Another fantastic compact from Canon, the IXUS 980 IS takes everything that was great about past units and adds manual shooting modes, a very smooth design and a higher resolution sensor, making this one of the best high-end compacts on the market.

Sony's Cyber-shot DSCW1 has most of what you could wish for in a compact, easy-to-use point-and-shoot.

A highly recommended purchase. Although the image quality was not quite up to what we were expecting from an 8 megapixel sensor, for the price it still blew the competition away.

This is a great 5 megapixel camera, highly recommended unless you want a lighter model that sits comfortably in your pocket. Its image quality problems can be overcome with a little tweaking.

If you want a carry-around camera capable of handling a wide range of tasks, including good-quality video, the S2IS is well worth a look.

A wonderful camera that looks good, feels good and takes great shots. Highly recommended.

This very nice camera package would set you back a fair bit of money, but would be worth it for many people.

If you're on a budget you'll be hard pressed to find a better camera for your dollar. It doesn't take the best pictures on earth and it leaves a little to be desired in terms of style, but the Canon PowerShot A470 certainly is good value for money.

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.

Another brilliant IXUS unit, the Canon IXUS 80 IS packs image stabilisation and good image quality into a compact and sexy body. A great package for users looking for a new point and shoot.

The Canon Digital IXUS 85 doesn't do anything revolutionary, but it follows the trend of its predecessors by offering a combination of stylish design, great image quality and some nifty features in a petite design, making it a compelling purchase for anyone looking for a compact camera.

With few flaws a lot to like, the IXUS 970IS is another great compact camera from Canon. Its most noteworthy feature is the stabilised 5x optical zoom, but there should be something for most users in this package.