Lab

Digital cameras

Photography isn't everyone's greatest passion. For most people, it's just a means to an end and a way to immortalise important moments, people and places. Most people don't want creative controls and a huge lens; they want a camera that works quickly and easily, takes great pictures on automatic settings, is small enough to slip into a pocket and is affordable enough to be carried around without having to worry about losing or damaging it.

If you're about to set off on your summer holiday, don't take pot luck in the duty-free shop. We've gathered 12 cameras with street prices between £100 and £180 including VAT and found that image quality, performance, features and design often bear little relation to price. We'll tell you which to avoid, and which are so good they redefine what to expect from a budget digital camera.

Choosing a... Budget Digital Camera

Even if you're watching your pennies, there's no need to settle for a sub-standard camera. Most budget products usually require you to make some kind of compromise, but in the past couple of months we've seen the starting price for a good digital camera fall to well below £150 including VAT. In this guide, we'll explain what to look out for when buying so you can make sure that you'll be getting the most for your money.

LIGHT FANTASTIC

Image quality is top of most people's priorities, but it's also the hardest thing to ascertain when browsing in a shop or on a website. A high pixel count doesn't necessarily give sharper pictures and even sample photos on company websites can be misleading.

All the cameras in this test are capable of superb image quality if there's plenty of natural light available and a reasonably undemanding subject to capture. However, image quality varies widely in trickier circumstances. Weak, artificial light sources, high-contrast scenes, complex detail and extreme close-ups make life more difficult for the camera, and some cope far better than others.

Manual controls can often improve the quality of the pictures that you take, but in most cases you will want a camera that can take pictures quickly and accurately without you having to fiddle with settings. Accordingly, in this test we've paid close attention to the quality of images taken using each camera's automatic settings.

BUTTON IT

When you do need to adjust settings, they should be easy to find, with the most useful controls within easy reach. Few budget cameras offer extensive manual control, but there should be enough options to take a decent picture in any environment.

Exposure compensation and white balance controls allow the brightness and colour tone to be adjusted and these essential features are available in all the cameras here. All but one - Nikon's Coolpix L2 - also include an ISO control. This adjusts the camera's sensitivity to light, with higher settings allowing for faster shutter speeds, often useful in low light. The less welcome side effect of high ISO settings is increased image noise, a speckled graininess caused by the random errors in each pixel being amplified.

Some of the cameras on test here also include light metering and auto-focus options, so you can specify whether the focus and brightness should be measured across the whole frame, just the centre, or some other part of the composition.

Because many casual photographers don't have the time or inclination to master all the above controls, compact digital cameras come with scene presets that adjust settings according to a specific condition or subject. Common examples include low light, scenery, snow and sports. There are often curious presets such as pets, fireworks and food, too.

Some scene presets venture into more creative territory, giving pictures a soft focus or a retro appearance, or lining up and stitching together multiple pictures to create panoramic photographs.

SNAP TO ATTENTION

Taking a great picture often depends on being able to see an opportunity, grab your camera and take a photo as quickly as possible. Some of the cameras in this group can take a photo almost every second, while others take up to four seconds between shots. This wait can be longer if the flash is enabled or long exposure times are necessary.

Compactness and robustness also play important roles, allowing you to carry the camera in your pocket rather than buried in a bag. Battery life is also critical; a fantastic camera is of no use at all if it runs out of power halfway through the day.

You'll also need enough memory to keep you snapping between visits to your PC. None of the cameras has anywhere near enough, but 512MB cards now cost between £10 and £20. Don't forget to include this in your budget.

The most important consideration is value. Can a camera with all these attributes really be cheap to buy? Turn the page, and you'll see the answer is a resounding yes.