The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W100 offers manual control, along with automatic, movie, and 6 scene modes. As the flagship of Sony’s W-series of point-and-shoot cameras, the W100 has 8 megapixels on its spacious 1/1.8-inch CCD. This digital camera still fits into the line, though; it keeps the traditional optical viewfinder but adds a 2.5-inch LCD screen onto a sleek body. Previous W-series cameras have been a bit chunky, but the W100 is part of Sony’s redesign. The makeover flattened its surfaces, making the 3.7 x 2.4 x 0.98-inch digital camera more portable. There is a downside to that though: the camera is more difficult to handle. Also complicating the handling are the small buttons, tight zoom switch, and lack of a finger grip.

For users who can cramp their hands around the small point-and-shoot model, there are some advantages to the W100. It has a wide ISO range of 64-1250 and a High Sensitivity scene mode that works well in dim lighting. The camera has 64 MB of internal memory, more than most compact digital cameras, and can take up to 360 shots on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery too.

Sony took some shortcuts: its LCD screen has poor resolution, and the Carl Zeiss lens only extends to 3x, which is fast becoming below average. Still, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W100 takes great pictures, which users can control manually or automatically.

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It’s very sad to see the illustrious Leica name attached to such a substandard camera, but in fairness the lens is probably the best part of it.

It is a bit slow at f2.8-f5, but produces reasonably good edge-to-edge sharpness, and manages to avoid serious barrel distortion in wide-angle shots.

Although it looks great, performs well and has the Leica name above the lens, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9 fails to deliver the expected picture quality, especially considering the cost when compared to many other 6MP ultra-compacts. A very disappointing camera from a company that can do better.

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There’s a lot to like on the Fujifilm FinePix V10. It’s a sleek and snazzy snapshooter with a huge 3-inch LCD with very good resolution that makes composing shots on the live screen and image playback a joy.

The Fujifilm V10 is also reasonably responsive, powering on quickly and moving briskly from shot to shot so you’re always ready to take pictures.

Under adequate lighting, this photo monster gobbles up images in standard mode almost as fast as in its “high-speed” Continuous mode. Images captured in outdoor daylight and well-lit indoor conditions had crisp color and sharpness. In particular, pictures I took of tuna and salmon steaks at a fish store were so life-like it made me hungry.

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The Nikon L2 suits non-technical users who want fast access to some fairly advanced functionality. It really is a camera that you can just pick up and start using immediately.

The colour photos I took at 6 megapixels came out very well, and it coped admirably with overcast conditions. The colours were sharp and the borders between different areas of the photo produced the right amount of contrast.

This camera is compact, stylish and easy to use. Beneath this camera’s sleek exterior lies a good range of features which are genuinely effective, not gimmicky. Perhaps designed with the youth market in mind, it deserves to be considered by a wider audience.

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If you’re looking for a light-weight, stylish, moderately-priced digicam that is versatile enough to handle most family events while getting you close to sports action or wildlife, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC H5 should be high on your list. You should also consider the Canon Powershot S3 IS. Both cameras carry similar specifications and are capable of delivering high-quality images.

The S3 IS advantages include better Continuous AF tracking of moving subjects, industry-leading movie mode, articulating LCD monitor, faster shutter speeds and greater continuous shooting speed and buffer depth.

On the other hand, the H5 provides greater indoor flash range and AF-assist performance, a larger LCD monitor, lower image noise at high ISO settings, ISO 1000, Smart Digital Zoom, Multi Burst mode and an extra 1-megapixel of resolution.

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