Best Digital Cameras in less than US$ 300 - 2008
With only one exception, the cameras submitted for this roundup cost around $250 or less. Maybe it's the economy, maybe it's some quirk of consumer psychology — but there's no such thing as a $300 camera anymore.
Quite a bit has changed in the camera landscape since this survey began in 2001 — and even since last year. All of these cameras now have Optical Image Stabilizers. That is, their sensors actually jiggle, about 4,000 times a second, to counteract the little jitters of your hand — an effective way to reduce blurry shots when you're zoomed in or in low light.
All now offer Face Recognition, too. It sounds like a bell, or maybe a whistle, but is, in fact, fantastically useful. When you frame up the shot, the camera draws rectangles around any faces that it spots and calculates its focus and exposure on these. No longer will you get a photo where your two buddies are out of focus, but the background behind them is nice and sharp. In principle, you won't get bleached-out faces from the flash, either; on most cameras, the flash throttles back its power when it sees faces in the scene.
Some cameras (Casio, Sony, Olympus, Nikon) even offer a gimmick called Smile Shutter, which waits to take the photo until your subject is smiling. In my tests, it only sort of worked; your model has to be practically smiling her head off.
Wide-Angle Lenses
are fast becoming common, too. The Sony, Panasonic, Casio, Samsung and Canon cameras can capture a much broader slice of your landscape than the others, giving a panoramic effect to your photos.
Several cameras claim to capture High-Definition Video, but don't be fooled. That term reflects only the dimensions of the movies, not the quality
— which, compared with what you see on HDTV channels, is terrible. It's the video equivalent of bragging about how many megapixels your camera has — these days, an essentially meaningless statistic. (If you care, most of these cameras have 10 megapixels.)
Unfortunately, almost all of these cameras do terribly in low light. You inevitably wind up with blur, grain or both — unless you use the flash, which produces a totally different kind of photo. (Some of the manufacturers claim, rather ridiculously, that their cameras have light sensitivity up to ISO 3200 or even 6400. But the results are blotchy messes that barely qualify as Seurat paintings, let alone photographs.)
Shutter Lag
remains a problem, too; the delay between the time you press the shutter button and the time the shot is taken is still too long. Only two cameras — Kodak and Sony — still have an eyepiece (optical) viewfinder, which can be helpful in bright sunshine or the dark. The others require that you frame your shots using the screen.
Nine Contenders of 2008
That said, there are some keepers here. Herewith, in alphabetical order, Pogue's Camera Lab notes for the nine contenders of 2008:
CANON POWERSHOT SD880 IS
($252).
This camera has a 4x zoom, wide-angle lens. Customizable top button; it can be a Movie button so you don't have to change modes for video. Huge, bright three-inch screen, but too bad there's no optical viewfinder.
Gorgeous and solid. Controls are beautifully thought-out.
New processor chip makes this camera very fast. Not many gimcracks, but wow, those photos — in any kind of light, they have a presence, detail and vibrancy that puts the other cameras to shame.
Doggone that Canon. It wins this contest every single year. C'mon, people — where's the suspense?
CASIO EXILIM EX-Z300
($270).The most expensive camera here — but why? Clever ideas that only sort of work: it can wait to take a shot when you're smiling, when there's no blur, or when your face enters the frame (instead of using the self-timer). Makeup Mode does a creepy but effective job of making skin look airbrushed.
But the photos and movies are just average. (Oh — and Casio? Putting all 21 languages into a single 100-page manual might have saved you a few pennies. But it takes more than five pages to explain a complex camera.)
FUJIFILM FINEPIX F60FD
($220). A fast, solid, clearly designed camera. Good exposures, nice work in low light — no doubt because it has the biggest sensor of the contest (0.625 inches diagonally, rather than the usual 0.4). Features you can really use, like one that snaps both a flash and a no-flash picture simultaneously. Manual controls, too. Picture quality very good. Question: Why isn't Fujifilm a better-known player?
KODAK EASYSHARE Z1012 IS
($220). So many refreshing things about Kodak cameras, like exceptional on-screen guidance and friendly button layout. This midsize camera is bulky — but the payoff is a 12X zoom. This is one of only two cameras here whose optical zoom works while you're filming video, although the video itself isn't wonderful (even though it's "high definition"). Slow, though; some blurry indoor shots.
NIKON COOLPIX S610
($197).
Small, light and inexpensive, nice brushed-metal case. 4X zoom. Active Child mode in this camera supposedly tracks your children even if they move briefly out of the frame. Photos much better than in previous years — some behind-the-scenes efforts paying off?
OLYMPUS FE-370
This camera is only $135, and feels it: cheap and plastic. Sometimes holds its own with the $250 models, but muffs far too many indoor shots with blur. 5X zoom is impressive.
PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-FX37
($256). There are plenty of features in this tiny package — some very silly, like deliberate distortion effects, and some useful, like excellent battery life and nighttime exposures as long as 60 seconds (hint: use a tripod).
Photos can get a little soft and smudgy at higher ISO levels, and the autofocus is slowish. But having both a smooth, fast 5X zoom and a 170-degree ultra-wide-angle lens in one camera is very sweet indeed.
SAMSUNG TL34HD
($200).Sleek and beautiful. The only camera here with a touch screen: big, bright, three inches. That means that the controls (as on-screen buttons) can appear and disappear as needed, without cluttering up the camera back with a lot of dual- or tri-function buttons.
Unfortunately, the camera is very slow: the "Processing!" message appears far too often. The flash is a problem, too; not only does it pop up directly into your left index finger, but it overexposes many shots, blasting them into nuclear whiteness.
Over all, this 14.7-megapixel camera is living proof that a big megapixel count has no bearing on picture quality.
SONY CYBERSHOT DSC-W170
($233).Well built; feels solid in the hand. Microscopic buttons. 5x zoom. Face recognition works very well. Optical viewfinder. A baffler to use, though — must be the only camera on the market without a Delete button. (You have to go into the menu system to delete a photo. Trickier than it sounds — there are two menu systems.) Does O.K. in bright light, but low-light photos look like they've spent some time in a microwave.
THE BOTTOM LINE 
Get the Canon SD880 IS, if it's in stock; its speed, design and quality tower above the also-rans. The Panasonic and the Fujifilm tie for second. No, these three don't cost anywhere near $300 — but when you see their photos, it's easy to pretend.
By DAVID POGUE
Published: December 10, 2008
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