Canon shows off its highly anticipated 450D DSLR and Ixus 970 compact in Bris-Vegas.

The A700 has excellent image quality, but is let down by design quirks and the high price.

Along with the Sony Cyber-shot P-93, the Canon Powershot A95 is the big lad of this roundup with a pretty decent 5-megapixel CCD. The rest vary from 3-4-megapixel. While this does give the Canon a bit of an edge over the competition in terms of resolution and functionality, it's the camera's other attributes that cemented this unit in the top three.

Canon typically puts out a good digital video camera and for a while had the market fairly well sown up. However, there is now plenty of competition and Canon can no longer just rely on its reputation to keep it at the top. The MVX250i is a mid range camera designed for average users who want something more than the bare basics. Its 860,000 pixel (effective) CCD provides a good quality picture in most cases, including in night mode. However, it can be slow to find a good colour balance.

Well-equipped and quite quick, but the quality is patchy

A beautiful example of high technology, but we have reservations about the ultimate quality of images.

An ideal first DSLR thanks to onscreen help. It takes great shots and the battery lasts for ages.

A high end DVD-based camcorder for quick and clean shooting.

High-performance digital cameras are appearing thick and fast at the moment. Take the innocent-looking Fuji MX-2700 (reviewed issue 21) and the Sony CyberShot DSC-55E (reviewed issue 22, p95): both are slim and sexy, yet boast resolutions of over two megapixel and features by the truckload.

Having set itself as a stalwart in slimline, ultra-cheap flatbed scanners, Canon is moving into the world of scanners for the serious photographer.

Lacking a few features but for simplicity and decent quality, this has to be one of the best value camcorders around

A very slim digital compact that’s capable of taking superb pictures. It only just misses out on a Recommended award.

The LBP-2410’s real strength clearly lay in its speed, as opposed to its print quality. It was the third fastest printer overall, but fell in the shadow of the Labs Winner OKI C5100 for printing times and TCO over both low and high monthly duty cycles.

An impressive little printer, its incredibly light and portable design makes the LBP-1120 perfect for the space-conscious small business home business operator with limited work area.

The first thing we noticed about this printer was its strange physical resemblance to the Labs Winner, and significantly more expensive, HP LaserJet 1300. There are plenty of technical specs to differentiate the two, including RAM, print resolution and OS support, all swinging in HP’s favour though.

If you can afford one and can find one, don’t think twice about it. If not, rent one from a specialist outlet for phenomenal results

One of the largest form factor printers in our roundup, HP’s Colour LaserJet 1500L has a giant footprint. Although not unattractive, with a purple ramp-like front cover, be prepared to sacrifice a reasonably sized piece of office real estate for this printer.

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

We’ve had a sneak peak at the big camera expo in Brisbane this week to see what’s in store for photographers this year.