BenQ DC C50

The cheapest 5-megapixel camera in town

Convergence is a word on everyone's lips, but few companies actually deliver on their promises. Taiwanese newcomer BenQ,however,has succeeded with the DC C50 - a revolutionary device that effortlessly integrates digital photography with fingerprint capture. Okay, the smoked-glass mirrored front can't yet digitise your biometrics, but grubby paw prints stick to it like crap to a shoe, so you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing your camera is securely watermarked - until any thief gives it a good clean, that is.

Design gimmicks aside, the camera has a distinctly pinchable air to it, with a solid all- metal housing and 5-megapixel CCD. In fact, it doesn't feel like a budget camera at all. From the swift 1.5-inch LCD screen and legible menus to the nippy zoom action, this is the equal of any major-brand model. The feature list is equally impressive. Focusing is perhaps the weakest area, with just a 9cm macro mode for close-ups and a few focus presets. You can set exposure with evaluative or spot metering, bracket your shots to guarantee perfect exposure, and make the usual white-balance choices.

The movie mode (with sound) and the two- frames-per-second burst mode are pretty average, although a decent interval shooting mode (for time-lapse sequences) is good to see. The C50 comes into its own in priority and manual exposure modes, where the side- mounted jog wheel makes flipping through aperture and shutter settings a breeze. You get a warning if the image is over- or underexposed, and when you half-press the shutter, the LCD screen even shows you what the final snap will look like.

Autofocusing is accurate and fairly fast, and the write time to the memory card is much speedier than other budget cameras. BenQ has made a good choice of sensor, with the device pumping out strong and faithful colours in all lighting conditions - including using the strong built-in flash. Metering is fine, although it had a tendency to underexpose some shots.

The 3x zoom lens is less impressive, however, unless you like bulging distortion, purple fringes and the occasional dark corner in your wideangle shots. Sharpness is fine, and there's plenty of detail to zoom into at the highest quality level. If you want acceptable hi-res shots, solid build and manual features, it's hard to see why you should spend any more.