The Best Digital Cameras on the Market
For the past few months, I have been sending out invitations to several companies, asking them for samples of their digital cameras. The companies that I have contacted included Olympus, Nikon, and Casio and Sony.
I suppose I wanted to do a Digital camera smackdown much like I did a Digital Pen Showdown or MP3 Player Face-Off. I assembled my competitors from the aforementioned companies, which included the Olympus FE-340, the Casio EX-Z9 ELIXIM, and the Nikon COOLPIX S52 (S52c).
Entering was simple, I wanted to chose a compact camera with at least 8.0 megapixels and under $250.00. I believe that I found more than I bargained for with the Sony DSC-H10B Camera. I am afraid that I couldn’t include it in this little product face-off, as much as I would have liked to. The Sony DSC-H10B is a little too overqualified for this little contest, but I will recommend it. I apologize to Sony, I wrote a separate article about what it can do.
After I looked at each, I didn’t think it was fair to say which is the best one. This is why have declared all of them winners in their own right.
Therefore, I divided this up into three award categories:
Most easiest: The Casio EX-Z9 ELIXIM definitely takes the crown in this contest. From the moment I took it out of the box and charged it, it was a very simple point and shoot. Of course I needed a memory card first, as there didn’t seem to be hardly any internal memory.
The menu options were given on the 2.6 inch screen, and it was quite easy to access the flash and self-timer. The 23 presets and Face Detection technology also was simple enough.
The only thing that I was not able to master instinctively is the supposed Three-step YouTube capture mode. Of course, I normally wouldn’t have used a digital camera like this for movie footage anyway.
Niftiest Feature: The Nikon COOLPIX S52 had one of the coolest features that I have seen so far. When a picture is taken, you have the option of sending it to yourself via email. All you need to do is set up an account on Nikon’s Picturetown website, and the camera allows you to send a picture via Wi-fi.
You can then access your photo on Picturetown, and download it onto your computer. From there, you can post it on Flickr, or various other social networking sites.
Most Features: The moment I started writing about the Olympus FE-340, I found that I could not quit writing about it. From Face Detection, Digital Image Stabilization (DIS), ISO sensitivity, Perfect Shot Preview, video shooting, and the My Favorites feature that stores all the pictures you want in a convenient place.
So, it appears that everyone is a winner when it comes to these digital cameras. If you are looking to get one for the holiday season, here is the price range. The Casio EX-Z9 and the Olympus FE-340 are about $159.99 each, while the Nikon COOLPIX S52 runs for about $249.95.
- http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/04-10-2008/000479
- News - CASIO
Casio Introduces Stylish new 8.1 MegaPixel Digital Camera - http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1354