A remarkably tough machine that will endure almost anything thrown at it, although this comes at a price.

Good quality and with a proper li-ion battery, but expensive and bulky compared to the Olympus.

A rough, tough laptop with serious attitude, but its keyboard proves an Achilles heel.

A capable enough performer, but it doesn’t offer enough for the money to come out on top.

It's a mini adventure with the S10. A go anywhere, shoot anything cam that won't break the bank and delivers well for its size

Image quality is reasonable, but there are far better cameras available for less.

A capable cam that'll take the knocks and matches it rival, the Panasonic HDC-SD1. It can’t quite better Canon’s HV20 on sheer performance though

It might look like a DSLR, but it doesn’t handle as well and loses out to others with bigger zooms

A lovely compact cam and a decent HD camcorder in one

A great next-generation camcorder, but it lacks editing support for the recording format

The Olympus PEN E-P1 may look like a throwback to retro photography, but it’s expensive and flawed. However, it's beautiful image quality renders almost impossible to dislike.

Getting on, but remains a fairly competitive buy

A good first stab at the semi-ruggedised laptop market. It isn’t up to the tough standards of others, though.

Good quality optics and lots of storage, but not the most portable of camcorders

A good price for an HD camcorder, but poor design makes it awkward to use

Not exactly a hi-def holiday shooter, but the Action Cam is perfect for creating your ‘when skiing goes wrong’ home video

Superb, stylish, solid... but sabotaged by poor controls

An above-average all-rounder that adds 720p recording to an already attractive mix

One beautiful camera, with one awful flaw.

Impressive optical quality and storage space, though a touch expensive