If you don't need a complicated SLR, then make sure you pick the best point-and-shoot digital camera you can afford. Today's smallest cameras might have wide-angle lenses, image stabilisation and touchscreen interfaces, but competition is still fierce.

Smaller than SLR, but with more features than a compact, bridge cameras have always had a foot in both camps. Today, they're popular with people who want a good general-purpose lens in a reasonably-sized body.

Now that today's SLRs offer HD video, the distinctions between them, compact point-and-shoot cameras and camcorders are beginning to blur. The new interchangeable lens systems from Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Samsung show how fast the market for digital cameras is changing.

They're as practical and easy to use as compact cameras, but they have interchangeable lenses and the kind of manual controls typically found in SRLs. These attractive new digital cameras, sometimes referred to as 'hybrid' cameras, can therefore be as appealing to beginners as they are to professionals.