In general, it's best not to expect too much from a budget camera: the 8-megapixel Canon PowerShot A580 exemplifies this philosophy. Sure, it's got a clunky design, feels cheap, and doesn't have all the latest features (in fact for about the same price or a little more you can get the A590 IS, which adds image stabilization). However, it does take great pictures for its class with minimal effort.

The A580 has a decent selection of Canon's shooting technologies. It offers no fewer than 16 shooting modes, including seven special scene modes such as Foliage, Fireworks, and Aquarium, the latter for capturing images of indoor aquariums without a flash. In Easy mode the camera makes all the decisions, Manual mode gives full access to all menu settings, exposure compensation, and white balance. But most important, the A580 has a face-detection-and-tracking system that worked as promised, keeping the selected face in focus even as the person moved among other people.