While the E330 is a fairy good camera in its own right you are essentially paying $500 for live review, which isn't all that great, and lower image quality.

Whilst this camera's pictures could be better, it's superior design and rugged features are a huge boon, and for many people will make this the ideal camera.

A solid, but not exceptional, advanced ultra-zoom camera, Kodak's Z712 IS offers a big zoom backed up by optical image stabilisation. However, its pictures aren't quite as good as some of the competing models on the market.

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.

The DSCV3's main selling points are its quick shutter and its comparatively simple menu system, but some competing cameras take better shots.

A solid advanced ultra-zoom from Sony that takes high quality pictures and offers a variety of advanced functions that should please.

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 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.

This point-and-shoot camera takes high-quality photos, has a big LCD, and offers some manual controls for users who want to do more than just select scene modes.

An uninspiring compact camera, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-S650 has numerous issues with regards to image quality and general operation that mean there are better purchases elsewhere.