Jason Dunn
03-01-2004, 08:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1538516,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1538516,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Buying a digital camera nowadays can be a full-time job that requires sorting through a dizzying number of models—not to mention wrapping your head about the increasingly complex wizardry that's showing up in them. Asking advice from friends can confuse matters even more: A serious photographer will give you an entirely different recommendation than a soccer mom capturing her kid scoring the winning goal or a twenty-something snapping party candids. We'll help you sort through the confusion.<br /><br />For this story, we evaluate cameras in three popular categories: shirt-pocket shooters, midrange models, and professional models. The 21 cameras we test have much in common. All except the Olympus E-1 have a built-in flash, only the Canon PowerShot SD10 Digital Elph doesn't come with or accommodate a zoom lens, and all but the Fujifilm FinePix S7000 Zoom and the HP Photosmart 945 ship with rechargeable batteries. All the cameras have autofocus, macro settings, exposure compensation, selectable ISO equivalencies, and automatic white balance."<br /><br />This is a good overview article of both the state of digital photography today, and some of the current cameras out there, especially if you're just about to dip your toe into the soothing waters of digital photography. Ok, they're not always soothing, but compared to the hassle of the analog world, I find them quite soothing. :wink: