Small Digital Cameras Under $250
The passion I have for all stuff photographic does not necessarily result in a ideal eye for perfect artsy photography. But I really adore cameras, and over the last ten years that digital cameras have been developing in acceptance, you can bet that I’ve been watching, and recording every single advance in consumer photography technologies with a little more curiosity than you might call normal. And the single advance I like best is the way the best digital camera prices have fallen and fallen, even though the quality of the pictures you can take on these has grown better and better.
$250 is some sort of special price point for small digital cameras; you get the most action, the most functions in this segment, more so than any other price group. A decade ago, every camera you could get at this price, came with an optical viewfinder and ran on dimestore batteries. Now they all come with LCD screens, and are rechargeable. In those days, you got about 2 megapixels and 2X optical zoom on a perfectly decent $250 digital camera. That’s what you’ll get on a cell phone today. Well, it is time again this year, to discover exactly what fresh benchmarks are attainable in the best digital camera prices and brands.
Pretty much, $250 now, can buy you a seriously intelligent model with 12 megapixels, HD video capture, and substantial 3-inch LCDs. Every brand, Panasonic, Canon, Sony’s CyberShot and Fuji, all toss in indispensable functions such as picture stabilization, super wideangle lenses, and face recognition. Naturally every manufacturer out there have their special take on how to mix these features in, and that is where all the fun of it sits. And a certain amount of compromise is on par for the range also; they don’t include impressive internal processors – which means that you will not get instantaneous action once you press down the shutter button; you also get a certain amount of grain, taking pictures in low light. However people with a general interest in photography that are searching for the best digital camera prices available do not really have gripes such as these. They want the best photography experience for their dollar, and do they get it!
The Sony Cyber-Shot W290, is around the lowest priced major brand digital camera you will find. At $160, they do need to leave several things out though. For example, it can shoot in High definition, however the images aren’t razor-sharp, and it can’t zoom during HD mode. On the other side of the feature competition is the over-endowed Samsung Dual View TL225, which sells for just $100 more than the Cyber-Shot. For those who wish to really appear in their own photos, this camera plants a compact second screen on the front. And when you simply can’t get your child to grin for that photo, that little screen can show a funny image for that effect. The main screen has great touch response on the largest display screen in the marketplace – 3.5″. If you wish to delete something, you draw an X over it; and if you want to shuffle through photos, you just have to swipe them. And the picture quality is great too. The Lumix DMC-ZS3 has one of the best digital camera prices on the market – $225. It’s really a camera, but it’s also a camcorder. It has a dedicated record switch for video recording, and it uses AVCHD Lite or Motion JPEG for it. The user interface is excellent, and so are the photographs.
Of all the cameras available, the Lumix definitely provides you with the most effective bang for your buck; the Samsung has a superb user interface and great picture quality, and the Fuji F70EXR has excellent lowlight photography. For the best digital camera prices like these will bring you, you get to pick. It’s really a toss up between these three.
