are.

An attractive package for those looking for a stylish and fairly simple compact. It can be slow at times and there are some image quality issues, but the pictures are fine for small print sizes and many will appreciate the aesthetics and futuristic menu system.

This camera caters to both amateur and more experienced photographers, but has some minor problems.

The IXUS 960 IS is a great compact camera from Canon. Consumers looking for a high-end camera to back up their SLR or to take their photography to the next level will love this unit.

This point-and-shoot camera takes high-quality photos, has a big LCD, and offers some manual controls for users who want to do more than just select scene modes.

If you can see past the cost of the unit, it offers a 10x optical zoom and adequate built-in image stabilisation capability, as well as a 9.1-megapixel sensor. All in all, a good travel camera.

Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FX36 is an impressive compact camera combining good quality 10-megapixel images with a smooth design and some great beginner modes. Unfortunately, the price tag will put it out of reach for some users.

While it does offer some nifty features, the FX07 produces noisy pictures no quite on par with other competing models.

A solid camera that has some nice features and takes reasonable quality pictures.

While image quality isn't the FX33's strong point, it still produces perfectly fine small prints, and thus its novice-friendly feature set and speedy operation makes it a good choice for those after a happy snap camera.