Lab

Budget digital cameras

We love cheap cameras. Admittedly, we're quite fond of expensive ones, too, but we can't imagine enjoying a swim in the ocean while constantly keeping an eye out for thieves who might be trying to steal our slim but costly ultra-zoom camera. Neither can we imagine taking a bulky digital SLR on a long walk in the countryside or a night out on the town. Today's cheap digital cameras are ideal for everyday use. They're small enough to pop into a bag or pocket, ready for any occasion, and the best models can take excellent pictures in even the toughest lighting conditions.

This month we tested 12 of the least-expensive digital cameras on the market, most of which cost less than £100. We put every one through a set of tough tests to see which take the best pictures in a variety of conditions, which are easiest to use and which will run for the longest on a single battery charge. However much you want to spend, we'll help you pick a great camera at a remarkably low price.

You might assume that it's tough to find a truly great digital camera with a budget of just £100. If you know what to look for, though, you can pick up an excellent camera and have enough money left over for a memory card, case and spare batteries. Our guide will explain what to look for, and which features you can safely ignore.

On balance

Designing a digital camera on a shoestring budget inevitably involves an element of compromise. We're willing to accept compromises in some areas, such as screen size and advanced features, for example, but other areas are much more important. Compromises in image quality, performance, build quality or ease of use can render a camera unusable and should be avoided. When you're looking for a budget camera, you must ensure that it takes reliably good pictures without keeping you waiting between shots. Our reviews tell you which manage this, and which fall short.

Picture perfect

Image quality isn't something you can assess by taking a single photo. As usual, all the cameras here managed to produce attractive photos of scenery taken on a sunny day. However, in real life only a small fraction of photos are taken in these conditions. Just as common are outdoor shots taken in gloomier weather, indoor shots with the flash, artificial light or ambient sunlight, close-ups, strong backlights and complex scenes with mixed light sources. Cameras that can take all these conditions in their stride are few and far between, but they do exist, even at this price. Our reviews explain how each camera fared in our taxing image-quality tests, and we'll also let you know exactly what kind of problems, if any, we encountered.

Speed demons

We set our standards for performance a little lower than we do for image quality. This is not because it's less important, as a camera that takes ages to switch on is just as capable of ruining a photo opportunity as one that gets colours wrong and produces blurry pictures. By today's standards, though, even a moderately fast camera is fast enough to keep up with most situations. The fastest models in this test are great for nature or sports photography where every second counts, but most people will find anything that's able to take a picture every two seconds perfectly fast enough for normal use. A few cameras here fell disappointingly short of this kind of pace, however, and we've mentioned this in our reviews.

Ease of operation is critical in a camera intended for everyday use, but none of the cameras here gave us serious cause for concern. Many have simplified controls, relying on automatic modes and scene presets rather than traditional manual controls. As such, none is likely to baffle inexperienced users. The same is true of build quality: a fragile camera is no use to anyone, but no model on test was especially delicate. Where a camera feels particularly sturdy, we've mentioned this in our reviews.

Extra, extra

As long as a camera produces good images and is reasonably fast, easy to use and sturdy, you can start to consider the little extras that add to the enjoyment of owning a camera. Compact, attractive designs, big screens and features such as an extended zoom range or optical image stabilisation can all be useful.

Every camera here is capable of recording short movie clips, but some do a far better job of capturing moving images than others. Most record short videos at a resolution of 640x480-pixels with sound, but our reviews will explain which are more limited.

Power plant

There's no point in having a camera that can take great pictures if its battery always runs out half an hour before that once-in-a-lifetime moment. The cameras here use either AA batteries or a rechargeable Li-ion cell, and both methods have advantages. A rechargeable battery will save you money and is convenient, but if it runs out half-way through the day there's no immediate way to add more power and keep snapping. On the other hand, AA batteries are easy to replace and are on sale just about anywhere, but if you take lots of pictures you could end up spending a lot of money on spares or a high-capacity rechargeable set.

Whichever type of battery a camera uses, though, there's no way of telling how well its battery will perform without actually testing it. We also put each camera through a standardised battery test. The best cameras here lasted for over 500 shots, while some failed before they managed 300.