A solid compact camera from Nikon, if you have a bit of money to spend the S600 offers a few nice features such as vibration reduction and in-camera red-eye correction on top of some fairly good 10 megapixel images.

Ricoh's Caplio GX100 is a high end camera for experienced users. While average photographers may not fully appreciate the wide angle shooting and extremely crisp shots it produces, there is no doubt it's a great camera if you can afford it.

Olympus' E-520 is a great D-SLR that is more than capable of competing with the big guns from Canon and Nikon. Its images are impressive and the feature set is robust enough to satisfy all but the most demanding photographer.

If you're after a petite SLR then the Olympus E-420 is a solid performer. It keeps pace with the competition in most areas, while maintaining dimensions that are significantly smaller.

This camera is a good choice if you want a high resolution compact camera, combining style, size and image quality into a single package.

Another solid compact camera from Canon, the IXUS 90IS packs in image stabilisation and good image quality. It is only let down by sometimes sluggish performance and some slightly annoying controls.

It’s a slim and simple camera, but Fujifilm’s Finepix Z20fd will only suit amateur users who aren’t overly concerned with image sharpness and quality.

A solid advanced ultra-zoom camera, FujiFilm's FinePix S8100fd offers an 18x zoom lens with sensor shift stabilisation and captures good but not outstanding photographs.

FujiFilm's FinePix S1000fd is a decent ultra-zoom with a small body, but its lack of image stabilisation makes the large lens much less useful and the sluggish performance will irritate many users.

Olympus's E-410 isn't the best digital SLR on the market in terms of image quality, but its combination of live view, dust reduction and a small build make it a reasonable competitor to the giants Canon and Nikon.