Ricoh's Caplio range of cameras has always produced high-quality models with big lenses and screens, but at a cost of being on the bulky side.

The company has addressed that in recent models, which have been getting smaller and smaller, and the Ricoh R8 (the company having dropped the Caplio name) is admirably svelte, although it's still bulkier than many cameras. It includes a similar 7.1x zoom lens to its predecessors, and has a 10-megapixel resolution, along with a bright, clear 2.7in screen on the reverse.

The menus are clear and easy to use, with a tiny joystick to the right of the screen used for most functions. One annoying feature is that, by default, it forgets any settings you change after it's switched off, which puzzled us until we found the menu option to make it remember settings.

Like most modern compact cameras, it offers both vibration correction (to counter camera shake) and face detection (to make sure people are in focus). Image quality was impressive, as was the sharpness of the screen although, as with many compacts, in low light there was slightly more noise than we'd have liked. That aside, this is a well-built camera that's worth the money.