There has been a lot of talk about conventional digital cameras coming under threat from improving hybrids, like camera phones, PDAs with cameras and camcorders with still photo capability. Indeed, I'm of the firm opinion that some time in the future, perhaps as close as 2-3 years, most new consumer digital cameras will be dual-function still and video cameras that will produce prints up to A4 size at a quality we'd be satisfied with, plus camcorder quality video.

I even think that high quality premium cameras of the future will record continuous motion, allowing selective frame extraction for high quality still reproduction. But that's quite a way off yet. What about today? I decided to take four different types of affordable digital camera and take a selection of pictures under the same conditions and then print them on 6x4 inch media.

All the image quality evaluation was decided on the prints alone, made using a Canon Pixma iP6000D ink jet photo printer on 6x4 inch premium quality glossy photo media (Canon Photo Paper Pro).

The cameras used in this experiment included a Mustek GSmart D35 budget digital camera, representing the still camera market sector that is most under pressure from camera phones, a Nokia 7710 one megapixel camera phone, a Sony DCR-PC105e one megapixel camcorder with still photo mode and, finally, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ1 four megapixel affordable conventional digital still camera.

Were there any surprises? Read on to see how the contestants fared.