The Best Digital Camera For The Money

By Chris Campbell

Nobody really wants, or needs the best of anything. It doesn't matter, whether it's digital cameras, automobiles, homes, or jet airplanes. What we really want and expect, is value for our money. If I'm going to spend $100 for a camera, then I better get $100 worth of features and quality from that camera. If I spend $1000 on a camera, then I better get $1000 worth back as well. If you follow a few simple rules, you'll see how easy it is to get the best camera your money can buy.

Acclaimed science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon was famous for a couple of adages known as Sturgeons Laws. My favorite, and the one most relevant to our discussion is, "Ninety percent of everything is crap." It's simple, direct and brutally honest. It also really helps narrow down our search. If the camera your looking at is not on at least one top ten list, then drop it from your search. If it doesn't have at least a four star review from someone, then drop if off your list. There are so many cameras to choose from these days, there's really no need to settle for anything less then the best.

The second step, and a little more effort intensive, is the trial run phase. You need to try out as many of the cameras on your now very short list (thanks to Theodore) as possible. Spend a day, and blitz your favorite camera stores. Go to two or three, and just annoy and pepper the sales staff with as many questions and requests as you can. If you go during off hours, you should have plenty of time and space to try out all the cameras you want. See if you can cajole them into letting you take a few home to try out. After this exercise, your short list should be really short. Maybe even a list of 1.

Of course if the above seems like to much work for you slackers out there, here's my short list of great cameras that are all money well spent. In the under $150 category, the Canon PowerShot A570IS. It's a simple point and shoot with 4x zoom lens, image stabilization, and Canon reliability. For the portability minded ultra compact FaceBook crowd, you can't go wrong with the Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital Elph. Slightly less image quality then the A570IS, and slightly more expensive, but a very easy traveler. Another favorite compact of mine is the Olympus Stylus 790SW. The only waterproof, shockproof, dust proof, and freeze proof camera I know.

If want to head for the semi-pro class of camera, step up to the Canon Rebel XTi Digital SLR. It makes an easy transition from point and shoots into the infinitely complex world of SLR photography for about $600. And, finally for those of you with bottomless pocketbooks, why not splurge and grab yourself a Canon EOS 5D for about $2000 plus change. With full frame technology at a very reasonable price, your bound to silence even the most ardent "film only" purists anywhere.

If you want to improve your digital pictures with your new digital camera you can try the great book of Digital Photo Secrets

Never Buy A Nikon Coolpix S51 Digital Camera

By Chris Campbell

Do people actually buy cameras because they think it enhances their image? With a name like Coolpix, apparently the good folks at Nikon seem to think so. The million dollar question here though, is whether buying a Nikon Coolpix S51 Digital Camera will allow you to take cool pictures like the name suggests. I suspect not, but lets take a look anyway.

One of the nice things about ultra compact cameras like the S51, is their portability. Being able to reach into a pocket quickly, grab your camera and snag a picture at a moments is a nice feature. If it works. Don't count on catching many of those candid moments with a Coolpix. It tends to take a few seconds to start up once you've powered it up, followed by another few seconds after you've squeezed the shutter button. Hopefully your subjects are slow (translation... not kids), and don't go scurrying off the second they see a camera in your hand.

Nikon, must know that the S51 is going to be carried around in all kinds of strange places. Pants pockets full of dust and beach sand, backpacks along with your paper clip collection, and car consoles right beside all your loose dimes and nickels. You'd think, they'd make the Coolpix LCD a little more durable for these hostile environments. Especially since there's no viewfinder, and your stuck staring at a scratched up LCD to frame all your photos.

Megapixels and LCD's screens seem to be the big selling point these days with manufacturers. If only more consumers realized that too many megapixels result in noisy pictures, especially with an ultra-compact camera that have such a small image sensor to start with. While bigger LCDs may seem cool, they're just a killer on batteries. I swear that little Energizer Bunny is subsidizing the camera manufacturers big LCD hype, just to ensure he stays employed forever. I'd gladly exchange a 3 inch LCD for a 2 inch one, if it meant I got 30% more pictures, and a viewfinder thrown in as a backup.

Just for good measure, here's a couple other shots to the body of the Nikon Coolpix S51:

- hard to hold onto, power switch too easy to press accidentally

- LCD display is very grainy

- door to battery and memory card is fragile and hard to open

- no auto presets dial

- photos under florescent lighting have greenish tinge

If honesty in advertising was applied to cameras the way it was to cigarettes, we'd have some pretty interesting warning labels on camera packaging. "Warning... this camera may make you a bad photographer". "Warning... pictures in LCD are grainier then they appear". "Warning... buying a Coolpix camera will not make you seem cool to your friends". Unfortunately you won't find those out in the real world, but at least you've been warned here first. There are of course plenty of better cameras out there, and not too far from here.

More camera details at Digital-Photo-Secrets.net