A big improvement on the S55, the S5z has exceptional image quality, a slim design and a reasonable price tag.

While it does have a few things going for it, including a big zoom and comfortable design, the soft edges and colour reproduction issues mean the FZ8 isn't as impressive as it could have been.

While the form factor of the IXUS i7 is quite appealing, the image noise has a severe impact on the picture quality.

The IXUS 850 IS is a very speedy camera that sports a stylish design and offers good colour representation. Image quality problems including chromatic aberation and noise at higher ISO levels do however impact on it's performance.

While the FZ50 is a reasonably strong advanced camera, a combination of its size, price tag and issues at high sensitivities mean it is only suited to certain buyers.

While it has a comfortable, solid design and performed quite well in most of our imaging tests, the default lens is a big let down.

A competent model, the T30 offers reasonable image quality but suffers because of some noise issues.

While the FX50 did exhibit a lot of noise, it was extremely small and it performed well in all our other tests, so unless you're magnifying your shots to a great degree it may be a contender.

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

A competant but not oustanding budget offer, the Coolpix L4 will more than suffice for occasional snapshots.

A low end six megalpixel camera, the F470 is a decent but not outstanding model that fails to differentiate itself from the myriad of compacts on the market.

As a budget compact camera, the FinePix A500 is a fairly competant model. It doesn't offer the best image quality in the world, and has some noise issues, but for this price tag it is hard to complain.