Nikon digital camera The Best Digital Cameras This review is intended to help you choose the best compact digital camera for your goals. Olympus cameras, which can be good values and have some unique features such as weatherproofing. Each of these categories gets a separate section below. If you only use a camera during your childs soccer game, for example, the responsiveness and controllability are much more important than the cameras size. For travel, on the other hand, you probably dont want something so heavy that you are tempted to leave it back in the hotel. In shopping for a good digital camera, the one specification that you can safely ignore is the number of pixels, which has almost nothing to do with image quality. The interesting question is not the number of pixels, but their quality. Ultra Compact Whatever the advertisements might say about megapixels, these cameras suffer from mediocre image quality, especially in low light. The sensor in an ultra compact camera is very small and therefore it picks up a lot of noise along with the image. Canon and Casio have been the traditional leaders in this category. Casio digital cameras have the style and canon digital camera have the image quality. These cameras are about the size of a mobile phone and can be slipped into any pocket. Nikon Coolpix S1 Lens Note: Lens focal lengths in this article are specified in terms of the equivalent perspective on an old 35mm film camera. The world of wide angle begins at 35mm and becomes noticeably wide at 28mm, dramatic at 24mm.

Sports photography from the sidelines begins at 200mm. SLR such as the Canon Digital Rebel XT will turn on almost instantly.

2004 when faster processors became standard. Compact These cameras are small enough to fit in a coat pocket, a purse, or a belt case. The Compact cameras can have heavier, higher quality lenses as well. Compact digital cameras are a good choice for travel when you know that youll want to take a photo every 15 or 20 minutes. The camera is very responsive. The lag time after pressing the shutter is minimal, even when the camera decides to use flash. The Kodak Z730 has an orientation sensor. You press the review button to look at photos youve taken. Ion battery that should be good for at least 300 photos between charges. SCUBA case; if you arent going to make big prints, you can save yourself a few dollars and enjoy faster response time with the very similar Canon A610. The 28mm wide angle lens setting makes this camera much better for scenery than the typical compact digicam. DC1 is the SCUBA case. Olympus Stylus 600 and Stylus 800. Similar capabilities to those above, but weatherproof and good for use in the rain or at the beach. The 600 might be more responsive because it is using the same processor and doesnt have as many pixels to deal with. If you are on a tight budget, this is the category of camera that you want. DC60 is the SCUBA case Creative Compact These cameras arent much bigger than the compact digital cameras, but they offer a lot more user control. The lenses might be bigger, heavier, and of higher optical quality. Almost all creative compact cameras offer the option of storing images in RAW format, usually proprietary but sometimes in Adobes standard DNG format. JPEG is convenient for uploading to the Web, sharing with friends, or getting prints. Unfortunately, a lot of shadow and highlight detail that was captured by the sensor can be lost with a standard JPEG.