It's a dismal time to be a compact camera maker without a foothold in the lucrative SLR market; slumping sales, combined with competition from camera phones, are slashing formerly fat margins.

Casio's original design brief for its Exilim 'card' range was that they should be pretty much the same height and width as a credit card. The new EX-S10 follows these principles while, more remarkably, slimming down the overall package to just 15mm in depth, making it the world's smallest 10MP digital camera.

Apart from a still modest and pocket-friendly depth of 23mm, Casio's newest camera maintains the Exilim tradition of being roughly the same size as a credit card. Shoehorned into these modest dimensions is a mighty 12.1MP sensor

The rise of the camera phone has made shooting from the hip, over yourmate's shoulder, or in the back of the cab on the way home from the pub, as easy as sliding open the lens cover

Good things can sneak up on you when you're not looking. Take the CasioZ 750, for example. It looks like any other pocket-size snapper but its release wasn't announced with dancing girls or Champagne fountains...

The EX-P505 leaves the starting blocks with an unfortunate handicap -its price tag. With a web price of around £320, it's locking horns with 7-megapixel models such as the Canon Digital Ixus 700, Pentax Optio750Z and Nikon Coolpix 7900

Casio's Exilim range boasts some rather nice superslim snapshotcameras. This is the third incarnation in the 5-megapixel Z series range and has a generous 2.7-inch screen.

The QV-R61 is the new flagship of Casio's QV-R series. This is a slightly bulkier, less expensive line running alongside its Exilim models, and Casio claims improved image quality and responsiveness for the new model

Reacting against the trend for rounded contours, the Casio EXILIM PROEX-P700 presents distinctively squarish lines and chamfered edges, in agraphite grey finish.