Superb build quality and performance make this a worthwhile upgrade for serious amateurs.

High performance with a matching price tag.

Whereas a couple of years ago Canon might have described this as a mini camcorder, it now describes it as a compact multimedia DV camera. Certainly by comparison with the others in this month's labs it's not mini, however it does manage to pack a lot of features into a relatively small package. It is an upright camera rather than the longer, squatter shape of the MVX250i and weighs 43 grams less than its bigger but cheaper brother.

A nice little camera that uses a 0.8-megapixel CCD compared to the 1.3-megapixel of the MVX2i. As a result, it does not offer the same near-broadcast image quality. Having said that, there is little wrong with the images it produces. The MV5i has eight shooting modes; records still images; and comes with a comprehensive range of software.

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.