Digital Cameras: Reviews

According to reviewers, the Canon A590 IS digital camera has the best blend of image quality, features and price, with lots of manual controls to give you room to grow. The 8-megapixel Canon camera takes excellent shots… overall. The 4x zoom lens includes optical image stabilization, which works to reduce blurry images caused by the natural movements of your hands. The DIGIC III image processor includes face-detection technology, which uses faces in a scene to set focus and exposure for the most natural color. This digital camera works well in automatic mode, but users can also play with manual exposure controls, as well as both an aperture and a shutter priority mode. For those who want the ultimate in simplicity, a new Easy mode puts almost all control in the camera's hands.

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According to critics, the Fujifilm F100fd offers better low-light performance than most other digital cameras (including those in the Canon A-Series), which means your indoor shots will turn out better and you'll be able… to use natural lighting more often. The expensive Fujifilm F100fd is also noteworthy for its wide dynamic range, which means it can handle shots with both brightly lit and shadowy shrouded areas better than just about any other digicam. However, overall ease of use lags a bit behind Canon, and some user reports of a pink banding problem give us pause (but the issue has been addressed with a firmware upgrade). Though other cameras are better all-around performers, if you need to shoot in low light, nothing comes close to the F100fd.

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If you want the most flexibility from a digital SLR, reviews say the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 has a huge range of manual controls, optical image stabilization, face recognition, a hot shoe and more. Image quality is first… rate, with a new image sensor that does a better job at higher ISO settings than most other compact digicams. You can save images in RAW mode, but converters are not yet available for all photo-editing software. While the fun in using the DMC-LX3 stems from the great manual controls, automatic and scene modes are included. However, if you are looking for basic camera with point-and-shoot simplicity, the Panasonic DMC-LX3 is probably overkill.

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Hailed as a "breakthrough" camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 blends the advantages of a compact digicam and a digital SLR to create a camera that wows almost everyone that's seen it. It uses interchangeable lenses --… just like a DSLR -- but otherwise works and handles just like a digital camera. Image quality is fabulous -- just as good as a DSLR camera in many cases. There are tons of features, though a movie mode is not offered. Though bigger than most digicams, it's smaller than a DSLR, making it more pleasant to haul about from place to place. The biggest negative is the price tag, which is actually higher than some DSLR cameras.

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