What does £100 buy these days? Three budget flights to an obscure Baltic state, a couple of rounds at a fancy London bar, or this brand new three megapixel camera from Canon. Well, 'brand new' is pushing it. Three megapixels may be cutting edge in camera phones, but in the world of digital cameras it's now on the skinny side of acceptable.

In fact, the whole camera feels a little like a step back in time. When three megapixel technology can be squeezed into a mobile phone, does a camera really need to be 4cm deep and weigh nearly 200g? The textured detailing on the front of the champagne plastic case is attractive, though, and the round body is comfortable to hold.

Start-up time is average (about two seconds), although you may initially be confused at the lack of an obvious zoom control. Fear not, the up/down keys of the menu pad work the rather noisy and slow 3.2x lens. At least the optics seem up to date, with a fast five-point autofocus system, infinity setting and confident macro modes that can focus as close as 1.5cm.

Form and function

Framing is courtesy of a cramped-but-sharp 1.5-inch screen with 120,000 pixels. Refresh rate isn't bad but avoid dimly lit rooms as subjects swiftly fade to black. Luckily, the A410's retro design extends to a quaint optical viewfinder. It's painfully tiny, has no diopter adjustment and is more distorted than a New Labour press release, but at least you'll be able to frame night-time shots.

Camera controls are well laid-out beneath your right thumb, from an easily-bumped mode dial on top, down through display and menu controls to the Func/Set button. Standard shooting mode doesn't give much flexibility, so switch into Manual for the A410's few creative features.

These include exposure compensation, ISO, white balance and colour tweak settings, plus a few fun extras. We liked the customisable self timer: you choose the delay and how many shots the camera fires - great for a quick succession of portraits. We're not so keen on the flap that spills the batteries on the floor each time you swap an SD card, though.