Samsung’s second-generation mirror-less compact system camera is a minor refinement on its predecessor but offers good value at around £100 less than a Canon 600D or Nikon D5100 with their own standard zooms. Plus the user-friendly performance will please anyone newly converting to the NX system.

Pros: Great image quality and features for the price Very small and light Fun-to-use shooting modes Wireless sharing and remote-control features Cons: Touchscreen can be unresponsive Has a toylike build Uses MicroSD cards for storage Digital stabilization only

The 14.6-megapixel NX11 resembles a shrunken digital SLR with a depth roughly half that of an entry-level model. This is down to the fact that, as with competitors like the Olympus Pen, Panasonic GF or Sony NEX series, the NX11 omits the standard mirror mechanism.

Pros: Very affordable given its Full HD capabilities; as diminutive as an, erm, loo roll; HDMI out port; SDHC card compatibility; easy to use Cons: Plasticky feel and basic-looking design seems engineered to match a certain budget price point

At first glance, the Samsung SH100 ($200) looks like a run-of-the-mill, low-priced touchscreen camera. It's built for very casual shooters, and its core specs aren't exactly mind-boggling: The SH100's 14-megapixel CCD sensor may have been an impressive feature a few years ago, but in these days of ever-inflated pixel counts, it's standard issue in the compact camera world. Same goes for its 5X optical zoom lens and 720p video recording at 30 frames per second.