Another fantastic compact from Canon, the IXUS 980 IS takes everything that was great about past units and adds manual shooting modes, a very smooth design and a higher resolution sensor, making this one of the best high-end compacts on the market.

The Canon PowerShot E1 is an impressive entry-level compact camera aimed primarily at kids and skint teens. It offers a nice array of features for the asking price and takes adequate photos to boot. All in all, a solid offering.

The Canon PowerShot A2000 departs a bit from some of its predecessors in terms of features and design. It is nonetheless an attractive option for entry-level users looking for a no-fuss unit that takes high quality snaps and has a larger than normal zoom.

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.

Unfortunately the Tough 1050SW is a bit of a step backwards in the otherwise excellent tough series. Its extreme levels of haloing are problematic and the overall performance is downright slow. The tap control system is pretty innovative, however, and the pictures are good aside from the chromatic aberration.

The DSC-T700 is a well-rounded compact camera that can also moonlight as a digital photo album. It might be a little pricey for a 10.1-megapixel camera, but its excellent playback functionality is arguably worth the extra dosh.

The Mju 1040 is an impressive compact camera characterised by style, portability and lightning-fast results. Aside from a few minor performance issues, it ticks nearly every box on a casual photographer's wish list.

The Ricoh R50 is an average compact camera that provides a fair-to-middling performance across the board. While image quality could be better, it offers an assortment of useful modes and features to make the beginner's life easier.

While the Ricoh R8 offers a few excellent features such as the 28-200mm lens and the brilliant LCD screen, its images have a few issues that mean it may not be right for everyone.

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.

The DSC-W110 is simple to use and perfect to take to parties, but it's a very automatic camera and its pictures tend to look soft.

A decent but not noteworthy compact camera, the Nikon CoolPix S550 sports a 5x optical zoom with image stabilisation but it is let down a little in the image quality and speed departments.