Compact digital best buys,
By Robert de Gast

The last six months saw an avalanche of new six- to ten-megapixel digital cameras, tumbling prices and sensational features. But to find the right camera you’ll have to wade through the names and numbers of the merchandise, which have no relationship to anything known to mankind. Hang in there, and buyer beware!

Here are some of the best buys among the various sizes and flavors. The market has sorted itself out, finally, and now recognizes three different species it collectively calls compacts: There is the Compact, the Sub-Compact and the Advanced Compact.

There is a fourth flavor, though not called the Super Compact as you might have thought. It’s simply known as a DSLR, a digital single-lens reflex camera and I’ll talk about it in a future column.

The Compacts, presumably for those who want the basics at a low price, actually turn out not to be particularly cheaper. Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX2 (I warned you, didn’t I?) costs about four hundred bucks, but offers a large LCD screen, and an image stabilizer to help you make fewer blurry pictures. It also boasts a 4x optical zoom.

Nikon, with its Coolpix P4, signs in at about US$350. Featuring eight megapixels, it suffers from both “shutter lag” and “next-shot delay” (see below).

Kodak’s EasyShare C875, at two hundred bucks, gets good marks for its eight-megapixel sensor and very good print quality.

The Sub-Compacts, three of which I’ll mention here, are cameras that fit in a purse or pocket. (Buyer beware: some of these cameras are so small that most men’s fingers and hands are too big to manipulate the controls.)

The Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital ELPH (love that name!) costs nearly US$400 and at seven megapixels rates excellent for print quality.

Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-W50, at two hundred dollars, has the lowest “next-shot delay” (see below).

Panasonic comes in again in this category with its Lumix DMC-FX3 camera, at US$190. It weighs a mere five ounces!

In the so-called Advanced Compacts, Fujifilm reigns supreme, with its Finepix S6000fd (at US$500) and Finepix E900 (at US$300). These cameras, for those who think they need more than a basic camera, are heavier, but offer larger zoom capabilities, manual controls and shorter shutter lag.

“Next-shot delay” is the time the camera needs before it can take its next photo, but many cameras have a “burst” mode which allows you to take several pictures in rapid succession without, however, being able to see them immediately.

“Shutter lag” is the time it takes the camera to take its first shot once you turn it on.

I’d like to note here, once and for all, that human beings cannot tell the difference between the resolution of, say, seven or eight megapixels, or, for that matter, nine or ten. 

Here’s the thing to do before spending your hard-earned money. Go to dpreview.com and check out the reviews for cameras of interest. It’s the best and most reliable site, I think, on the internet.

Finally, don’t buy a camera on the internet, unless you’ve handled it in person. Check it out at some store first and see if it suits you.

And after that, take care and take pictures!

Robert de Gast is a documentary photographer and author. He conducts photography workshops and tours and offers short, hourly tutorials. He can be reached at 152-7396 or robertdegast@hotmail.com.