Good performance and handling, low price and far better quality than any digital compact.

More expensive than its direct competition, but thanks to its brilliant features the D80 is money well spent.

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

The L2 has limited shooting controls, but it’s capable of producing some great-quality shots.

The Nikon Coolpix E3700 is the smallest camera here and by far the most pocketable. It features mag-alloy body, so that even though the camera's small, it's really sturdy. There's no hesitation involved in throwing this camera in a bag amongst your other gear.

The Nikon Coolpix 5400 is the descendent of the Coolpix 5000. In the revamp, it has gained a new 1/1.8in CCD and 4x optical zoom but also loses a couple of useful features, like the LCD status panel and RAW file mode. True, there is a TIFF option, but this is a backwards move in our view.

Just another 4-megapixel camera is what we expected when we opened the box and pulled out the Nikon Coolpix 4500, but this beauty soon proved us wrong.

The Nikon Coolpix comes with a 3.2-megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom and a good range of basic features needed for quick and easy shooting. One of the smallest in this round-up, the Nikon Coolpix 3100 is slightly larger than a credit card and about an inch and half thick. Its build quality is good and it will make an excellent travel accessory, easily fitting into a purse or a pocket.

The Nikon Coolpix 2500 is the latest addition to the Coolpix camera range, and is designed with the camera novice in mind.

It lacks the style of its higher-end big brother, the Coolpix 500, but at half the price, it wont stretch the budget too far.

A favourable choice for the megapixel-focused buyers on a budget

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