Photo Plus Expo just wrapped last week and with the new product announcements, what better time to make a new camera buying guide?
First, let’s separate prospective buyers into two groups. Do you prefer easy to use cameras that focus on portability and come in at a cheaper price, or do you prefer cameras that are much larger, but also have superior visual quality and more features?
To expand on that, most people prefer compacts if they enjoy nice photos, but primarily want to use a camera for vacations, family photos, parties, casual things. People that are more serious about photography and want to learn the ins and outs of a camera while having a greater variety of lenses, possibly even turning professional, will aim towards purchasing a DSLR. If you’re more of a compact buyer, great, this article is for you! If you’re in the market for a DSLR, a full feature will be devoted to DSLR shopping in about a week.
We’ll be taking a look at some of the more popular models of cameras, ranging in price from $100 to nearly $300. Each of them is capable of fine quality photography and should last you for a good few years.
First up, the Nikon Coolpix L20. Weighing in at $99.95 at the time of this guide, it’s by far the cheapest of the bunch. It’s a 10 megapixel camera with a 3.6x optical zoom range. It has a variety of shooting modes and features some Nikon proprietary technology (D-Lighting) that assists with low-light photography. There’s also two unique features not available in other cameras, blink and smile detection. When activated, the camera can avoid shooting during blinking, and can be made to shoot when the subject smiles. Both surprisingly handy.
The LCD is large and bright and the camera allows you to use most accessories from previous Nikon Coolpix cameras. It also features a built-in macro mode and panorama assist tools. Finally, it records video at 640×480, or 320×240, which is fine for home or online viewing.
All those features and that fantastic price do come with one problem, a complete lack of any manual controls. While manual controls are a bit advanced for most casual photographers, there are certain situations where they’re required. They’re also handy when you want to learn more about cameras if you decide to move up to a DSLR. That said, it’s a small drawback when you consider everything else available from this camera. There have been a few complaints about low image quality and blurry pictures. Make sure to update the firmware if you purchase this camera and return it for another model if necessary, because this is not how the camera should operate.
Camera number 2, the Canon PowerShot SD780IS. This contender comes in at $220. With that price, you get a 12.1 megapixel camera, 3x optical zoom with image stabilizer, 720p movie capability, HDMI output, and a 2.5 inch LCD. Some of the Canon specific features include a face detection self-timer, to let the photographer get in the shot, i-Contrast, which adjusts the contrast on certain light and dark objects to make sure your subject is lit as best as possible, and the classic red-eye correction.
It’s a very very slim and small camera, with some reporting that it’s slightly fragile. I couldn’t find any reports of actual drop tests or anyone’s actually breaking, but it seemed worth noting if you’re clumsy. Another concern was slow shutter speed. This was reported by a small percentage of users. Make sure to buy a memory card with the proper speed requirements (Class 6) and keep in mind, shooting in low-light conditions causes problems for all cameras. The image quality on this is superb and may well be the best of any of the cameras reviewed here.
Number 3, the Fujifilm FinePix S1500. This camera is less compact than the others, looking similar to a mini DSLR, and it comes in at $157. It’s a 10 megapixel camera but features a lens that allows 12x optical zoom and wide angle shots. The camera can go up to ISO 6400, which is far beyond the level of any other camera reviewed here. This allows images from very dark conditions, however, they will be incredibly grainy. The LCD is nice and large, there’s dual image stabilization, and it surprisingly has a bit of built in memory. Only 23 megs, but enough to capture a few emergency shots if your memory card breaks. Finally, it also features a 640×480 video mode.
The best part of this camera is the very generous zoom. It’s a considerably large increase over the previous cameras talked about here and if that’s something important to you, take a serious look at this camera. For some people, the added size is a drawback, but it still remains considerably smaller than the traditional DSLR.
The final camera of the day is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3. At $285, it’s the most expensive camera looked at here and approaches entry-level used DSLR prices. With that price, you get the widest angle lens available of the cameras we’ve looked at (25 vs 33 for the Fuji), a 12x optical image-stabilized zoom, a face-recognition feature, and the ability to capture HD video in the AVCHD format.
A common complaint about AVCHD format videos, one that I’ve run into myself, is that only certain programs can edit them and they can be a giant pain to use. This remains true to this day so while the video quality from this camera is solid, it can be difficult to edit anything from the video you capture. The face-recognition feature is fairly handy. When a person is in multiple shots, it will register their face. The camera then prioritizes the exposure on their face over non-registered people, allowing you to receive a better exposure for your friends and family over strangers.
A few words of warning about this camera. You cannot use generic batteries on it. There’s firmware in place that requires you to use Panasonic batteries, which are fairly expensive. When added on to the cost of an already expensive camera, it makes it a little less appealing. There’s also very few manual settings.
So there you have it! 4 excellent cameras, you can’t go wrong with any of them. Determine what your budget is and what features matter most to you then pick one up and start shooting. My personal recommendation out of the lot is the Canon, but it’s not for everyone.
