THE compact digital camera is the new box camera. But where George Eastman promised, ''You press the button and we [Kodak] do the rest,'' in the case of digital compacts it is more, ''You press the button and the camera does the rest.''
Compact cameras are defined by the size of their sensors, which are minuscule. The recently released Nikon P300 has an image sensor of 28 square millimetres. The sensor on the professional-grade DSLR, the Nikon D700, is 864 square millimetres - 30 times larger and with the same pixel count of 12 million. As a general rule, the larger the sensor and its photo receptors, the better the picture. The advantage of the compact camera is its portability and inconspicuousness. The disadvantage is its image quality.
Compact cameras divide into categories: the conventional point and shoot; the waterproof, shockproof and freeze-proof ''tough'' cameras; and the superzooms that look like miniature DSLRs and have lenses with massive focal-length ranges.
At the top of the compact pile are the 10-megapixel cameras with modest zooms. Paradoxically, on the second level are the cameras with more pixels and longer zoom ranges. In compacts, you pay more for less.
The indestructible compact category includes cameras that are endearing for their indifference to abuse and infuriating for their tiny external controls.
The superzoom category has products from all the leading manufacturers. They look as though they will deliver the goods but their electronic viewfinders are infuriatingly ''laggy'' and they have zoom ranges that defy the physics of optics. The camera type persists but it has been rendered obsolete by MILCs (mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras) and EVILS (electronic viewfinder with interchangeable lens).