Forget budget DSLR, this is for serious photography. Extravagant in almost every way, the D700 is superbly responsive and produces stunning images

Worth the wait. The E-3 matches pro SLR capabilities with the ease of use of an entry-level cam

The marker has been laid down. Sony's pulled off another AVCHD stunner that will be hard to beat this year

This Panny 'corder can shoot stills at a resolution of 4-megapixels, which makes it a match for a still camera

The SD1 looks stunning, and performs even better. If this is what AVCHD delivers, then we’re totally sold

An expensive camera, but one offering superb image quality, features and handling

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

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

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

Sony's first CMOS based consumer HD camera brings control and fidelity to images in a package that's hard to beat.

One beautiful camera, with one awful flaw.

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 completely new digital SLR system has arrived in the shape of the Olympus E-1 and is perhaps the most eagerly awaited professional camera this year.

Every once in a while

Minolta has been producing top-end digital SLRs for many years,

A smart mini-DV cam with more features than most

HITACHI DZ-MV208E

At just on $4,400, the 500A cannot really be considered a consumer DV camera, however, it is no doubt a camera a lot of consumers would like to own. However, the price and some annoying little problems stopped this camera from being the Labs Winner this month.

The GX7A uses a 1.23-megapixel CCD and records stills to memory card. While general image quality was good, the optical zoom was only fair and the electronic image stabiliser was not as good as on some cheaper cameras. The optical zoom produced grainy images before reaching maximum magnification and the sound track was affected by wind noise more than some of the lower priced cameras.