Auto mode with red-eye reduction Digital cameras

The Bottom Line: Though it falls short in its design, the Nikon D5000 delivers a nice feature set, speedy performance, and great photo quality for the money.

Specs: SLR, 12.3 megapixels, 3 x, 2.7 in LCD display

The Bottom Line: Though it falls short in its design, the Nikon D5000 delivers a nice feature set, speedy performance, and great photo quality for the money.

Specs: SLR, 12.3 megapixels, 3 x, 2.7 in LCD display

The Bottom Line: Though it falls short in its design, the Nikon D5000 delivers a nice feature set, speedy performance, and great photo quality for the money.

Specs: SLR, 12.3 megapixels, 2.7 in LCD display

The Bottom Line: A decent but not great camera, the megazoom Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 still manages to outdo its few competitors.

Specs: Full body, 8.1 megapixels, 18 x, 2.5 in LCD display, 27 MB - Integrated

The Bottom Line: If you can get past its unusual interface and sluggish performance, the Samsung NV10 is a nice digital snapshot camera with some great manual features.

Specs: Ultracompact, 10.1 megapixels, 3 x, 2.5 in LCD display, 20 MB - Integrated

The Bottom Line: The Nikon Coolpix L5 mixes simple operation with a couple of cool features, but slow performance and iffy image quality make this camera a poor choice.

Specs: Compact, 7.2 megapixels, 5 x, 2.5 in LCD display

The Bottom Line: Nikon's S10 has some decent features, including a really nice lens, but it doesn't live up to its potential and can't compete with similarly priced superzooms.

Specs: 6 megapixels, 10 x, 2.5 in LCD display

The Bottom Line: Nikon's Coolpix S9 has an attractive price, but its feature set and image quality could be better.

Specs: Ultracompact, 6.1 megapixels, 3 x, 2.5 in LCD display

The Bottom Line: If you can get past the occasional purple halo in your photos and don't need to shoot in bursts, the Samsung Digimax L60 is a solid point-and-shoot camera.

Specs: 6 megapixels, 3 x, 2.4 in LCD display, 32 MB - Integrated

The Bottom Line: With a big 10X zoom lens and optical image stabilization, Panasonic's DMC-TZ1 looks enticing, but image-quality issues keep it from making the grade.

Specs: 5 megapixels, 10 x, 2.5 in LCD display