Touchscreens are the new black in compact digital cameras. The two companies leading the charge are Sony, with the T-Series Cyber-shot, and Nikon with the Coolpix S60.

These cameras are often super-skinny, have few buttons and dials, and often have large LCD screens - great for showing off photos to friends.

It's really, really skinny
We're excited about the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77 for a couple of reasons. First, it's incredibly small. Pull this camera out of your pocket and people often marvel at how small it actually is (for the record the DSC-T77 is 15mm wide).

Second, this camera is not a toy - the 10.1Megapixel unit actually takes decent photos, and has some lowlight and macro abilities that had us genuinely surprised.

Decent photos under low lighting
We were particularly impressed by the DSC-T77's ability to take decent shots without flash, under poor lighting conditions (ordinary 60 watt household light bulbs). With our Pentax Optio S10, we're usually forced to use the camera's built-in flash for these conditions, and the harsh lighting usually means poor results.

This camera really will fit in your pants - The 15mm thick Sony Cyber-shot on the left, and the Pentax Optio S10 on the right.

Not so here. While the lowlight image quality doesn't at first glance appear up to Canon Ixus 80 IS levels, we were still able to capture decent shots without flash. (Mind you, the results we got with flash weren't as good as what we've seen with the Canon).

Macro photography
The surprises didn't end there. The DSC-T77 also has a solid ability to take close-up macro photography - as you can see in the photo below. This sort of detail is something we're used to seeing on a Canon G9, and under studio lighting.

A sample macro image taken with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77 - keep in mind, this photo was was taken without flash, under ordinary household lighting. Click to enlarge.

Menu system is easy to use
Our major worry before using the DSC-T77 was the onscreen touch interface. We've had a very brief play with Nikon's equally slick-looking Coolpix S60, and found the onscreen menus a tad laggy and awkward to navigate (we'll reserve our final verdict once we've had a chance to review the camera).

Fortunately, the DSC-T77 menus are a breeze to use. Despite the fact you're pressing "virtual" buttons, which appear and disappear where appropriate - everything is intuitive.

Sony says the DSC-T77 is its slimmest Cyber-shot with optical steadyshot. At 15mm thick, it's skinnier by a touch than the Nikon S60 (22mm), and our first impressions of the onscreen menus are that they're a touch easier to use than the S60. The Nikon S60 has a bigger screen at 3.5inches, ISO 1600 and HDMI.

Pricing
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77 is priced at $429, but we've seen it online for less than $400. The Nikon Coolpix S60 has a recommended retail of $549.

Sony also has the Cyber-shot T500, which has HDMI and 720p HD movie recording and will arrive this month (October) at $649.