Electromagnetically driven flux compression (EMC) devices are developed with a view to applications for experiments with megagauss fields, in particular for a study of magnetic bremsstrahlung. Fields of the order of 1.3 MG are reproducibly generated by means of a 27 kJ capacitor bank of uncomplicated design. In order to optimize the EMC configurations, extensive experimental parameter studies have been undertaken by varying the geometrical dimensions, the foil material, the coil design, and the capacitor bank voltage. A comparison is made between EMC and other methods for the generation of megagauss fields.