Pocket Perfect Compact Digital Cameras
These sleek point-and-shoots reach resolutions up to 12 megapixels and have fancy features such as image stabilization and face detection, plus snazzy colors. Better yet, some capable models cost as little as $200.
A cry for attention, or simply an exuberant display of personal style--that's the question provoked by the colorful looks we found in this roundup of compact digital cameras. The answer, though, is probably simple: For camera makers and camera owners, it's tough to stand out in a crowd where so many products have lots of megapixels, tiny bodies, and low prices--hence, many new point-and-shoot models come clad in electric blue, powder-puff pink, race-car red, or foreboding black.
But while camera makers are producing snazzier-looking models, they're not getting by on looks alone; they're also making better units. Of the 16 cameras we tested for this roundup, the lowest resolution we saw was 7 megapixels, and the highest was 12.2 megapixels. We saw some excellent shots in our tests, and unlike the compact cameras that we've tested in years past, nearly all models had strong, long-running batteries. The Casio Exilim EX-1080 held out for 500 shots--our test maximum--and even the most power-hungry camera in this group, the Nikon Coolpix S51, took 190 shots.
Tiny buttons on our Best Buy camera, the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd, control its image stabilization (top) and face detection features (back). Most of the cameras in our roundup include these two features.
All but one of the units we tested had image stabilization features--some use hardware-based systems, while others can boost their light sensitivity to as high as ISO 6400, which allows the camera to use a higher shutter speed, thus reducing blur (but risking increased image noise). Many had face-detection features to help capture portraits with the proper focus and exposure. Fujifilm's FinePix F50fd, our top-rated model, had the company's newest face-detection circuitry, which helped it recognize people's mugs whether they were looking straight at the camera or at our feet.
None came with full-manual exposure settings, but a few had aperture- and shutter-priority modes--useful for challenging conditions and subjects. Still, all rely heavily on having lots of scene modes (the Exilim EX-1080 tops the field with an indecision-inducing 41).
The other significant trend among point-and-shoot cameras, even small pocketable models like these: big, beautiful LCDs. Screens in pocket cameras used to be tiny, but the latest units have ones measuring as large as 3.1 inches. A few have a wide screen--they capture wide-screen stills and, in a very few, video; Kodak offers an optional docking station for its EasyShare V1253 to connect to your HDTV.
The lenses on all the cameras in this review retract within their bodies when you shut them down, so you can carry them on your person easily. But some are more pocket-friendly than others: The Canon SD950 IS, for example, weighs 6.7 ounces--it easily earns a "chunky" label. The Olympus FE-280, on the other hand, weighs just 3.9 ounces, and it's as thin as a standard deck of cards.
The Fujifilm FinePix F50fd won our best buy with the top overall performance score, tons of useful features, and a fair price--but flashy, it's not.
The cameras that we also tested but that did not make our Top 10 chart include the Canon PowerShot SD870 IS, the HP Photosmart R742, the Kodak EasyShare M853, the Olympus Stylus 820, the Nikon Coolpix S51, and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70.
In This Article:
- Fujifilm FinePix F50fd
- Casio Exilim EX-Z1080
- Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
- Pentax Optio M40
- Canon PowerShot SD950 IS
- Olympus FE-280
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX100
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55
- Casio Exilim EX-S880
- Kodak EasyShare V1253
- Top Compact Cameras (chart)
- Where Have all the Advanced Cameras Gone?
Where Have all the Advanced Cameras Gone?
Canon's introduction of the Digital Rebel single-lens reflex (SLR) camera in fall 2003--soon followed by inexpensive digital SLRs from other makers--put a serious dent in a category of digital cameras that PC World calls "advanced." Neither as large as SLRs nor as simple as point-and-shoots, advanced models have fixed lenses much smaller than an SLR's, as well as sophisticated manual exposure controls, fast lenses, and high resolution. They were the best digital cameras most people could get, because, until the Rebel hit with its sub-$1000 price, they also had better prices than SLRs. If you can get an SLR for nearly the same price as a fixed-lens model, why would you want to buy the latter?
The advanced models that are still available provide some conveniences that SLRs don't: They are smaller and lighter than an SLR. Canon's PowerShot G9 weighs nearly a third less than the original PowerShot G1 (an advanced model), and roughly half what the latest Digital Rebel weighs with a lens attached. All advanced models offer a live image preview on their LCDs, whereas most SLRs still lack one. Few people buy wide-angle or telephoto adapters for advanced cameras now--those who want those features usually buy SLRs--but underwater housings are smaller and much less expensive for the advanced models.
Prices have come down on advanced units, too; Nikon's recent Coolpix P5100 costs $400, or less than half of the Coolpix 8800's price in 2005; Olympus' SP-560Z costs $500, or half what the company sold its C-8080 for in 2004.
But SLRs still have a decided edge in several important areas, according to Canon spokesperson Chuck Westfall. SLRs have much less shutter lag than a compact camera will; and of course they accept multiple lenses.
SLRs also offer better image quality, especially at higher ISOs, in large part because their bodies can accommodate larger sensors, which require less signal amplification and thus generate less image noise. Westfall says that camera makers are capable of fitting an SLR-size sensor into a camera the size of the PowerShot G9, but that the supporting circuitry still needs to be scaled down from what's in a current SLR.
But before you complain about the scarcity of advanced models, pause to celebrate the declining prices of consumer digital SLRs. Not only do many new SLRs cost less than before, they cost less than many advanced models used to.
Alan Stafford
Greg Adler, Tracey Capen, Paul Jasper, Narasu Rebbapragada, and Alan Stafford
