The 6Mp Acer CE-6430 looks a bit of a bargain at just £110, with some other 6Mp compact cameras like the impressive Fujifilm F30 costing more than twice the price.

Genuine innovation in cameras is rare, and tends to be confined to companies that have decades of research, optics and imaging expertise. Hats off to Samsung then, who has developed a Smart Touch interface that's as useful as it is original.

With the market increasingly saturated with me-too camera models, manufacturers are branching out in more exotic directions. One area that possibly hasn't had enough interest is the adventure camera market.

Have you ever looked at a photo of yourself and wondered who the fatold person staring back at you was? If that sounds familiar then the Slimming mode included in HP's latest compact may appeal.

Fujifilm is betting that its latest compact camera offers us more forour money than just another giant increase in megapixels. The FujifilmFinePix F30 takes the baton from last year's highly rated F11 model

To some, Panasonic's first-ever D-SLR might appear as though it's been cobbled together from the entrails of an Olympus E-330... but it would be wrong to draw such a conclusion.

Like last year's H1, Sony's second generation bridge camera has a touch of the Flash Gordon about it. There's something about its eyepiece, lens barrel and silver plasticky body that recalls the helmets and spaceships of a 950s TV show

So, what would the perfect digital SLR give us? How about a substantial jump from the 6-megapixel resolution standard for low-cost SLRs, right up to 10 million pixels? Now, what about an anti-shake system built into the camera body?

The innards and guts of the Lumix DMC-L1 may have been transplanted directly from an Olympus E-330, but the heart and soul of this brand-new, 4/3 digital SLR is definitely pure Panasonic

In the cut-throat world of digital photography, there's no doubt thatequipping a camera with a feature that no other manufacturer hasthought of gives you an advantage

The Mju 700 offers a 7Mp CCD - that's a lot of pixels for a compact camera, and means your images can be blown up some 15-20% larger than 6Mp or 5Mp cameras. Unfortunately, it creates files the size of the Isle of Wight

With the digital compact market as saturated as it is, it can be tempting to dismiss whole ranges (and occasionally even entire brands) as too cheap or under-specified to be worth considering. Sony's T-series cameras have always been slick and stylish...

These days it's a common trend amongst manufacturers to release new cameras with fewer and fewer differences from the preceeding model. Canon typified this when they released the successor to the EOS 20D

Forget the maxim that 'less is more', Panasonic is going all out for'more is less'. The 'more' in this particular case is a 10x Leica zoom, optical image stabiliser and ISO 1600.

There are many attractive credit card-sized compacts jostling for market share, so what makes the DMC-FX01 special? Easy: the inclusion of 28mm wide-angle Leica optics makes it useful for group photos...

The 6MP FZ7 is a refresh of previous success in the series with an unchanged core surrounded by more technology to improve image quality and extend the feature set.

By dividing a 10x zoom in two and squeezing it into a compact casing not much larger than a mobile phone, Kodak's V610 looks set to divide critics as much as the equally wacky and inspired V570

The digital camera market can be a confusing place. You can now buy a compact, prosumer or DSLR camera for around the same price. HP has stayed clear of the DSLR market and instead has concentrated on its range of seven compacts

If ever there was a camera designed to kill off the idea that megapixels are all you need in a compact snapper this is it. In fact, Fujifilm is generally 'anti' the massive megapixel concept...

Canon's Digital IXUS range of cameras has virtually become a byword forcombining style with performance. But with the new IXUS 65, Canon has a fight on its hands.

The Ixus is a well-made and likeable snapper, let down only by a lack of proper anti-shake technology

Nikon's new pocket cameras, the Coolpix P4 and P3, a similarly specified version with WiFi capability, boast Nikon's excellent Vibration Reduction (Nikon-speak for image stabilisation), as well as along list of other desirable features

While many compact cameras seem content to deliver 5Mp, the new Sony DSC-N1 opts for an 8.1Mp sensor, which is enough to put some D-SLRs in the shade. Indeed, it can churn out images with a whopping 3,264 x 2,448 pixels.

Digital cameras have a well-earned reputation as some of the most fragile gadgets you can buy. Screens crack, buttons fall off, lenses grind to a halt and just a few drops of water can kill one deader than disco.