Most photographers know that a digital SLR offers the best possible image quality, but most are heavy and can draw unwanted attention when you're shooting candid street shots or if you're in a place where photography isn't really appreciated

Handbag and party cameras are a dime a dozen these days. They come in all manner of fashionable colours and they're designed to produce vibrant snaps that you can post on Facebook even if your hands are shaking from one Bacardi Breezer too many

Nikon's S51c is a new super-slim digital compact that takes good shots in bright and medium-lit situations, and tucks away to take up next to no space. Its sister is the S51, which is the same camera but without wireless ability.

This camera caught our eye in among Canon's annual end-of-year product deluge. It's the latest PowerShot and includes the same DIGIC III processor as Canon's IXUS and DSLR models.

The Sony 11-18mm is designed for APS-C-sized sensors rather than for full-frame use. As such, the lens is compact but still feels sturdy, and is finished to Sony's usual high standards. Generously proportioned zoom and focus rings mean easy operation

Here's an interesting fact to mull over. The Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III will sell for £6,000, body only. For that, you can get a D3 body, one of the brand-new Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 N-series lenses and Nikon's fabulous 14-24mm N-series wide-angle zoom.

Sony is serious about its SLRs. The A100 was a fair effort, with a resemblance to the Dynax 5D Sony inherited from its takeover of Konica Minolta, but the A700 is a whole new camera

One of Fujifilm's main aims for the F50fd was to build on the low-light performance for which its predecessors were renowned, while offering higher-res images. This tricky task has been successfully accomplished

Breaking into the fiercely competitive SLR market takes nerves of steel and deep pockets. It's something both Sony and Panasonic are attempting to do, but to improve their odds, each has drawn on the experience of an existing player

When someone tells a reviewer that a camera is drop, shock and water-resistant, what do they seriously expect to happen? Quite... the claim's going to be tested. What red-blooded reviewer is going to take some camera maker's word for it?

The G9 is a development of the 10-megapixel PowerShot G7. The G9 might look very similar from the outside but it incorporates a series of improvements, which should greatly increase its appeal

This is not the time to be shy about your achievements - if you're any good at anything, make a noise about it. Take the Ricoh Caplio R7, a fine looking and well-built little camera that announces itself with possibly the loudest start-up noise of any compact.

The EOS 40D replaces the 30D, which itself replaced Canon's mid-range 20D model. These were all pitched above the basic entry-level 300D/350D/400D series, with metal build, faster continuous shooting and more advanced controls

Canon's decision to upgrade its popular 30D SLR for serious amateurs was no great surprise. The 30D was an outstanding camera, but in some ways an infuriating one, and the new 40D irons out most of the wrinkles while adding some great new features

This is one of those 'everything but the kitchen sink' cameras, featuring a wide-angle 3x optical zoom lens, rugged waterproof body and Bluetooth or Wi-Fi image transfer.

We were rather scathing in our write up of the K100D Super's predecessor, the plain old K100D. Our grumpiness was largely because the design hadn't changed much since the days of the *ist D - if anything this incarnation is larger, yet at the same time less fussy - and, with a six megapixel resolution it felt overpriced at £600 when you could buy a 10MP DSLR for a similar outlay.

This camera sounds a good buy, considering it sells for just over £200. A respectable, relatively low-noise 7.1 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom and a sturdy, brushed steel case, waterproof to 10m, generous 2.5in LCD and so on.

Panasonic churns out compact cameras like sausages from a sausage factory. At the end of this string of products (14 so far this year) comes the FX55, which comes with a very creditable 8MP sensor, a 28mm wide-angle lens, face-detection technology and a 3-inch LCD spread all over the back.

If you buy a Sony W200, allow yourself an hour to read the manual. We didn't bother and a short time after taking it out for a spin we were furiously pressing all of the many buttons to try to delete an image. Why hasn't Sony included that familiar bin icon next to a button to make life easier?Next we tried to change the ISO and again it's not obvious.

A camera that has dinky little dials and buttons is all very well for James Bond, but what about the rest of us who have stubby chipolata-sized digits? Well, the Pentax Optio T30 offers a solution in the form of a touchscreen that actually works rather well

The standout feature of this basic point-and-shoot digital camera is the touchscreen display, which transforms the way you take and edit pictures. So what's so great about touchscreen? Mainly the way it gets rid of all those fiddly buttons

Canon's recently announced EOS 40D SLR, the upgrade of its popular EOS 30D for keen amateurs, was one of the worst kept secrets in the camera industry. Despite that, there's still plenty of reason to get excited about the new model

Digital SLRs may be making all the headlines but rumours of the death of the compact camera have been greatly exaggerated. Panasonic's latest super-zoom revitalises the category with a mighty 18x optical zoom

Sanyo made a literal and metaphorical 'splash' with its Xacti VPC-CA6, which it claimed could resist threatening torrents of water, coffee, saliva etc. Emboldened by this stand against the elements, the company has now taken on the very might of the ocean

Digital camera manufacturers have yet to produce a must-have alternative to an SLR for pros. Compact cameras tend to be almost entirely focused on consumers, emphasising gimmicks and ease of use rather than manual controls and ultimate image quality