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Olympus C-3030 Zoom £799.99
Olympus Optical's new C-3030 Zoom is one of the first affordable cameras to take pictures at 3.1 megapixels, which gives a maximum on-screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 dots. It's small but can deliver very high quality images (uncompressed files weigh in at 16 megabytes each).

The 3030Z does let you choose between shutter- and aperture-priority exposure or manual operation, three "film speeds" (100, 200, and 400 ISO) with exposure bracketing, and multiple flash modes. You can set slow shutter speeds (up 16 seconds on manual), and operate the shutter using a wireless remote control. You can focus the lens manually, using a readout on the LCD screen on the back of the camera, or take a three-minute QuickTime digital movie with sound.

There are 15 picture formats and a 16 megabyte SmartMedia storage card can hold up to 165 images in VGA quality (640 by 480 pixels) mode.

I tended to use the HQ (high quality) mode which takes 20 pictures in 700K .jpg format. The 3030Z comes with serial and USB cables for transferring pictures to a PC or Mac when the storage card is full. A PC Card and floppy disk adapter is available for easier file transfers.

The 3030Z has a 3x aspheric glass f/2.8 zoom lens but you have to wait for this to extend itself from the body when the camera is turned on.

While the 3030Z works well in snapshot mode, using the advanced functions can be tedious, because most settings are on submenus on the LCD screen. For example, the exposure mode change is the last option on a long menu.

At first I found it tedious scrolling all the way down to it - then I realised it took only one keypress to scroll up to it.

I also grew to love the Quickview mode: after you've taken a picture, this is flashed up on the LCD so you can have a quick look without turning the screen on and off.

As for the apparently pointless remote control, you can also use it to give slide shows with the camera plugged in to a TV set using the cable supplied, and the built-in microphone means you can add four second soundbites to your "slides".