For those after a small yet powerful camera to capture high-resolution shots, the 12 megapixel Kodak EASYSHARE Z1275 will do the trick. Its pictures aren't the best we've seen, but they should satisfy many users.

While the big zoom and advanced feature set will appeal to some users and the price certainly is low, the sluggish operation and underexposed over-sharpened pictures produced by this model may be an issue.

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.

Sony's Cyber-Shot DSC-T200 is an interesting camera. Its pictures suffer from some sharpness and chromatic aberration issues, but are still good enough for small and medium sized prints.

Another solid touch screen offering from Sony, the Cyber-Shot DSC-T70 is a slightly slimmed down version of the T200. It offers relatively good quality pictures and combines them with a touch screen interface and a slick design.

If you're interested in keeping thorough records of where you've taken photos, or of mapping out particularly interesting snaps, this device may be for you. It isn't as advanced as some other units on the market, but the simplicity may work in its favour for less experienced users.

While it isn't the best ultra zoom on the market, Kodak's EasyShare Z812IS is a good all around package combining a ton of features with solid image quality and a big zoom. The high-definition video recording in particular will appeal to some users.

Nikon's S700 isn't an incredible compact camera, but it does the job combining good pictures with a reasonable feature set, which will be fine for most consumers.

Kodak's V1253 takes great shots, is well designed and offers HD video recording; however, the speed to recover between shots can sometimes be in excess of five seconds, which really detracts from the user experience. Still if you aren't going to take lots of snaps in succession, it is an impressive offering.

A decent feature set, a nice physical design and an easy-to-use menu system are all offset by a sensor that takes relatively poor quality images. However, at well under $200, the image quality is a moot point and this camera is well worth a shot.

If you're after a point and shoot, happy snap camera, Samsung's L730 might suit you well. It does have some image quality issues but it packs in all the features you'd want as well as a pretty good video mode.

If you can live with the very slow shot-to-shot times and low resolution burst mode Olympus's MJU 1200 offers a sturdy and stylish compact, which captures good images and has a nice array of features.