Can someone confirm that a bad cam follower valve will be firm when you try to depress the valve?

I have 5 that I can squeeze under finger pressure

and 3 that are solid and do not compress at all under finger pressure.

Hmm. Now confused.
The car had not been run for approx 4 years when i got it- and when i finally got the engine going, it was of course very clattery. The engine did quieten down a little with some use, but clearly I think several cam followers are not pressurizing - without going to the expense of buy 8 new ones (>£300!)- is there a foolproof way saying 'this cam follower is a dud'? I'd hate to strip the cam tower twice....!
thanks
ian

I have some noisy tappets in my S2 which do quieten down after a short while, I had an engineer while looking at some other stuff check the cams, chain and tensioner, and balance shaft bearing for something else and we decided at least those cam followers on No. 3 & 4 cylinder inlet valves were probably the culprit of the noisy tappets. These were shiny on the outside edge and could be rotated in the head (not easily but still moved where the others were tight) when the cam was not in full compression.

I know I need to change at least these but my concern is would new cam followers be any tighter in the head i.e. is it the head that is worn not the followers as these look harder material than the head unless they fit in a toughened sleeve, which I do not think they do and if I went to the trouble of removing the cams and belts etc I think I would want to replace all the cam followers for piece of mind but with 16 at around £30 ea this is a bit too expensive at present.