Canon S70
Refined, portable powercam that's sturdy and has a wide vision

Fast and solid, while still small and versatile, the S70 captures smooth 7 megapixel images with a wide angle view unique among digicams of this size. The PowerShot S70 is very much a "G6 in sheep's clothing," incorporating as it does most of the advanced features of the Powershot G6 in a more compact, stylish case. The combination of portability and a 28-100mm wide angle zoom lens make it ideal for realtors, travelers, and anyone who needs true wide angle capability in a compact package. The S70's 7-megapixel sensor provides enough resolution for sharp 11x14 inch prints, even with a fair bit of cropping. Its "clamshell" case design provides built-in protection for the retracting lens, and the slim, elongated body fits easily into larger shirt or average coat pockets. Color and tone are excellent as well, and the flexible exposure system is up to just about any challenge you care to throw at it. The S70 is an excellent all-around, compact, stylish digicam.

Nikon CoolPix 7900
Handsome pocketable option with a steady gaze for movies

Not only is it great looking and easy to take along, the Nikon Coolpix 7900 upgrades a popular line with a 7.1-megapixel CCD and a new vibration reduction mode for capturing less-shaky handheld movies. It's a good choice for anyone who wants an easy to use camera that delivers good-looking pictures with pleasing color and plenty of resolution. For those willing to delve slightly deeper than "just pushing the button," its extensive scene modes and unique framing-assist options greatly extend the camera's capabilities, making it easy to bring back good-looking shots of what might otherwise be difficult subjects. Other unique Nikon-only features like the Best Shot Selector mode and "D-Lighting" make for noticeably better pictures than you'd likely get with another camera. Great for novices, it's also an appealing option for the more advanced shooter looking for a "pocket" camera.

Olympus C7000
High res, tight build, and excellent images, truly a refined executive accessory

The Olympus C-7000 is just a pleasure to use: It feels great in the hand, and takes great photos. When it comes to features, the C-7000 offers all that most enthusiasts crave in a pocket camera. It's small, with tight controls and a nice heft. It has manual controls, but also easily accommodates less photo-savvy users with a range of preset scene modes, auto exposure options, and a Redeye Fix option for eliminating redeye in portraits. An excellent value for the enthusiast on a budget, this would also be an ideal camera for consumers wanting to gradually learn more about digital photography with a camera that has room to grow into. Easily one of the best digital camears Olympus has made yet. Highly recommended.

Panasonic Lumix FZ5
Long zoom in a small package has a large LCD optical image stabilization built in

Panasonic has carved out a niche for itself in the long-zoom market, offering very capable long-zoom cameras with excellent lenses, rich feature sets, and Panasonic's own optical image stabilization technology. The Panasonic FZ5 is all that in a small package. Its 5 megapixels, sharp 12x lens, and improved autofocus speed makes it great for amateur sports shooting, wildlife photography, or any other situation where you need a quick shutter release and stable long-zoom shooting platform. About all it lacks is a connection for an external flash unit (for that Panasonic offers the FZ20, a really excellent camera on its own merits). The FZ5 is a digital camera that does just about everything right, and at a relatively affordable price.

Nikon D70
Nikon quality comes to the digital SLR in a camera that feels as good as the pictures it takes.

Nikon's D70 d-SLR is a technological tour de force, in a compact, lightweight, and affordable package. It costs a hundred dollars more than its closest competition, but is so loaded with features that it's well worth the price difference. In my testing, the D70 excelled in just about every parameter, delivering excellent color and tone, low image noise and great resolution. The 18-70mm lens bundled with the kit versions of the camera is sharp from corner to corner at a wide range of apertures, is reasonably fast, with a maximum aperture ranging from f/3.5-4.5, has very little chromatic aberration, and is fast-focusing to boot, using Nikon's AF-S "silent wave" focus motor. The D70 is also very fast, able to shoot continuously in large/normal quality mode without filling its memory buffer. For flash photography, the D70 supports Nikon's Advanced Wireless Lighting System, able to control remote flash units. The Nikon D70 is a real winner, an amazing package at a great price.

Canon SD500
Great image quality and unusual responsiveness in a tiny package

While it's not actually that much smaller than the previous CompactFlash-based S500 model, the Canon PowerShot SD500 feels a lot smaller, thanks to its sleekly sculpted body design. Exposure control is automatic, but ISO, White Balance, and longer shutter times significantly increase the camera's abilities. Thanks to its high-speed DIGIC-II processing chip, it's also very responsive, making it a good choice for sports and other action shooting, and its movie capability goes far beyond other subcompact digicam models. The Canon SD500 avoids the softness in the corners suffered by the SD200 and SD300 models, and its 7-megapixel CCD keeps noise levels under control, even at ISO 400. The Canon SD500 is a great choice for an all-around digital camera that just happens to come packed into an unusually small case.

Sony Cybershot P200
Sony's latest 7-megapixel compact model packs even more features, into a smaller package.

The Sony DSC-P200 packs a 7.2-megapixel CCD, a sharp, high-quality 3x optical zoom lens, nine preset Scene modes and a host of other creative options in to a very small, well-built package. The P200 offers a few new features, including a larger 2.0-inch LCD monitor and options for Center-Weighted metering, manual white balance, and spot autofocus. It's a very responsive camera, with excellent shutter lag and shot to shot cycle times, amazing battery life, and surprisingly good low-light capability. Its color is also bright and vibrant, but natural-looking. On the downside, it does trade away a bit more subtle subject detail than did the P150 to achieve its low noise levels. Taken as a whole, though, the Sony DSC-P200 is clearly one of the better subcompact digital cameras on the market.

Olympus Stylus Verve
Sleek and stylish, the 4-megapixel Verve makes quality pictures easy.

Olympus kicked the whole Stylus product line up another notch with the Stylus Verve. In just about every respect--features, image quality, build quality, and style--the Olympus Verve is the best digital Stylus model yet, and a great little camera by any measure. Thanks to its water-resistant and rugged metal-jacketed case, the Stylus Verve just begs to be taken along. It's image quality won't disappoint either. This is a really fine little camera that's just the ticket for style-conscious novice users, or for anyone looking for a compact, rugged, easy-to-use little camera to pack along most anywhere.

Epson L-500V
Trim, pocket-sized camera with a screen that stuns.

The 5-megapixel, 3x zoom Epson L-500V has a large 2.5-inch LCD monitor that is easily the highest-resolution, sharpest-looking LCD I've ever seen on a digital camera. Image quality is excellent, with bright yet accurate color, good resolution, and relatively little lens distortion. It's tight, all-metal case and retracting lens with built-in lens cover make for a pocket-friendly design, an excellent option for users on the go. With four preset scene modes, a limited number of exposure options, and a full Auto exposure mode, the L-500V is a great match for novices or even intermediate photographers who just need a second, take-anywhere digital camera.

Canon Digital Rebel
Flagship consumer SLR that broke price/performance records, now available for even less.

Canon has made a habit of shocking their competitors and delighting consumers with ever-lower prices on digital SLRs, and now the price of the original Digital Rebel has just dropped again. With most of the functionality of the company's higher-end SLRs, the Digital Rebel sells for under $800, including a very nice 18-55mm zoom lens. With image quality that honestly can't be beat for the price, the Digital Rebel is now a true bargain, and a perfect camera for anyone wanting to learn more about photography. It will accept Canon's entire line of over 50 lenses and a wide array of fine accessories, and will deliver great images shot after shot.

Kodak Z740 with Printer Dock
A long zoom that delivers sharp images, and a "at-home print lab" to boot.

The Kodak Z740's fully automatic exposure controls perform surprisingly well in a wide variety of conditions, and the range of manual exposure controls extend the camera's capabilities nicely for more advanced users. The 5.0-megapixel CCD captures high resolution images, with plenty of detail to make sharp 11x14 inch prints, and the 10x optical zoom comes in very handy for capturing distant subjects. The Z740 is a great choice for novices who want to learn a little as they go, while more experienced users will appreciate the more advanced features it has to offer. Kodak's EasyShare Printer Dock Series 3 is included, making the Z740 bundle a complete photography solution. The prints are just what you'd expect from Kodak: excellent color, sharp detail, and quality you'll be proud to share. About its only downside is that the camera is a little slow from shot to shot, and slows dramatically after the second shot of a rapid-fire series. Overall though, the Kodak EasyShare Z740/Printer Dock package is a fine combination, delivering photos that will be sure to please.