Very good feature-to-price ratio ; comfortable, sturdy design ; fast performance for its class

Photos can look overprocessed and noisy viewed at 100 percent ; small LCD

The pocket megazoom Kodak EasyShare Z915 is a good camera for those looking to step up from a fully automatic compact camera to something with more manual controls and a longer lens.

Very good feature-to-price ratio ; comfortable, sturdy design ; fast performance for its class

Photos can look overprocessed and noisy viewed at 100 percent ; small LCD

The pocket megazoom Kodak EasyShare Z915 is a good camera for those looking to step up from a fully automatic compact camera to something with more manual controls and a longer lens.

Nice design ; excellent feature set ; reasonably simple to use

Picture quality drops off above ISO 200 ; occasionally sluggish performance

Even for a full-featured megazoom camera at a low price, the Fujifilm FinePix S1500 delivers average photo quality and mixed performance.

Nice design ; decent features for the money ; waterproof to 10 feet

Soft, grainy photos ; slow performance

A simple, inexpensive waterproof camera to keep poolside, the Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP is nonetheless lacking in photo quality and performance.

Nice design ; wide-angle lens ; good feature set

Soft photos ; slow performance

For going from snorkeling to rock climbing to everyday life, the Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 is a good choice, though its photos and performance can be disappointing.

Excellent photo quality ; comfortable to use in water or with gloves

Poor design for an everyday camera, expensive for an occasional camera ; kind of ugly ; mixed performance

It might not look quite right, but the PowerShot D10 is a solid entry into rugged cameras for Canon.

Excellent characteristics for shooting in black and white ; compact ; nice manual controls

Slow AF system ; short battery life ; stiff shutter button ; some interface annoyances ; occasional lockups ; poor white balance ; overly blue LCD screen ; poor video capture

The Sigma DP2 doesn't really live up to the promise of its Foveon sensor, but it does excel for shooting in black and white photos.

First-rate design ; simple operation ; excellent feature-to-price ratio

Narrow lens ; lens cap is a pain

If you don't mind its extra bulk and narrow lens, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20 is an otherwise excellent compact megazoom camera.

Above-average feature set ; nice design

No optical zoom while recording video ; photo quality drops off above ISO 200 ; above-average chromatic aberration

Sony's careful feature trimming results in the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220: a well-rounded pocket camera for less than $180.

Excellent photo quality ; lots of useful features ; very good dynamic range and high ISO performance in EXR modes ; takes SDHC and xD cards

Basic Movie mode for its price ; limited aperture settings ; menu systems take some getting used to

Don't let its new sensor technology scare you off: the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR is an excellent compact camera with shooting features for just about every type of user.