Digital memories: call it instant gratification. You take a picture and get to see it right away. And we're not talking about that old Polaroid

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas, Dec, 2000 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

With a digital camera, you can take virtually unlimited shots and view them instantly on the camera, a television or a computer. With cameras whose resolutions range from two to more than four megapixels, you can also make great looking prints. Kodak and Fuji are beginning to set up kiosks in stores and shopping malls which allow customers to hook a digital camera into them and print immediately Web sites such as www.ofoto.com and wwwezprints.com also offer high-quality prints and forums for sharing photos with others. All the cameras we reviewed offer the features expected from a high-end 35mm camera, including the ability to attach external flash and lenses, auto-focus, white balance adjustment, shutter speed adjustment, exposure compensation, f-stop selection, different methods of flash metering and landscape modes. Shoot on.

* KODAK DC 4800

This 3.1-megapixel camera with a 3X optical zoom looks and feels much like a 35mm automatic zoom camera, and is easy to learn to use. Its manual modes are controlled mainly through dials on the camera, saving you from scrolling through menus, The buttons and dials are intuitive--this is the only camera whose instruction book we didn't have to read before using it. Among its most notable user-friendly features is the ease with which you can delete the last photo you took Easy-to-use color modes and black-and-white filters also make this camera a pleasure. On the down side, the camera powered down at unexpected times (it was just conserving battery life), we kept forgetting to pop up the flash and the lens cap slipped off easily. Those drawbacks are minor, though, for this combination of ease-of-use and high power. www.kodakcom 1-716-726-7260 US$799

* LEICA DIGILUX ZOOM

It's tiny, it's feature-packed, it takes 80-second videos with sound and it boasts the highest resolution available today - 4.3 megapixels. The Digilux impresses with professional-worthy tuning of everything from white balance to focus of its 3X zoom lens, and the most natural-looking photos of all these cameras (although it was sometimes tough to tell which cameras had taken which photos). If you're more of a point-and-shoot type, this camera offers modes that customize the settings automatically, including a Portrait setting which softens the shot and makes for beautiful skin tones. Also helpful are framing guidelines displayed on the LCD screen, The shape takes some getting used to, but it's easy to hold the camera, which is small enough to attach to your belt. Our complaints: the flash is difficult to pop up, the camera has to be turned off and back on to determine the status of its rechargeable AA batteries, and the separate LCD status screen only tells you if those batteries are fully charged, about to die or dead. Nonetheless, when the built-in metal lens cover retracts and the Digilux lens pops out, the camera amazes. www.leica-camera.com 1-201-767-7500 US$849

* CANON POWERSHOT S20

This tiny camera takes 3.3 megapixel images and offers a 2X optical zoom. Even though it's the smallest camera we reviewed, the PowerShot 520 has the same features as its larger counterparts, although some adjustments do not offer as much fine-tuning. Menus are among the easiest to use. The flash does not have to be popped up and is always available, which makes it easy to gear up the camera quickly and to be certain you haven't forgotten anything. The whole thing is powered by a battery pack that charges in just 90 minutes. Various photo modes optimize settings for situations such as moving objects and black-and-white photography. Although the LCD screen is among the tiniest of these cameras, it is still easy to see. www.canon.com 1-305-260-7400 US$550

* NIKON COOLPIX 990

While at first glance this camera has an odd shape, the unusual form actually makes it easier to hold steady--and its sides rotate to create an easy-to-carry rectangle. The flash works automatically unless you disable it, which is a great advantage. (On other cameras, it's easy to forget to pop the flash up). The Coolpix offers solid 3.34 megapixel resolution and a 3X optical zoom. Many of the manual controls (including focus) are accessible through buttons on the camera rather than through menus on the LCD screen. Unusual features include best-shot selection," where the camera takes up to ten photos in rapid succession, then selects the sharpest and saves only it to the memory card. This camera's biggest drawback is its LCD, one of the smaller and harder-to-see in this group. www.nikonusa.com 1-631-547-4355 US$999

* HEWLETT-PACKARD PHOTOSMART C500

The C500 that we used had one fatal flaw: batteries expired after ten minutes of LCD use. Other than that, the 2.1 megapixel camera with 3X zoom lens is a decent offering. Although you cannot adjust shutter speed or aperture on this camera, casual photographers won't be bothered by that. The C500 uses the Digita operating system from FlashPoint Technology, also used in cameras from Kodak, Epson, Pentax and others. It opens the camera up to things like naming and organizing photos in-camera, downloading upgrades and helpful scripts from the Internet, and time-lapse photos. Several dozen Digits scripts are available from FlashPoint's Web site, including ones that walk you through tricky photography situations, put your logo on every photo or even play tic-tac-toe on the camera The C500 will print photos wirelessly on a compatible printer. www.pandi.hp.com www.digitaphoto.com 1-305-267-4646 US$499