A budget compact camera can come in very handy whether you’re on holiday, enjoying a night out, or have just learned not to rely on a dodgy smartphone battery to last the day.

Here’s a look at five of the best compact cameras under £100 available to buy now.

Canon IXUS 170

This pocket-friendly camera features a 20.5 million pixel sensor, and a 12x optical zoom. The latter should be enough for most scenarios, and gives you good scope when travelling on holidays – remember that the average smartphone has no optical zoom at all.

The IXUS 170 is quite a basic camera – as are most at this price point – so you can’t take full manual control or shoot in raw format, but there are plenty of scene modes to help you get the best shot possible.

If you like to shoot movies, this offers 720p HD shooting, while optical image stabilisation is on hand to help reduce blur.

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Sony W830

Ultra sleek, with a polished body, you should easily find pocket room for the Sony W830.

It has a 20.1 million pixel sensor, and an 8x optical zoom. Although not the longest zoom in this list, it should still be enough for most every day shooting scenarios.

There’s Intelligent Auto and a range of scene modes, but again no manual mode. You can edit or retouch images in the camera, which can be handy for quick posting to Facebook and the like.

Like most other Sony cameras, the W830 has Sweep Panorama – a way to create easy ultra-wide panoramic shots, which is especially fun for holidays and travelling.

Again, there’s 720p HD video recording available.

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Nikon Coolpix S3700

Slim and sleek, the Nikon S3700 has a 20.1 million pixel sensor and an 8x optical zoom, making it pretty close in specification to the Sony W830.

One difference here however is the inclusion of inbuilt Wi-Fi and NFC, which is particularly appealing for those who want to share their images on social networking sites.

Panorama Assist is on hand here to help create those ultra-wide shots. We’ve found in the past this isn’t quite as effective as Sony’s Sweep Panorama, but for sharing small shots online it should still get the job done.

Like the others here, there’s no manual mode or raw format, but there is 16 scene modes as well as Scene Auto selector which should produce good results. 12 Glamour retouch effects are also available for help in perfecting those selfies.

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Panasonic SZ8

The oldest camera in this list, but none-the-less a good all round package, the Panasonic SZ8 features a 16 million pixel sensor and a 12x optical zoom lens.

As it has a wide angle of 24mm, the SZ8 is particularly suited to shooting landscape / holiday scenes.
Fans of Instagram should take note of the 15 different digital filter effects, which can be applied both to standard shots, but also to panoramic images.

Another camera with 720p HD video recording, inbuilt Wi-Fi and NFC may tip the balance of favour towards the Panasonic if you like that kind of thing.

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Samsung WB50F

The retro look of the Samsung WB50F may be what draws you in, but it also has some pretty decent specs for a budget model.

A 16.2 million pixel sensor is joined by a 12x optical zoom lens, while several smart shooting modes are designed to make the shooting process as easy as possible.

Built-in Wi-Fi and NFC is helpful for sharing, and there’s a number of digital filters to help you get a fun look. The WB50F rounds off the list of cameras which provide 720p video recording – you’ll have to invest a little more if you want full 1080p.

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