I've got £250 to spend on a digital camera!
Excellent! Above £200, the world of digital cameras gets much more exciting. You're now beyond bargain units which might be missing that certain something, and it's fair to demand some decent features. The big decision is whether you can stretch to £300, which really does buy you a better class of camera, or stick to the mid-range.
The other essential fact in your buying decision is that in this mid-range, there really is a huge difference between best and worst. A very good camera from a slightly less prestigious manufacturer (the Samsung L85 and the Olympus MJU800 for example) will serve you very well at around £250. Market leaders Canon and Nikon will ask for a little more money and won't skimp on extras like accessories and software. Drop below £230 and cameras like the Pentax Optio WPI or Canon's Powershot A95 are seriously outclassed by the competition.
In this price range, the cost of each technology directly influences the price. Large LCD screens and the cost of internal memory do push up the price, so you will have to go slightly upward if, for example, you want higher pixel definition. Zoom range, on the other hand, is less expensive. Fuji's FinePix F30 delivers 18x zoom (6x optical, 3x digital) at around £260. Konica Minolta's dImage Z5 (a whopping 48x=12x/4x) is also around the same price.
Top of our list was the Casio Exilim EX-Z1000, largely because of its class-topping 10.1MPX resolution; but that's at the top end of the price range too, at £300. The Z1000 offers a whopping 37 Scene modes. Either that's great news (if you like to set your camera for each particular picture) or irrelevant (if like many people you don't use them). Also built in is an anti-shake mechanism which is becoming reasonably common at this price point. One downside: given the hi-res CCD and hi-res picture sizes the 8MB internal memory won't go very far and no SD card is supplied. However, with memory prices falling every day this is only a minor inconvenience.
Samsung's L85 comes in at No. 2 and is the only top-rated camera at the low-end of the price range (£255). 8.1Megapixels is obviously healthy, but it has looks you either love or hate - the visual equivalent of a Trabant! The Samsung wins plaudits by being generous on basics (8.1MPX, 32MB built-in memory) and worrying less about the extras- scene-modes are sparse, and there are few clever bolt-ons.
Joint third place is shared by Kodak's P880 and Sony's Cybershot DSC-T30. These both satisfy in general and would be worth investigating at your camera store; the T30 would probably win through on style and brand desirability; the P880 is recommended for being as close to a pro-spec camera (manual zoom ring etc.) as it's possible to get without spending double the money.
Even at the bottom end of our list units like Olympus' Camedia 720 are still worth a look if you're on a budget: this is a camera at £215 and it's no surprise that it is out punched by a camera costing 50% more. All the lower-end cameras have small LCD screens, and we feel that a tiny screen is a gimmick, not a benefit.
Any of the top 10 or so cameras in this chart would be a buy to be proud of; and you should also remember that we've only compared some like-for-like features. If you have specific requirements or shoot in specific conditions, most of this list will be worth a look. One more piece of advice: the £250-£300 range is significant in that above it, you might want to spend a lot more and go for a serious camera capable of semi-professional use- with all the expansibility that entails. This is why at the £300 mark, manufacturers cram in as much as they can; some of it spurious and some of it genuinely useful.
Casio Exilim EX-Z1000
 | Mega-pixels: | 10.1 | ISO Range: | 50-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 3648x2736 | LCD Size: | 2.8" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £300 |
| Total Zoom: | 12x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 17.65
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Samsung Digimax L85
 | Mega-pixels: | 8 | ISO Range: | 50-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 3264x2448 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 5x | Average Price: | £255 |
| Total Zoom: | 40x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 17.00
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Olympus MJU Digital 800
 | Mega-pixels: | 8 | ISO Range: | 64-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 3264x2448 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | Yes |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £269 |
| Total Zoom: | 15x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 16.81
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Canon Powershot S3 IS
 | Mega-pixels: | 6 | ISO Range: | 80-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 2816x2112 | LCD Size: | 2" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | Yes |
| Optical Zoom: | 12x | Average Price: | £310 |
| Total Zoom: | 48x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 15.50
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Fujifilm FinePix S7000
 | Mega-pixels: | 6.3 | ISO Range: | 160-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 2848x2136 | LCD Size: | 1.8" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | Yes |
| Optical Zoom: | 6x | Average Price: | £290 |
| Total Zoom: | 19.2x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 13.81
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Kodak EasyShare P880
 | Mega-pixels: | 8 | ISO Range: | 400-600 |
| Largest Frame: | 3264x2448 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 5.8x | Average Price: | £300 |
| Total Zoom: | 11.6x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 13.64
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Sony Cyber-shot DSC T30
 | Mega-pixels: | 7.2 | ISO Range: | 80-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 3072x2304 | LCD Size: | 3" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £310 |
| Total Zoom: | 6x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 12.92
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Canon IXUS 800
 | Mega-pixels: | 6 | ISO Range: | 80-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 2816x2112 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | Yes |
| Optical Zoom: | 4x | Average Price: | £299 |
| Total Zoom: | 16x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 12.46
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Fujifilm FinePix F30
 | Mega-pixels: | 6.3 | ISO Range: | 100-3200 |
| Largest Frame: | 2848x2136 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £260 |
| Total Zoom: | 18.6x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 10.83
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Nikon Coolpix S6
 | Mega-pixels: | 6.18 | ISO Range: | 50-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 2816x2112 | LCD Size: | 3" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £291.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 12x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 10.78
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Olympus mju Digital 720SW
 | Mega-pixels: | 7.1 | ISO Range: | 64-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 3072x2304 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £247.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 15x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 10.74
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Konica Minolta Dimage Z5
 | Mega-pixels: | 5.2 | ISO Range: | 50-320 |
| Largest Frame: | 2560x1920 | LCD Size: | 2" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 12x | Average Price: | £264.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 48x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 9.43
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Kodak Easy Share V570 - Read our review!
 | Mega-pixels: | 5 | ISO Range: | 64-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 2569x1929 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 5x | Average Price: | £257.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 20x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 8.86
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1
 | Mega-pixels: | 5 | ISO Range: | 80-800 |
| Largest Frame: | 2560x1920 | LCD Size: | 2.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 10x | Average Price: | £240.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 40x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 8.28
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Pentax Opti WPi
 | Mega-pixels: | 6.4 | ISO Range: | 64-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 2816x2112 | LCD Size: | 2" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £224.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 12x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 8.00
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 - Read our review!
 | Mega-pixels: | 5.4 | ISO Range: | 80-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 2304x1728 | LCD Size: | 1.8" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 12x | Average Price: | £240.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 48x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 8.00
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Canon PowerShot A95
 | Mega-pixels: | 5 | ISO Range: | 50-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 2592x1944 | LCD Size: | 1.8" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | Yes |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x | Average Price: | £216.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 12.3x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 6.97
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Olympus Camedia 720
 | Mega-pixels: | 3 | ISO Range: | 100-400 |
| Largest Frame: | 1984x1488 | LCD Size: | 1.5" |
| Movies: | Yes | Viewfinder?: | No |
| Optical Zoom: | 8x | Average Price: | £215.00 |
| Total Zoom: | 8x |
| |
| TC Rating: | 5.00
|
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