Although these models may be classed as entry level, don’t let them fool you as they still have a very respectable list of specifications, both feature a 14.2 megapixel sensor, “Live View” which will allow users to view and capture subject by looking at the LCD screen, instead of through the view finder. Other features like HDMI output which allows the camera to be connected straight to a high definition TV for picture playback, “Eye-Start” autofocus will automatically focus on the desired subject and allows users to easily capture images in focus.

Sony A390 (L) and A290 (R)

The Sony Alpha A290 and A390 should be available late summer and although prices are yet to be confirmed, we should image the price will be appealing enough to make you think twice about a simple point and shoot camera.

So overall, if you’re after an alternative to the standard point and shoot which will allow you to be more creative with your photography, the new additions to the popular Sony Alpha range may be the ideal solution for you.

Photographers can now take advantage of enhanced noise reduction, lens correction, image sharpening features as well as the ability to edit DSLR video files.

You now have the option to remove photo distortion as well, by straightening converged lines, which occurs when the camera is pointed upwards at an object such as a tall building.

The previously mentioned DSLR support means that you can now edit Raw files, which allows you to make more significant adjustments to pictures without losing any picture quality.

There is a wider range of colour embedded in picture details as well, resulting in excellent quality inkjet photo prints.

Lightroom 3 now supports custom soundtracks on slideshows, and will export the finished product as a video file, up to 1080p.

Photographers can further design and add custom watermarks to their images.

The overall speed of Lightroom 3 is noticeably faster as well, to cope with ever-increasing photo and video file sizes.

“There have been over 600,000 downloads of the Lightroom 3 public beta, which has supplied us with a huge amount of valuable feedback from a passionate community of professional and advanced amateur photographers,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe.

Adobe has teamed up with Flickr as well, providing a built-in Flicker upload function.

Existing Lightroom users can purchase an upgrade for £75, while the full version will set you back £232.68 to purchase outright.

Will you upgrade to Lightroom 3? Leave us a comment and let us know.

The DMC-FX75 takes shots in 14 megapixels, making it perfect for action pictures.

The Intelligent Auto function now features a new Motion Deblur mode to alter settings to produce high shutter speeds- which further enhances this camera’s performance in taking fast action shots.

This super slim camera features a 24mm ultra-wide-angle lens, which Panasonic says will provide an increased viewing space of 213 per cent compared to a standard 35mm camera.

Panasonic has also included four aspect ratios as well as a 5x optical zoom so you can really focus on your subject matter. If that’s not enough though, you can increase settings to 6.5x using intelligent zoom or even 10.5x with extra optical zoom

This latest Lumix comes with an increased ability to capture brighter and sharper photos in low lighting, which is great news for the quality of Facebook albums everywhere.

You can shoot in either standard or high definition format including 720p HD video.

The large-sized 3 inch LCD touchscreen can be used to edit your pictures on the go, as well as access Panasonic’s array of camera features, including the now mandatory Auto Focus and optical stabilisation.

The DMC-FX75 Lumix comes with USB 2.0, AV and HDMI ports so connectivity won’t be a problem at all.

Panasonic is still the cost of this new Lumix under wraps, and has only said it will be available in shops “soon”.

Do you have a Panasonic Lumix camera? Leave us a comment and let us know.

This is the first camera to come with Canon’s new HS system which is designed to perform brilliantly in dark lighting.

Inside, the Ixus 300 HS combines DIGIC 4 processing with a highly sensitive 10-megapixel CMOS sensor.

The ISO can also be boosted to 6400 for photos in the depths of night, though you will only be able to snap at 2.5-megapixels under this setting.

The 10 megapixel Ixus 300 HS, which means ‘High Sensitivity’, comes with an f/2.0 28mm wide angle lens and 3.8x optical zoom, or 4x digital zoom.

Feature-wise, the Ixus 300 HS boasts image stabilisation, smile detection, smart auto and scene modes as well as the ability to take a photo by simply winking at the camera.

You can view your images on a 3 inch LCD preview screen on the back of the camera.

Film buffs can make the most of movie mode on the Ixus 300 HS. Capturing video at 720p HD is enhanced with a slow motion movie capture mode which records 340×240 resolution at 240fps.

Once you’re done filming, you can hook up the camera to a big screen easily via HDMI connection. You can record 4GB of film or up to an hour- whichever comes first.

The Ixus 300 HS is available in silver, red, black or white, and will set you back £379.

Are you a Canon camera fan? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Happy days are here again though with the new Polaroid 300 instant camera.

It may spark a memory from the deep recesses of your mind, and that’s because the camera was developed in partnership with Fujifilm, and looks eerily like the Fujifilm Instax Mini.

The Polaroid 300 camera prints out instant photos in 1.8×2.4-inch business card size, from the top of the device.

It comes with flash, four scene settings and is powered by two AA batteries (remember them?).

For the fashion conscious, the camera comes in black, blue or red.

Polaroid’s 300 will be in shops for £79.99 while you’ll need to fork out £12.99 for a 10 exposure pack of instant film.

If you or a mate head off to the US though, film costs just $9.99, so you might want to bring a bigger suitcase to snap up a bargain.

The release of the 300 is not without controversy though, with this new model being incompatible with traditional Polaroid 600 film.

The company responsible for making Polaroid film, Impossible B.V, looks to have been left out in the cold with the development of the new camera.

A spokeswoman for Impossible B.V said: ‘The management of the Impossible Project finds this confusing and clearly wants to state that the Polaroid 300 is not the camera that has been announced in Polaroid’s press release from January 7 2010.”

The company had expected Polaroid to release the 1000 camera, which accepts Polaroid 600 film produced by Impossible B.V.

Do you still have use for an instant camera? Leave us a comment and let us know.

The study showed that Panasonic had a failure rate of just 5.3 per cent for cameras under US $300 (£195).

SquareTrade’s findings are based on results of a study of 60,000 digital cameras purchased since 2006, and looks at failures as covered by its warranty plans.

The next best camera to own is one form Fujifilm which had a failure rate of 6.1 per cent.

Olympus and Sony also fared equally well in the study with a fractionally higher failure rate of 6.2 per cent.

The two lower-end camera brands with the highest failure rates were Polaroid (11.9 per cent) and Casio (13 per cent).

SquareTrade did find that a camera’s failure rate decreases as its price increases.

A camera costing up to US $150 (£97) has a 7.4 per cent chance of failing, compared to a failure rate of just 4 per cent for cameras priced at over US $500 (£325).

Panasonic still topped the reliability ranks of higher-end models, with a failure rate of 1.9 per cent among models priced at over £325.

Of these premium models, Canon cameras were found to have the greatest risk of failure at 6.2 per cent.

By projecting the data over three years, 15.6 per cent of all digital cameras will experience some sort of failure, whether it be accidental or by malfunction.

Overall, SquareTrade estimates that 5.9 per cent of cameras will fail within the first year, with 2.4 per cent of those failures down to accidental damage.

Considering the number of digital cameras in circulation, we’re actually quite impressed by the longevity of today’s cameras, but then again these are devices that we tend to hold onto for a few years instead of upgrading every 24 months, as is the trend with mobile phones.

Which brand of digital camera do you own? Leave us a comment and let us know.

The new offering uses Panasonic’s large Micro Four Thirds image sensor, which has been designed to capture greater image depth and wider field of view in a compact body.

The AG-AF100 camcorder incorporates a Panasonic micro 4/3-inch 16:9 MOS sensor, providing you with video recorded at 1080p at 30, 25 and 24 fps, 1080i at 60 and 50 fps; or 720p at 60, 50, 30, 25 or 24 fps.

As a more compact camera optimised for high-def recording, Panasonic has said that the camera will “set a new benchmark for digital cinematography.”

Panasonic has included an interchangeable lens system, adaptable for both film and still camera lenses, filters, and adapters.

The AG-AF100 comes with a number of features to make you look pro, such as built-in ND filtering and reduced video aliasing, HD-SDI out, HDMI, a built-in stereo microphone and time code recording.

You have the choice of using either SDHC or SDXC cards to store your movie debut, and two slots included on the camera casing ensures smooth filming without having to stop and change cards over.

Pricing hasn’t been made official, but the AG-AF100 will be out by the end of the year around the £3900 mark. For this, you not only get a professional-grade camcorder, but three-year warranty as well.

What pro filming gadgetry do you have stored in the garage? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Hailed as a “model for women” the W350D is an ultra-compact camera comes in either white with stars, or a blush shade of pink with a floral pattern.

If this isn’t feminine enough, each camera further has a splattering of rhinestones on the front.

You can even get a matching “elegant pattern” embossed case to match.

On the inside, the camera boasts a 14 megapixel sensor and a 4x Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar optical zoom lens, which will take some crystal clear shots from a crystal crusted camera.

The camera comes with a few handy shooting options including smile shutter, self portrait, face detection and sweep panorama settings.

You can keep tabs on your crafty handiwork on a decently sized 2.7 inch TFT LCD screen.

The W350D also records in 720p high-definition, and will save in MPEG-4. It will then easily connect to your PC via USB 2.0 connectivity.

If you end up having to attend back-to-back weddings, you can expand the camera’s memory through a SD/SDHC slot.

So far, both cameras are only available in Japan, for around £190.

Would you buy jewel-encrusted gadgetry? Leave us a comment and let us know.

This new version mini camcorder will still slide easily into your pocket and is easy enough for anyone to use, with recording taking place at the press of a big red button.

The Mino HD also comes with a larger 2 inch anti-reflective screen so you can actually see what it is you’re filming, which is always beneficial.

The new Mino HD will shoot in HD ready 720p, which are pretty impressive specs, but still falls short of Toshiba’s Camileo S10, which will film in full HD mode.

Flip hasn’t exactly dropped the ball though with its new offering though, providing an increased 8GB storage, which will house up to two hours of high def recording.

To get your creative masterpiece onto the big screen, the Mini HD comes with an HDMI port so you can view your movies straight from camera to HD TV.

The flip-out USB connector further makes uploading film to your PC a breeze.

On the surface of things, the new Mino HD is pleasing on the eye and feels pretty good too with its solid aluminum body.

Priced at £179.99, the Mino HD isn’t exactly bargain-basement, but you do get quite a nifty little gadget for your money that may come in handy more times than you originally think.

Have you been impressed with the performance of mini camcorders? Leave us a comment and let us know.

The Pentax 645D is a medium-format SLR camera, coming complete with an interchangeable lenses within the 645 camera range. It also comes with the right hardware to support your 40 megapixel masterpieces.

With a 44×33mm Kodak image sensor, the camera produces a top-end resolution of 7,264 x 5,440, which would take up quite a bit of room on your hard drive.

To store your holiday pics, there are two SDHC memory card slots, so you can use the second slot when you fill up the first.

This dual-card system is also handy to safeguard your images, as you can store your images on both cards simultaneously, to safeguard you from a memory card failure at the end of someone’s wedding day.

Of course, you’d expect some decent software with this camera, and you get it. The 645D comes with High Dynamic Range for developing a composite image with an extra wide graduation range from three images, each at different exposures.

There is also Dynamic-Range Expansion to help you compensate for over and under exposed areas within the frame.

A unique Sensitivity-Priority (Sv) mode automatically selects the optimum combination of aperture and shutter speed for your selected level of sensitivity.

To power all this, you’re going to want an impressive battery, and you get it, with Pentax building-in a lithium-ion battery capable of 800 shots per charge.

Being at the higher end of the spectrum, you would expect this camera to set you back a few quid, and it will. Around the £6,270 mark to be exact. Yes, you can choose between a camera or a couple of cars.

Are you impressed with 40 megapixels? Leave us a comment and let us know.