Which key compact digital cameras are game changers that might influence features on future models—or help you make your next buying decision?
| Canon PowerShot S90$400Looks can be deceiving. Take the Canon PowerShot S90. It looks like your typical pocket-sized compact digital camera on the outside. It has a modest 3.8x optical zoom lens and overall it looks and feels like hundreds of cameras out there. But internally, this 10MP camera is a powerhouse. Sporting the same CMOS sensor as Canon’s flagship compact, the G11, the PowerShot S90’s “modest” zoom has a low-light friendly f/2.0 widest aperture, and image quality when shooting JPEGs is excellent right up to ISO 800 (it also shoots RAW). It also gives you the option of shooting as high as ISO 12,800 at lower resolution. It has a 3-inch LCD monitor, manual as well as auto exposure modes, plus optical image stabilization, tons of shooting modes, and much more. DxOMark lab tests show image quality is identical to that captured with the more complicated and somewhat bigger G11. This is a serious camera hiding in a tiny camera body.
Casio Exilim EX-FC150$350As with the Canon S90, Casio pulled back on the pixel density on its flagship compact camera. Why? Because they understand that serious photographers understand that more pixels do not necessarily improve image quality and can, in fact, make the results look worse. And so, the EX-FC150 has “only” 10MP, which is good enough for stunning 16×20-inch prints. But where this camera excels is in shooting speed: It is capable of full-size bursts of up to 40 frames per second—as well as 720p HD video at normal speed and lower-resolution images at as blazingly fast as 1,000 frames per second for ultra-slow motion capture). But here’s where it gets really interesting: The camera will rapidly capture several shots of low-light scenes at a lower than the recommended ISO and combine them to dramatically reduce noise/grain. Yes, it can also capture all the everyday stuff, but if you are ready to experiment with speed, give this one a shot. General Electric C1033 $70“HUH? Have you guys lost it? How could a $70 point-and-shoot camera be important compared to the other cameras on this list?” To answer this question, ask parents sending their kids off to summer camp this year what they’re doing about cameras. In previous years, they’d pack a two or three single-use cameras. This year, for the first time, for the cost of three single-use cameras—with processing—you can buy a digital camera that will provide a modest zoom lens red-eye removal, image stabilization, and more advanced automatic exposure than any single-use camera could offer. The GE C1033 is just one of a growing number of cameras that aspire to topple the dominance of single-use cameras. Yeah, compared to almost any other digital compact, they fall way short. But compared to those simple film cameras, they’re a giant leap in the ability to bring home digital snapshots for very little money. |
