Milan. Paris. New York. Hemel Hempstead. All are synonymous with sleek style, and -- what's that? Not convinced by Hemel? Then feast your eyes on the saucy little sex-grenade that is the Kodak M1093 IS. Several recent compacts from Kodak Towers have been the sort of lookers that not only turn heads, but make red-blooded camera fans like this Craver inadvertently walk into lampposts.
Besides, who can afford to get abroad in these financially troubled times? If the credit crunch has your goolies in a gorilla press, maybe it's time to look for more affordable style cues.
The M1093 is a 10-megapixel point-and-shoot in sleek stealth-fighter jet black. This is the sort of camera James Bond would look at home with, slipping it out of his elegantly tailored dinner jacket before using it to beat assorted henchmen to within a picometre of their worthless, henching lives.
The lens fits in a relatively average 35mm when zoomed out, equivalent to a 35mm film camera. Shutter speed can be adjusted between 1/1,448 second and a more leisurely 8 seconds, for pretty lighting effects or low-light photography.
Video options boast the high-definition tag, with a 1,280x720-pixel option, or 640x480 and 320x240 for Web sharing.
Click through top the next image for more eye sweeties. The Kodak EasyShare M1093 IS is available now for a very respectable £130, making it a pretty attractive snapper for these apocalyptic financial times. At least with the M1093 you'll look stylish while they're repossessing your house.
The M1093 is dominated round the back by a giant 76mm (3-inch) LCD screen with a 230,000-pixel resolution. Controls are neatly placed to the right, including a jaunty little joystick. The zoom control is a flattened pad with only the slightest contour to rock the button from side-to-side. We're not sure about it yet, frankly. Things are kept uncluttered by shifting the flash and mode selectors to the top, next to the power button and the slick flat shutter release.