HITACHI DZ-MV208E

This camera is so small you can put it in your pocket just like a mobile phone, yet it packs quite a punch. Compared with earlier cameras, the DCR-IP7 has been improved and added to, and is no longer just a video camera for home movies and still shots.

The digital still camera is a treat to use.

Digital photography has made enormous strides in recent years, and as a result, the technology is being incorporated into affordable consumer products.

Olympus first introduced SLR (single lens reflex) to digital cameras in early 1998 in the form of the Camedia C-1400L.

Hitachi DZ-MV100E

Ever since the dawn of the digital camera age Olympus has graced the market with a series of excellent products. Its C-800L may have had a lukewarm reception, but the C-820L soon rectified that.

Hitachi DZ-MV100A

If there was an award for functionality in this comparison, Sony's CyberShot DSC-F505 would win it hands down, not least contributed by its use of the new Sony Memory Stick technology.

At just on $4,400, the 500A cannot really be considered a consumer DV camera, however, it is no doubt a camera a lot of consumers would like to own. However, the price and some annoying little problems stopped this camera from being the Labs Winner this month.

There is barely an area of consumer electronics that Sony does not have a hand in, and its contributions are seldom substandard in quality.

High performance with a matching price tag.

This Panny 'corder can shoot stills at a resolution of 4-megapixels, which makes it a match for a still camera

One beautiful camera, with one awful flaw.

This is a top of the range DV camera that packs a ton of features into a camera half the size of many of its competitors without compromising on quality at all.

There is nothing new about digital video cameras being able to take still photos, or digital still cameras being able to take video clips. However, in the past the results have been very ordinary - stills taken on a video camera were usually 640 x 480 snaps suitable for the Web, and little else.

DVD is said to be to movies what CD was to music. Well-filmed DVD movies are better in all respects than those recorded on VHS, so the idea of a digital video camera recording direct to DVD disc would appear sound.

Panasonic claims this to be the world's smallest palm-type DV camera, and who am I to argue?

We have seen digital camera technology mature in the past few years to produce good quality photos with a range of features to satisfy all levels of photography.

The iDshot from Sanyo is the latest digital still-cum-digital video camera in a package that can capture still images between 640 x 480 and 1,360 x 1,024 pixels.