Content including photographs are Copyright © 2009 - Don & Linda Gilmore
Some people have their favorites: Canon, Nikon, etc. The playing field has changed since the film days. Cameras with the best Picture Quality are from names you thought made radios and stereos. Panasonic being one of the best! All the major manufacturers make great cameras. All are a little different and some are better for taking certain types of photos than others. Visit this site for more info:
Our Photography News Page ---- Once you find a camera check for the latest reviews and news here.
Don't take anyone's word for which are the best. Why? Because, first, it depends on what you want the camera for - wildlife, animals, and other interests would dictate the use of the Zoom Camera, while the normal vacation snapshots will dictate one of the budget cameras or a better model without the zoom. Panasonic is in the forefront of both technologies right now and all their cameras offer IS (image stabilization). This is a great feature and does come in handy.
It certainly won't hurt to have one available for those times when you want to get up close and personal. But if you only need a moderate zoom then you'll find a lot of P&S cameras that will work for you. The small out-dated Canon we use has a 6X zoom and it's just fine for the majority of shots. Now if your looking for one that will bring a bighorn sheep in for a close up or a lizard up close for more detail then go with the big zoom. The camera is going to be bigger and you'll notice the difference carrying it all day, where the smaller one can hang around your neck or can fit in your pocket and you won't even know your carrying it. Just decide what kind of shooting your going to do. Size here is probably the biggest consideration as both will work fine for landscapes, close-ups, or portraits. Cost difference can be a consideration also.
Do I really need a big zoom?
The definitive answer is NO! No one needs to put that much time into learning a software. Now if you want more control over the outcome of your photos then learn to use an imaging program. If you have to have the Photo Shop name on it then try Photo Shop Elements, it's a great imaging program. If not then go with the one listed here:
Corel's Paint Shop Pro X3
. Great price on this one now
Either one will do whatever you want to do with photos plus a lot more. They are easier to learn and have great controls, before and after views as you work, text, graphics and a fantastic photos archiveing, all included. And a great price! Photo Shop CS4 is built to be hard to learn to use, and it is. The Latest one we tried was Lightroom 2. It had some great working features, but like all of Adobe's software is a nightmare to learn and it's expensive. Actually if your going get prints from an on-line source or at the local store; you don't need any of the above.
Do I need to learn Photo Shop CS4?
Actually there are several downside's to owning a small P&S camera. You won't have to spend your inheritance. You won't get to carry around that big impressive camera or a large camera bag that just jumps up and says I'm a professional -- rob me! Ok seriously; one of the things you won't get are really large prints with a lot of detail. Your photos won't be as good as a D-SLR!!! You won't have the versatility you'd get with a D-SLR. You won't get high ISO photos with very little noise. This means your low light photos are going to be noisy (full of little colored dots).You won't get the really fine detail in shots when you zoom into 100% on a computer monitor. Now if you don't care about any of these things or your like us and want a nice camera to take hiking or just a small one to take along without all the extras then get a P&S and have fun taking 100's of photos on your next trip in the desert.
On some digital P&S's the only choice you'll have for a power source will be AA Penlight batteries; this is a definite downside. If at all possible find a camera with a Lithium Ion battery pack. The penlight rechargeable's are next to worthless, and don't last; you wouldn't believe how many get thrown away and finally just used regular Alkaline's. Try to find one that uses an SD (Secure Digital) or CF (Compact Flash) memory card. Sorry but Sony memory sticks and XD Picture cards cost to much. NOW remember you can use a P&S for a lot different situations, and you'll really like the results. A lot of the photos on this site were taken with a small point & shoot Canon, and we've even made some nice prints with the photos. The bigger zoom P&S cameras are coming close to the quality of the Digital SLR's.
What's the downside to a P&S Camera?
Here's a list of necessary extras. You'll really need these:
Extra batteries or battey pack
A small camera case to protect your investment
A UV Haze filter to protect the front element Note on some small P&S cameras using a UV filter is not possible.
A larger memory card. 1 gig is good. Note most cameras only come with a small card, if any.
How much extra stuff do I need?
Video with your Point & Shoot
Ok about the memory cards -- your going to need good ones if you plan on using your camera's video capabilities. We try to stick with San Disk or Lexar, but there are other good ones out there. So why not just get a regular video camera? Want to carry two cameras? And the other point we're going to make here is this: the video on these little cameras today is just short of fantastic. We've included a small video file here using the lesser quality video that the camera shoots just to show how good these little P&S cameras are with video. Now on both these pages, please give the video time to load, the file sizes are large, but the quality is unbelievable for such a little camera. Now D=SLR's are starting to come out with video capabilities.
This video was shot at the small size of 320x240. The camera (Canon A 710 IS) is capable of shooting video at 640x480. This is a 16 second clip that is 4.30 MB. It was shot while driving and would have been a lot more jerky if the camera didn't have Image Stabilization which works with the video too.
(Video includes sound). This is a great option to have with your carry-around camera.
To the right are three of our favorite P&S cameras. The one on the top is a Sony 707 5 megapixel camera with a tele-extender lens added. This was a great camera, and it took fantastic photos. The one on the far right is an old Olympus 2 megapixel camera with a 10X Canon Image Stabilized Lens, it took the best photos of all 3 shown here. The one on the bottom is our current Canon 7.1 megapixel canon. It takes nice photos, and really great videos. It is smaller and you can put it in your pocket and carry it all day. Don't over look P&S cameras, the picture quality will surprise you, along with the video. Have fun.....
