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The GE A835 digital camera is small at 9x6.5x2.5cm the last figure can increase by 3cm when the zoom is fully out. It is silver grey in colour with a chrome strip along the top and sides and it weights around 170grams with its 2x'AA' batteries inserted.

The front of the camera has the lens with the flash above and to the left, at the nearest it is 1cm from the lens. The right side has the anchor point for the wrist strap. The left side has an uncovered mini USB port.

The base has the battery cover for the supplied two 'AA' batteries and any SD card you might use and beside this is the anchor point for the tripod. The top has an eight position wheel with the shutter release in it's centre and also the on/off button.

This leaves the back and if you have seen any of these GE cameras you will know they all have the same manual so the layout must be the same. A 5x4cm TFT display fills all but the very right side of the back and the wide angle/telephoto rocker is at the top of the remaining space with three well marked buttons and the ubiquitous five position joystick completing the controls, all these buttons apart from the toggle have black faces. This initially looks different but in most lights it makes them easier to read as the writing or diagrams are in white.

See also: Digital Cameras

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I always try to avoid knowing the price of a product until I look it up on the web as I like to form a value in my mind as this helps with the smiley allocation. Here I know it must be cheaper than the 'E' and 'G' series as this is entry level.

This unit has 3x zoom and while this is entry level it is not that long ago the norm even for far more expensive units. While I test every mode a camera has to offer I tend - especially for entry level units - to use Auto mode a lot. Here I was more than happy with the images, 3x zoom from a distance can give nice results and with a fairly steady hand there is little need for a tripod. Increase the zoom and one will almost always be needed.

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One test I normally do is to place a standard A4 letter on the floor around a metre and a half away and zoom fully onto it, take the image and then view it using the TFT, using full zoom 8x (the one decent use of digital zoom on a camera) you should be able to read the letter easily, you will of course need to move over the letter area by area but here everything was perfect. I think this is a good test of the Auto setting of a camera and one you could even be able to test in a shop as placing a pice of paper on the floor is about the correct distance.

I was happy with the flash up to about three metres after this the background faded away. Few digital cameras with built in flash are much better. For video it is okay for short shots but do not try zooming while capturing as the sound will be naff.

There are four video modes 640x480 and 320x240 each can be 30FPS or 15FPS. For still images there are three storage compression modes, normal, fine and best. There are eight image sizes so 24 possible storage combinations. VGA, 1MP, 2MP, 3MP, 5MP, 6MP (16;9), 7MP (3:2), and 8MP.

As always the large retailers stop the manufacturers providing a case (the TFT needs protection) and an SD card. Both should be on your shopping list. With cards so cheap buy two 1GB cards (easily available at as little as £3.99 each easily available at as little as $5.69 each easily available at as little as €4,19 each)

Doing my Internet searches found the GE A835 at a best price of £69.25 including delivery from the link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=ge%20a835&tag=gadge0a-21&index=electronics-uk&camp=1634

Available in black, red and silver I found the GE A835 at a best price of $99.99 including free delivery from the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=ge%20a835&tag=gadge0a5-20&index=electronics&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789