Digital SLR: Best Buys 

Finding a digital SLR isn't an easy thing to do. Do you invest a lot of money and get a high resolution large sensor camera? Or do you go for something a bit more compact and a bit more affordable? But that's not where the decision ends. these days you have a lot of compact system camera's available too.

Such as Sony's NEX models, the Panasonic G Series or the Olympus micro four thirds and the price isn't always an indication of quality and that's where Which? tests come in.

On which.co.uk you'll find reviews of hundreds hundreds of the best cameras. We clearly list specifications and features of each camera along side easy to read star ratings enable you to identify the best and worst performers. The best performing cameras are awarded the coveted Best Buy award. And to further ensure our independence, Which? doesn't carry any advertising on our websites or in our magazines, so we don't have any manufacturers to please. In short tell it as it is. 

When we're testing digital cameras we'll put them through a lab assessment which can take a matter of weeks to work out which are the best performing models and which aren't. We never look at into the camera, we never even look at the price of the camera, we'll even cover that information up for us, the only thing that matters is how well that camera preforms, in identical lab conditions to every other model that we put through.

A lot of other magazines and websites will do image quality tests. Very often these assessments are done on computer processors. Now as well as using these picture processors, we'll have an independent expert lab panel of assessors. These assessors will actually look at the pictures and work out which are the best pictures, where are they delivering on colour accuracy, we are they delivering on sharpness, reducing grainy noise, so you actually get a human element as well as a computer element, judging which is the best picture quality.

These days the video on a camera is just as important as the photo quality, so we've actually added lots and lots of video assessments to our still camera tests. So we'll judge how smooth the video is when you are using even a compact camera or a digital SLR, or judge the video sound quality as well . Because very often, you are getting a camera that's boasting that it does 1080p full HD video. It all sounds very impressive. But when you pull this little thing out of your pocket and you try and record something with it, you get terrible sound. So we are going to actually test that and tell you what you'll get. Because these are going to be your videos you're taking in day-to-day life. And our lab assessments can actually tell you what kind of video you can expect. 

We also have member reviews for personal takes on each camera. These can be really useful for letting you know what it's like to live model for a long time. Each review is linked to a life pricing page, helping you find the cheapest online and retailer when you make your purchasing decision. Our product comparison tool makes it easy to directly compare cameras and find models with the features that you need.

You can select, for example, cameras with touch screen operation, those with view-finders, and those that are water-proof. We also have a useful memory card capacity tool that will allow you to calculate how many photos you can take at the certain resolution on a certain size memory card. 

At Which? we have more than 50 years of experience of testing products. So make sure you take advantage of that and all the free advice we have on offer at Which.co.uk.