You don't expect digital cameras that cost less than £100 to be too exciting. But the GSmart 300 from Mustek is rather different.

This easy to use, plug-and-play camera is specifically targeted at internet users and people new to digital photography.

It offers a really inexpensive way to put reasonable quality images on your computer screen.

The GSmart 300 is a triple mode camera that has still image capturing, PC camera and camcorder capabilities. You can take ordinary still digital pictures, use the camera as a webcam for video conferencing and even capture short video clips.

Fitted with 4MB resident memory as standard, the GSmart 300 offers a maximum 640 by 480 pixel VGA resolution, quite adequate for most on-screen applications.

Users are able to store up to 120 pictures in QVGA (320 by 240) resolution but the size and quality of these images leaves rather a lot to be desired.

When using the Gsmart 300 linked with Adobe Photoshop or other image editing software, users can enhance captured images and quickly export them to desktop publishing applications or create web-ready images for use on the internet.

With excellent power conservation, two batteries will support up to 600 shots. The camera measures 90 by 65 by 32mm and weighs 120g (without batteries), enabling it to easily fit in a briefcase, backpack or handbag.

This is hardly the most feature- rich digital camera on the market, but it is a reasonable compromise for a person constrained by their budget.

The camera looks really neat and works a lot better than you might expect.

Price: £89.00.

Contact: 0870 072 1829.

Feel good factor: 8 out of 10.