Olympus Mju Mini Velvet Red Digital camera [4MP , 2 x Optical Zoom]

It lets you pick from 16 selectable programme modes (though it says 13 in the manufacturer's description) that just about cover any type of snap you would want to take, from portrait, self-portrait, landscape, beach'n'snow, indoors, cuisine, night scene, fireworks, panorama, etc, etc. and more; or just let the camera do it all for you, which is what I usually do. Once you've picked from the plethora of options, you can cycle through editing options that other camera owners will have to do on the pc. You get loads of options including soft focus, fish eye, B&W, Sepia, etc, etc, and all without changing the original image. My wife found this particularly useful as she hasn't got to grips with photoshop on the PC yet - this just lets you do all of the things a well heeled pc user can do to edit their snaps.

The only drawback I would say is the tiny amount of memory you get with the camera. I would buy at least another 512 MB as the small amount of memory stops you from taking really long movie clips, and unlike other cameras, you aren't limited to 30 secs of movies or even 5 minutes; you can go on recording until your memory card runs out of space or your battery gives up (which has never happened to me yet).

USB 2....0 (plug & play) makes it convenient to use with your pc without messing around installing drivers and it's compatible with the latest generation of pictbridge-enabled printers, so you don't need to connect to a pc to print from the camera either.

It might cost you a little more than the opposition, but the size makes it all the more useful for having, though at a cost; it has 4 mega pixels instead of 5 from other manufacturers, and only a 2x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom, which roughly equates to a 35-70 mm lens.

I bought this for my wife as it had a really cute shape, a great colour and seemed like something she would fall in love with. However, I have ended up using it so much more than her as I fell in love with it myself. Buy it, you will never need more than this in a midrange digital camera for nice holiday and family snaps. Only an advanced user will need more than this. Read more ›