Where cards are supplied, the capacities tend to be inadequate – for instance Canon’s 32MB SD card isn’t much use on a 7mp Ixus unless you use so much compression that the images degrade. These 5-7mp cameras need lots of storage, so you’ll need a card of about 256MB or more – but these now cost well under £50 if you shop around.

Talking of compression, none of these cameras can save RAW format files, which is a disappointment, especially now that Photoshop CS 2 has an excellent multi-format RAW filter with batch-conversion ability. Shooting RAW allows you to digitally rescue images with bad exposure settings or wrong white balances.

If you want to preserve maximum quality, some of the cameras can optionally save uncompressed TIFs, though again you’ll need big storage cards to cope. Some of these cameras have internal storage for a few images, which is a handy overflow if you fill the card up.

Downloading is through USB, now commonly the higher speed USB 2.0, though you’ll still find that a cheap dedicated USB 2.0 card reader will be faster. The cameras also support PictBridge, a way to download directly to compatible printers without going through a computer.