A great advanced camera that offers almost all the features you'd expect in a sturdy and stylish case.

A brilliant camera for advanced photographers, but new users should look elsewhere.

If you don't need to swap lenses, precisely focus manually or shoot more than three frames at a time, the DSCR1 is a better bet than a budget digital SLR.

While its pictures are a little softer than those produced by some competing models, there is no denying the A200 is a great overall camera, with particular appeal to novice users who may be afraid to take the next step.

If you regularly shoot in JPEG then Pentax's K10D may not be the best choice for you, but those who prefer to use RAW will find it to be a powerful, versatile and sturdy camera that comes at a bargain price.

Nikon's D60 is a fantastic entry-level SLR that takes brilliant pictures and offers a robust feature set. It is ideal for users looking to take the plunge into more creative photography.

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.

The D80 is one of the best cameras on the market, offering exceptional image quality and a bevy of features. The default lens has some chromatic aberration issues, but aside from that, we have no issue recommending it.

An exceptional camera with a long list of excellent features and impressive image quality.

The best entry level SLR we've used, the D40x narrowly edges out offerings by Canon and Sony. It combines extremely speedy operation, great quality images and an excellent design to make a wonderful, all purpose camera.

Samsung's L201 is fairly solid overall but is let down by its horribly over-sharpened pictures. For small prints it's fine, but at larger magnifications this really becomes an issue.

With its sleek design and interesting control scheme, as well as a few nifty features, the Samsung NV24HD is a fairly solid compact camera.