Acer is probably not the first company you'd think of when choosing a new digital camera, but it has a range of a dozen models and recently introduced the CU-6530, an ultra-compact camera coming in at well under £200. It's a 6-megapixel device with 3x optical and 4.4x digital zoom and a 63mm LCD screen.

The full metal case of this little camera gives it a good, solid feel, but it's still light and compact enough to fit easily into a pocket, even in its supplied suede-like belt-pouch. Its small size can make it a little awkward to grip and some of the buttons on the back surface are not that easy to use. The three selectors for menu, image delete and icon display are better operated with a thumbnail than a whole digit.

The large display screen gives a good bright picture, even outside, and has enough room for the icons ranged around its edges not to obscure the subject of a shot. You can see at a glance the settings of everyday parameters like exposure, image quality, flash mode and battery level.

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The configuration menu system works well, offering useful settings such as 18 scene modes. These range from portrait and natural green to more exotic scenes like candlelight, fireworks, splash water and pets.

Picture quality, in a variety of conditions, proved to be well up to that from cameras at and beyond its price. Although there was some colour swing from purple to blue, by and large the images were well captured, with good levels of detail even in low-light environments.

Image noise is not a major problem with this camera and flash performance, while not up to that of bigger (and more expensive) models, is not at all bad for an ultra-compact. The infra-red auto-focus beam appears more red than infra, so you can see it reflect off walls, but does produce well-focussed images.

The CU-6530 connects to a PC through a supplied dock, which recharges the Lithium-ion battery as well as providing a USB connection to a computer or a PictBridge connection to a printer. The power supply for this dock is rather clumsy, requiring a two to three pin adapter, again included in the box.

Acer supplies a 64MB card with the CU-6530, enough for around 20 shots at normal resolution, though it's not a particularly quick card. This can be important if you're taking several shots in quick succession.

This is a very good attempt at a medium-price, ultra-compact camera from Acer. Its large LCD screen and well-structured lens give it a good start and, with its interesting infra-red auto-focus, it's worth considering against its Pentax, Olympus and Benq rivals. It beats all of them on price.