With their bright carapaces and angular lines, most waterproof cameras look like some kind of child-friendly cleaning droid. Sony has bucked the trend with this lovely ultra-compact glass sandwich, which will take 18MP stills next to the pool (or 13MP at the same time as 1080i video) before casually diving in for a non-fatal dip. The back is one big 3.3in capacitive touchscreen; think of it as a waterproof iPhone 4S that will take amazing pictures (but doesn’t do calls).

Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-TZ20 is one of this month’s chunkier compacts: it wills fir in a pocket, but it’s knobby and heavy. However, it has a broad feature-set, including a 16x zoom, shutter priority, aperture priority and full manual modes, plus exposure bracketing.

That suggests a certain aspirational appeal, but as with the Fujifilm FinePix F550EXR, the optics have been compromised. A small 1/2.33in sensor and a tight maximum aperture of f3.3 limit the light the TZ20 can capture, with the result that images break up in low light. In our long-range text test and video shots, the Lumix produced drab, scrappy results, the only consolation being an almost-silent zoom motor.

With better light, the Panasonic’s image processor does a creditable job. Contrast is on the dark side, but that gives images a pleasing weight, especially at the extremes of the zoom range.

The limitations of the lens and sensor arc still apparent, though. Peer at the individual pixels, even in a daylight picture, and you can see plenty of noise and lost detail, and there’s no option to record in RAW mode, so JPEG artifacts are unavoidable. Still, the TZ20’s images are smoother than those of the FinePix, with noise appearing as tasteful smudges rather than conspicuous speckles.

Those who want to get creative may be disappointed at the lack of a true manual focus control, but it’s partly made up for by the thoughtful inclusion of a touchscreen, enabling you to easily pick a focus point by prodding the display. Although all the camera’s settings and menus can be accessed via reassuring physical controls, it’s a pleasingly immediate alternative way to get results. Shutter responsiveness isn’t bad either: we measured a 0.4-second shutter lag, with a shot-to-shot delay of only one second.

The Coolpix S9100 isn’t as dinky as the tiny Sony models, not as understated as the Canon PowerShot SI00. Frankly, it’s nothing special to look at, and on paper its specifications don’t look inspiring either. It has a small, 1/2.33in sensor and a maximum aperture of f3.5, both of which suggest distinctly average images.

But it’s the pictures that count, and with the camera in fully automatic mode and the lens in the full-wide 25mm equivalent position, the Nikon Coolpix S9100 rendered both our street scene and the view across London’s Russell Square with impressive clarity and weight.

Although distortion was visible at the extremes of the image, we saw no chromatic aberrations, despite the harsh light. Colors were perhaps a little on the cold side, but overall the atmosphere of an autumn morning was well captured.

Zoom performance was just as persuasive. With the huge 18x lens (25-450mm) at its full extent, the Coolpix S9100 still managed to resolve bags of clean detail with solid contrast. And despite the fact that the lengthy zoom drove the frame deep into the shadows of Russell Square -requiring the shutter to slow to l/40s – the resulting image was impressively clear, thanks to Nikon’s combination of physical and digital stabilization.

Even in the most challenging tests, the S9100 acquitted itself respectably. Inevitably, in our party shot, the flash gave the subject’s skin tones a certain pallor, but she wasn’t completely washed out, and overall the color balance looked natural, with the dark background appearing comparatively noise-free. Our cactus close-up came out with pin-sharp pricks and a pleasingly neutral overall light.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 is a compact Micro Four Thirds body with plenty of physical controls, an accessory port, and a hot shoe. The 16-megapixel camera does a better job in lower light than other Micro Four Thirds bodies, but not as well as mirrorless cameras with large APS-C sensors such as the Samsung NX200 or our Editors’ Choice Sony Alpha NEX-C3.

Its kit lens can’t match the sharpness of the one included with a competing Micro Four Thirds camera, the Olympus E-PL3; of course, there’s nothing stopping you from using the Olympus lens on the Panasonic camera, thanks to the interoperability of the Micro Four Thirds system.

Matte black and tiny, Canon’s S100 looks totally unassuming. It’s also the finest camera here by some distance. In fact, we’re scratching our heads to find a single thing about it that isn’t totally brilliant.

Canon says its many years of digital sensor knowhow have been put to use in the S100. That, paired with the wide-aperture f/2.0 lens and new DIGIC 5 processor, adds up to clean, virtually noise-free images at anything up to ISO 800. Even above that, pushing towards Its ISO 6400 limit, photos remain surprisingly light on grain. It’s also a star with video, capturing razor-sharp 1080p movies at 24fps, or lower-res clips at 120 or even 240fps for ultra-slow-mo playback.

Tons of ‘em, including GPS, a plethora of Instagram-style art filters, RAW shooting and a turbocharged burst mode that captures eight full-size photos in under a second.

Despite the huge level of manual control on offer, changing settings is a cinch thanks to the mode dial, lens control ring and the dials and buttons on the back. You’ll rarely need to dig into the proper menu screens at all. This is everything a compact camera should be. Bravo.

When that there Nokia has nearly twice the pixels of an E3000 DSLR, you could be excused for thinking the 22.3MP 5D Mark III is about as useful as a mousetrap made of Gouda. But that would make you a fool and a cretin, because the follow-up to the Hollywood-racking HD SLR pioneer not only builds on its successes, but takes cues from the top-end 1D-X. With a Digic 5+ processor, 61-point autofocus, ISO range up to 25,600 and, of course, 1080p video at 30fps, it has stills and movies mastered. If only it could make phone calls.

The HX9V blends all of the hot in 2011 features – a GPS antenna. 3D Sweep Panorama shots and 1080p video with stereo sound – with the type of massive optical zoom (16x. to be specific) that will be “big” in 2012. Add a 16-meg. 1/2.3-inch sensor and plenty of manual functionality and you have another very strong contender.

We’re not fans of the teeny back plate buttons -they make manual control fiddly – the flat colors on auto settings, or the fact that GPS struggles to lock on indoors. However with noise-free results at up to IS03200. This is still a fine, fine compact cam.

Despite sporting a giant 16MP APS-C sensor, Sony’s latest E-mount CSC is incredibly thin. Its stripped-down user interface is aimed squarely at beginners, although full manual controls are available for the more adventurous. It comes with a versatile 18-55mm lens, a handful of special modes, and a tilting touchscreen which facilitates unusual shooting.

The NEX-5N autofocuses at speed (albeit a tad more slowly than the Panasonic GX1) and shoots at up to 10fps in burst mode. Image quality is the best of the three cameras here, with grain or noise only creeping into shots at ISO 6400 – so if low-light, flash-free shooting is key, then this is the model for you. The tiltable screen is a real boon when framing shots and video, especially when holding the 5N above or below your head. In fact, the only negative is the user interface: there’s no mode dial — no physical settings controls at all – so you’ll have dip into the menu screens for even the simplest of tasks.

Fans of retro won’t go wrong with the Olympus E-P3. The E-P3 is the first E-P to come with a built-in flash, and it even comes with wireless flash support for additional lights. It’s also the first E-P to get a touch-screen, bringing with it the ability to touch to focus and touch to shoot (touch-screen controls are switched off by default for purists).

The E-P3 scores points for being the only camera in the list with image stabilization built into the camera body. It also has a gorgeous OLED monitor going for it, a handy control dial with scroll wheel combination for manual control, and the ability to tap left on the d-pad to manually select an AF area.

Samsung PL210 is a compact digital camera focused towards beginners. It has a resolution of 14.2 megapixel s, 10x optical zoom, focal length from 4.85 to 48.5mm and a luminous intensity of F3.3 to 5.9.

This inexpensive model is available in two colors- silver and black. Apart from the uniform controls there is a 3in screen on the back with a resolution of 230000 pixels. The Samsung PL210 has ISO sensitivity between 80 to 3200. The manufacturer claims it can record videos in HD quality (1920×720).

The camera delivers decent quality in most environments. The 10x optical zoom performs quite well. We noticed good quality up to ISO 800, at ISO 1600 an amount of visible noise starts appearing. The manual mode we took few macro shots in F3.3 with ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 1/80 and were left pleasantly surprised with the results.

The controls are nicely positioned and personally we are impressed with the logical interface of Samsung point and shoots. Functions such as creative filters allow you to add some personal touch to your photographs.

However we have a few complaints regarding the build quality and the slow autofocus. We wish that Samsung could have included a SD card slot instead of micro SD as higher capacities are difficult to procure.

Overall PL210 is a good performer, priced reasonably. The usability, price and picture quality compel us to recommend this camera to our readers.