Konica Minolta DiMage X31

The front of the X31 sports the lens cover, a small metal plate that opens to reveal the lens when the camera is turned on, and a tiny but effective self-portrait mirror. The circle on the lower left is makes holding the camera more comfortable.

A sticker illustrating the 3X optical zoom adorns the left side of the X31; f/2.8 to f/3.7 3X optical zoom lens doesn't protrude from the camera body when zoomed.

The camera takes SD media, but there's no covering for the slot. It also has just enough internal memory to hold up to ten 640-by-480 "favorites".

The X-31 runs on two double-A batteries; it showed decent battery life with standard alkaline batteries.

The power button, a switch to toggle between photo and video modes, and the shutter button reside on the top of the X31.

The camera's few and small controls include a tiny five-way selector button that doubles as a zoom rocker, a playback button, and a menu button, which accesses scene modes and controls for white balance, color modes, flash, drive modes, and so on; the e-mail copy function creates a compressed 640- by 480-pixel image for Web transmission.

The 1.5-inch LCD is the only way to frame shots, as the X31 has no optical viewfinder.

The X31 is lightweight (at 4.1 ounces) and can fit in a shirt pocket, though not comfortably. It can be held in one hand for shooting, though it requires two hands for easy zooming.