Kodak DC20

The DC20 has the distinction of being both the cheapest and the most basic featured camera on test. At less than £120 on the street, it sets a new price point for entry-level digital cameras. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for, as it produced some of the worst quality images as well.

This is a tiny camera; it would fit in your shirt pocket with room for a packet of Rolos. Controls are minimal, with just three buttons on the top and three LEDs on the back. The buttons switch the camera on, operate the shutter and erase the last picture taken. The three LEDs tell you that the camera's on, when it's busy transferring a picture to memory and when the memory's full. The memory-full light starts to flash when you have fewer than three pictures left. And that's it. If you want to set the resolution from high to low you'll need to plug the camera into your PC and use the software. This is also the only way to set the ten-second self-timer.

Memory is sparse on the Kodak. There's enough for eight pictures at the high resolution of 493 x 373 and 16 at 320 x 240. This isn't really enough for any serious applications, and there's no provision for removable media of any kind. The battery is a CR123A lithium, which you'll only be able to buy in a photographic or electronics shop, but with no flash or LCD to eat power it lasts for a very long time.

The DC20 connects to your PC with the usual serial link. You get a basic retouching package called PhotoEnhancer Fun Edition, the usual TWAIN driver and Kai's Power Goo, which allows you to do curious things to your images such as morphing.

Since it has the lowest resolution on test, it's not at all surprising that the Kodak doesn't win any prizes for image quality. Without a flash, we found colour fidelity was extremely poor under artificial lighting. In high-quality mode though, the image detail wasn't as bad as other cameras on test. In daylight, colour fidelity was much better, but there's no way around the small recorded size of the images, even in the high-quality mode.

The best thing about the DC20 is its low price. Street prices may even be less than £100. At that level you could almost buy it for fun. You wouldn't want to use it for much more, although the external shots are good enough for the Web.