Fujifilm Finepix F455 Zoom

The latest addition to its Finepix series, Fujifilm's F455 Zoom offers 5.2megapixel resolution and a 3x optical zoom. Roughly the size of a pack of playing cards, it comes either in silver or black and is designed for those who want a stylish, but easy-to-use point-and-shoot camera.

The back features a bright 2in LCD along with zoom control and buttons for common shooting modes, including flash and macro. Other settings include landscape, night and portrait options, while a fully automatic setting takes care of things for those not yet confident enough to play around with manual controls.

There's also an optical viewfinder and a switch that allows you to quickly change between image review, video capture and shooting modes.

The buttons are slightly small and the zoom function can be awkward to operate when taking portrait photos. In addition, you can only fit six images on the supplied 16MB XD memory card at the highest quality settings, so you'll need to budget for more storage or switch to one of the three lower resolution modes.

There's space for just under five minutes of video footage, although only at 320 Y 240 10fps. This model also features Fujifilm's new battery system, which the company claims uses less energy and therefore lets you snap for longer.

When you're ready to download your images, Pictbridge compatibility lets you place the camera in the supplied cradle and connect it via a USB cable directly to a printer. A faster USB2 connection would have been nice, though.

Despite some little niggles, the F455 Zoom is a reasonably-priced 5.2megapixel camera capable of impressive results.