Cashback for Christmas: Camera promotions

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight -- we're happy tonight -- walking in a winter wonderland with a camera we bought in a nifty cashback promotion.

It's Christmas and some of the major manufacturers are in a giving mood. We've found four offers that involve buying a new camera and getting some of the value refunded to you. That's cashback for Christmas!

Click through for a glimpse of the camera goodies on offer, like kids pressing your cold noses up against the window of a toy store. If we can't have an alien for Christmas, we want one of these. -Rich Trenholm

Manufacturer: Nikon
Promotion: Complete The Picture
Cashback Value: £50
To celebrate ten years of the Coolpix range, Nikon will give you up to £50 off any digital picture frame when you spend over £100 a Nikon Coolpix camera.

The offer will run up to 31 December 2007, so it's perfect for presents. You can have any digital frame you want -- any make or model -- as long as you buy camera and frame together, in the same store and the same transaction.

Coolpix cameras include the rather awesome high-end P5100, pictured, and the Wi-Fi-enabled S51c. With wireless and email-enabled picture frames creeping onto the market, the S51c might just come into its own, as long as you can get it to make friends with public Wi-Fi.

The small print is at nikoncompletepicture.com for how to register and redeem the cashback. Nikon will then send a cheque to cover the cost of the frame, up to the value of £50, which technically makes this 'chequeback', but we'll let that go. Claims will be accepted until 31 Jan 2008.

Manufacturer: Olympus
Promotion: E-510
Cashback Value: £100
Pick up the Olympus E-510 dSLR and Olympus will give you £100 cashback until 31 December 2007. The 10-megapixel E-510 features image stabilisation and live view, as well as supersonic wave filter dust protection system.

The small print is at olympus.co.uk/e510cashback, where you complete the online claim form to register, then print it and send it off with receipt and warranty card from the box. The £100 cashback will be transferred electronically to your bank account, technically making it 'transferback', but hey ho.

Manufacturer: Olympus
Promotion: E-3 free stuff
Cashback Value: £334.99
On a related note, Olympus is offering a free HLD-4 power grip, worth £199.99, and E-System pro backpack, worth £135, with the purchase of a new E-3 dSLR camera. The E-3 will be available before the end of the month for £1,099.99, and all owners who register their new Olympus E-3 before 31 December 2007 will be eligible to receive the free power grip.

All purchasers of the new E-3 who sign on to express their interest between now and 30 November 2007, and then register their new camera by 31 December 2007, will be eligible for the free E-System pro backpack. Technically this isn't cashback at all, it's more -- you'll like this one -- 'backpackback'. Head to olympus.co.uk for more info.

Manufacturer: Canon
Promotion: 20th Anniversary Cashback
Cashback Value: £5-135 per product
Canon has extended its cashback promotion from the first half of 2007 to 31 December. To celebrate 20 years of the EOS brand, you will be able to benefit from cashback across a range of cameras, lenses and accessories. Canon reckons you can save over £1,000 if you buy all 24 products, but you'd have to have had a fair few tenners in cards from aunties and uncles to do it.

The offer includes £50 off the EOS 400D -- around £370 for the body only -- and the recently launched EOS 40D -- pictured, around £700 for the body only. A much more substantial £135 is offered off the full-frame EOS 5D, which currently costs about £1,300.

Various other lenses and accessories have varying amounts knocked off. For more details and a list of products, head for canon-europe.com/2007promotions. Once again, you need to send a receipt and barcode and you'll be reimbursed by cheque or by electronic transfer direct to your bank. Which technically means it isn't cashback -- oh what the heck, it's Christmas!