Digital Cameras

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi 12.2-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera - Black

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for enough time (30-60 seconds) for the program to checkout the whole pixel map. It fixed my dead pixel problem like a charm. That is why, only one star is taken away.

Canon PowerShot 7.1-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera - Silver

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for enough time (30-60 seconds) for the program to checkout the whole pixel map. It fixed my dead pixel problem like a charm. That is why, only one star is taken away.

Canon PowerShot 7.1-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera - Silver

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for enough time (30-60 seconds) for the program to checkout the whole pixel map. It fixed my dead pixel problem like a charm. That is why, only one star is taken away.

Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Silver

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I discovered that this is not true. Taking an image into the sun (i know this isn't recommended) while holding the camera up high (which people will use when at weddings to shoot over people's heads) leads to glare. I had to guess what i was shooting at. I'd say image visibility on the lcd was ~50% when doing this.

Even given the above, i still like the camera a lot. Looks nice. Takes panoramic photos, battery lasts forever. Used it on and off for 4 days before it finally warned me of being low. Be careful b/c the battery indicator is deceiving. It said full for most of the time and then jumped to warning quick on me. Didn't even notice any intermediate indication position.

I give it a 3 for now until i go and try out the underwater capability.

Edit #1: Forgot to mention that the menus are pretty easy to use. Scrolling wheel menu cycles between the different options. One touch photo preview. Icons are easy to understand.

I've tried using the macro and super macro - works really well. Good detail on the close images.

One other con though - could not for the life of me figure out how to get the face detection to work. I swear that it'll sometimes follow a face and sometimes it'll target a random cup. I don't yet see an option in any of the menus that allows me to force it to do face rec every shot. Not a huge issue - but it's a spec that is being advertised, therefore i expect it to work.

Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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the middle of the screen. This was not dirt on the outside of the lens where I can get at and clean. It would disappear under certain lighting conditions, but most underwater shots had it. My guess is that it's an internal reflective defect or dirt on the optics. Curiously, I don't notice it in my photos, just videos.

In addition to this, the lens would fog up during the night after some underwater excursions. The fog would cloud up the lens internally, so all photos and videos were foggy. Holding the camera in my hands would warm it up, causing the fog to get cloudier. As a work-around, I would air dry the camera each night with all its ports open, but this doesn't always work.

Another major drawback of this camera that was not publicized very well is that you MUST use the type M+ XD memory card to record VGA in 30 frames/sec. Using the included adapter my 4GB MicroSDHC card, you are limited to 10 seconds VGA 30 frames/sec videos. You can record lower resolution or VGA with 15 frames/sec videos without the M+ XD memory card, though.

Additionally, my videos would sometimes have strange regular very loud clicking sounds, about once click per second for certain stretches. This was very disconcerting.

I also noticed that the videos of bright lights indoors would sometimes have vertical glares above and below the light sources. I never noticed this phenomenon on my TZ-5 videos.

The final weird restriction that I found out only after using this camera was that it had two video modes: Underwater, and Non-underwater. In Underwater mode, you have no audio, but can use zoom. In Non-underwater mode, you can record audio, but cannot zoom. Perhaps the zooming caused horrible audio noises to be recorded so the engineers decided to never record audio while allowing zooming?

In conclusion, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW was everything I was looking for on paper and would have been a wonderful all purpose point-and-shoot photo and video camera for all occasions. Unfortunately, my particular unit seemed not be quite waterproof as advertised, and the model had some major design drawbacks in the areas of video recording.

I really cannot recommend this camera based on the unit I had.

Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Green

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the middle of the screen. This was not dirt on the outside of the lens where I can get at and clean. It would disappear under certain lighting conditions, but most underwater shots had it. My guess is that it's an internal reflective defect or dirt on the optics. Curiously, I don't notice it in my photos, just videos.



In addition to this, the lens would fog up during the night after some underwater excursions. The fog would cloud up the lens internally, so all photos and videos were foggy. Holding the camera in my hands would warm it up, causing the fog to get cloudier. As a work-around, I would air dry the camera each night with all its ports open, but this doesn't always work.



Another major drawback of this camera that was not publicized very well is that you MUST use the type M+ XD memory card to record VGA in 30 frames/sec. Using the included adapter my 4GB MicroSDHC card, you are limited to 10 seconds VGA 30 frames/sec videos. You can record lower resolution or VGA with 15 frames/sec videos without the M+ XD memory card, though.



Additionally, my videos would sometimes have strange regular very loud clicking sounds, about once click per second for certain stretches. This was very disconcerting.



I also noticed that the videos of bright lights indoors would sometimes have vertical glares above and below the light sources. I never noticed this phenomenon on my TZ-5 videos.



The final weird restriction that I found out only after using this camera was that it had two video modes: Underwater, and Non-underwater. In Underwater mode, you have no audio, but can use zoom. In Non-underwater mode, you can record audio, but cannot zoom. Perhaps the zooming caused horrible audio noises to be recorded so the engineers decided to never record audio while allowing zooming?



In conclusion, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW was everything I was looking for on paper and would have been a wonderful all purpose point-and-shoot photo and video camera for all occasions. Unfortunately, my particular unit seemed not be quite waterproof as advertised, and the model had some major design drawbacks in the areas of video recording.



I really cannot recommend this camera based on the unit I had.

Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Green

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the middle of the screen. This was not dirt on the outside of the lens where I can get at and clean. It would disappear under certain lighting conditions, but most underwater shots had it. My guess is that it's an internal reflective defect or dirt on the optics. Curiously, I don't notice it in my photos, just videos.





In addition to this, the lens would fog up during the night after some underwater excursions. The fog would cloud up the lens internally, so all photos and videos were foggy. Holding the camera in my hands would warm it up, causing the fog to get cloudier. As a work-around, I would air dry the camera each night with all its ports open, but this doesn't always work.





Another major drawback of this camera that was not publicized very well is that you MUST use the type M+ XD memory card to record VGA in 30 frames/sec. Using the included adapter my 4GB MicroSDHC card, you are limited to 10 seconds VGA 30 frames/sec videos. You can record lower resolution or VGA with 15 frames/sec videos without the M+ XD memory card, though.





Additionally, my videos would sometimes have strange regular very loud clicking sounds, about once click per second for certain stretches. This was very disconcerting.





I also noticed that the videos of bright lights indoors would sometimes have vertical glares above and below the light sources. I never noticed this phenomenon on my TZ-5 videos.





The final weird restriction that I found out only after using this camera was that it had two video modes: Underwater, and Non-underwater. In Underwater mode, you have no audio, but can use zoom. In Non-underwater mode, you can record audio, but cannot zoom. Perhaps the zooming caused horrible audio noises to be recorded so the engineers decided to never record audio while allowing zooming?





In conclusion, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW was everything I was looking for on paper and would have been a wonderful all purpose point-and-shoot photo and video camera for all occasions. Unfortunately, my particular unit seemed not be quite waterproof as advertised, and the model had some major design drawbacks in the areas of video recording.





I really cannot recommend this camera based on the unit I had.

FUJIFILM FinePix 8.2-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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the middle of the screen. This was not dirt on the outside of the lens where I can get at and clean. It would disappear under certain lighting conditions, but most underwater shots had it. My guess is that it's an internal reflective defect or dirt on the optics. Curiously, I don't notice it in my photos, just videos.







In addition to this, the lens would fog up during the night after some underwater excursions. The fog would cloud up the lens internally, so all photos and videos were foggy. Holding the camera in my hands would warm it up, causing the fog to get cloudier. As a work-around, I would air dry the camera each night with all its ports open, but this doesn't always work.







Another major drawback of this camera that was not publicized very well is that you MUST use the type M+ XD memory card to record VGA in 30 frames/sec. Using the included adapter my 4GB MicroSDHC card, you are limited to 10 seconds VGA 30 frames/sec videos. You can record lower resolution or VGA with 15 frames/sec videos without the M+ XD memory card, though.







Additionally, my videos would sometimes have strange regular very loud clicking sounds, about once click per second for certain stretches. This was very disconcerting.







I also noticed that the videos of bright lights indoors would sometimes have vertical glares above and below the light sources. I never noticed this phenomenon on my TZ-5 videos.







The final weird restriction that I found out only after using this camera was that it had two video modes: Underwater, and Non-underwater. In Underwater mode, you have no audio, but can use zoom. In Non-underwater mode, you can record audio, but cannot zoom. Perhaps the zooming caused horrible audio noises to be recorded so the engineers decided to never record audio while allowing zooming?







In conclusion, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW was everything I was looking for on paper and would have been a wonderful all purpose point-and-shoot photo and video camera for all occasions. Unfortunately, my particular unit seemed not be quite waterproof as advertised, and the model had some major design drawbacks in the areas of video recording.







I really cannot recommend this camera based on the unit I had.

Panasonic DMC-TZ50S Lumix 9.1 Megapixel Digital Camera

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stumbling through the clunky WiFi interface on the TZ50.

If the WiFi mode setup doesn't scare you, though, the TZ50 makes an excellent choice for anyone who wants an ultrazoom camera and wants to quickly share photos while traveling.

Nikon 12.3-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera - Black

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stumbling through the clunky WiFi interface on the TZ50.



If the WiFi mode setup doesn't scare you, though, the TZ50 makes an excellent choice for anyone who wants an ultrazoom camera and wants to quickly share photos while traveling.

Sony DSC-W300 13-Megapixel Digital Camera

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it was all over. Now this 13.6 megapixel monster with all of the amazng features crammed into a svelte looking design was too good to be true! Now my brother-in-law had shown me his Canon Powershot G9 which I thought was a really fine camera but then again...I like slim and compact and especially Sony so when I saw this gem it was pretty much all over for me.

Now to what I like about the camera... for one thing this camera is good looking! It caught my eye right away and the titanium finish which is advertised as being scratch free is pretty awesome looking! This camera
is very similar to my W50 in a lot of ways so the learning curve was fairly minimal although I am still learning new things about it every day! The feature I really like is the "face detection technology" and the unique "smile" feature which works great!

Now the output of the pictures I've taken so far have been phenomenal! Like I said I'm not too keen on photography related terminology but I know what my eyes tell me and when I load these pictures onto my Macbook Pro they look fabulous!

Now this review is not as technical as what you would read on cnet or some of the other sites where this camera is featured and if you're looking for that type of review I would say go and visit those sites but if you're looking for an individual's assessment of his experience with this camera keep reading.

This camera takes great photos! It's feature laden...and looks great! It is fairly compact and in my opinion is a pretty decent value for what you get. Now with all the cameras out there sometimes it may feel really overwhelming to try to make a choice but because of my experience with past Sony digital products I knew that I could count on an overall fulfilling experience!

The colors are rich and true and the addition of face detection technology and smile have definitely made photographing people more satisfying.

As a recap, this camera is definitely a nice piece of work from Sony..

And as my daughter will be inheriting my W50..my dad will be getting my P72 which wlll definitely be a step up from his 10+ year old Epson digital....

We are a Sony famly...the products are top of the line and well thought out...you can't lose getting this great camera!

Canon PowerShot 10.0-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera - Silver

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make the best digital cameras on the market. Save some time, take advantage of my extensive research, and get yourself the Canon SD770is...and click away.

Nikon 10.2-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera - Black

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DSLR the way the D40 is but make no mistake, the D60 and D40 are in the same class and the D40 is a much better bargin. That's why so many people love it.

Canon EOS 12.8-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera - Black

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DSLR the way the D40 is but make no mistake, the D60 and D40 are in the same class and the D40 is a much better bargin. That's why so many people love it.

Nikon Coolpix 8.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Ruby Red

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DSLR the way the D40 is but make no mistake, the D60 and D40 are in the same class and the D40 is a much better bargin. That's why so many people love it.

Olympus Stylus 8.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Blue

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takes blurry shots when indoors, if you're trying not to use the flash (there's a menu that adjusts the brightness- super cool!). This is the only time I was really frustrated with the camera, as a flash sometimes washes out the photo subject. There may be a way to fix the issue, but as the camera is new, I've not yet discovered it.

Overall, I would recommend this camera. It takes great fast-motion action pictures, has brilliant colors in outdoor lighting, and provided for a great way to preserve memories of my trip. Love the 5x zoom. Love the video feature (has sound, which my old camera did not). Love the multitude of features and possible settings.

Panasonic DMC-TZ5K Lumix 9.1 Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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range for a variety of shots. This is key since many other comparable cameras only have zoom up to 4x.

- The wide angle! This is my first wide angle camera and boy does it make a difference from your standard point and shoot! I won't go back. It's more than just getting more into a shot, in many cases, its the difference between getting a shot framed properly or not. Getting the whole background or building or whatever into the shot or not.

- Pre-sets camera modes are great. The TZ5 has 15+ pre-set camera modes that really are great for different environments. What's even better is that you can set two of those modes into the dial at top for quick access. This way, you don't have to keep adjusting the mode for each shot. For instance, at night, I pre-set the dial at top to "candle light" and "night portrait" and can quickly take shots that way.

- Great picture quality. I've read various commentary on the superiority of the Canon picture. I haven't done side by side comparisons but what I can say is that I've taken a lot of photos and am very satisfied. And anyways, I'm skeptical of the side by side comparisons on photo quality I've read. So much of a photo is the setting, light, etc that you shouldn't be using the "standard auto setting" to get the best picture regardless. I doubt those comparisons adjusted each camera appropriately for each shot.

- Crisp, large 3" LCD screen. This is one of the primary differences between the TZ4 (comes with 2.5" screen) and TZ5.

- Long exposure shots are really, really cool. This camera takes amazing low light, night time shots. The exposure is 15 or 30 seconds but literally (if you don't move for that long), you can get AMAZING night time shots without a flash and with really cool light effects.

- For the lens and quality it's relatively compact. While its bigger than your standard compact point and shoot, its still small enough to fit in your pocket. Its about the size of an old school ipod, though thicker, and its way better than slugging around a DSLR. And the design is ergonomic.

And now some Cons:

- HD video recording. The quality of the HD picture on playback is great. But there are two shortcomings with this feature. 1) Sound quality is as you would expect for a camera. So its sort of like HD picture/low tech camera sound. It won't replace your HD camcorder, but its certainly good enough for casual recordings. 2) Takes up a ton of memory. I got a 16GB card and that will record about 30min of HD video. Not a lot if you want to take a lot of pics as well on a vaca. I just wind up taking normal non-HD videos, which works fine.

- Auto zoom on video recording is annoying. You need to turn the feature off when taking video, otherwise your video will be in and out of focus as you zoom. But the ability to zoom WHILE taking video is a differentiator for this camera vs. others. Also, some of the features still a work in progress. For instance, the auto face detect works some times, but not others.

- There are not many manual adjustments you can make- primarily shutter speed/exposure and other standard features common in most point and shoot cameras. Obviously I wouldn't expect this to be as flexible as a DLSR, but just something to keep in mind.

- Camera has two automated picture shot modes (where it takes a picture by itself) and the delay is either 2 or 10 seconds. I use this mode a lot - this way everyone can get into a pic! I wish they had longer delay time and more lead up warning to when the picture is going to be taken.

In summary, I would highly recommend this camera for anyone who wants the ability to take a wide variety of high quality pics but doesn't want to lug around a big camera. The cons are far outweighed by the pros. Don't hesitate - you will love this camera!

Nikon Coolpix S52c Digital Camera - Black-COOLPIX S52C BLK DIG CAM 9MP PERP3X OPT VR WIFI 25IN LCD I

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range for a variety of shots. This is key since many other comparable cameras only have zoom up to 4x.



- The wide angle! This is my first wide angle camera and boy does it make a difference from your standard point and shoot! I won't go back. It's more than just getting more into a shot, in many cases, its the difference between getting a shot framed properly or not. Getting the whole background or building or whatever into the shot or not.



- Pre-sets camera modes are great. The TZ5 has 15+ pre-set camera modes that really are great for different environments. What's even better is that you can set two of those modes into the dial at top for quick access. This way, you don't have to keep adjusting the mode for each shot. For instance, at night, I pre-set the dial at top to "candle light" and "night portrait" and can quickly take shots that way.



- Great picture quality. I've read various commentary on the superiority of the Canon picture. I haven't done side by side comparisons but what I can say is that I've taken a lot of photos and am very satisfied. And anyways, I'm skeptical of the side by side comparisons on photo quality I've read. So much of a photo is the setting, light, etc that you shouldn't be using the "standard auto setting" to get the best picture regardless. I doubt those comparisons adjusted each camera appropriately for each shot.



- Crisp, large 3" LCD screen. This is one of the primary differences between the TZ4 (comes with 2.5" screen) and TZ5.



- Long exposure shots are really, really cool. This camera takes amazing low light, night time shots. The exposure is 15 or 30 seconds but literally (if you don't move for that long), you can get AMAZING night time shots without a flash and with really cool light effects.



- For the lens and quality it's relatively compact. While its bigger than your standard compact point and shoot, its still small enough to fit in your pocket. Its about the size of an old school ipod, though thicker, and its way better than slugging around a DSLR. And the design is ergonomic.



And now some Cons:



- HD video recording. The quality of the HD picture on playback is great. But there are two shortcomings with this feature. 1) Sound quality is as you would expect for a camera. So its sort of like HD picture/low tech camera sound. It won't replace your HD camcorder, but its certainly good enough for casual recordings. 2) Takes up a ton of memory. I got a 16GB card and that will record about 30min of HD video. Not a lot if you want to take a lot of pics as well on a vaca. I just wind up taking normal non-HD videos, which works fine.



- Auto zoom on video recording is annoying. You need to turn the feature off when taking video, otherwise your video will be in and out of focus as you zoom. But the ability to zoom WHILE taking video is a differentiator for this camera vs. others. Also, some of the features still a work in progress. For instance, the auto face detect works some times, but not others.



- There are not many manual adjustments you can make- primarily shutter speed/exposure and other standard features common in most point and shoot cameras. Obviously I wouldn't expect this to be as flexible as a DLSR, but just something to keep in mind.



- Camera has two automated picture shot modes (where it takes a picture by itself) and the delay is either 2 or 10 seconds. I use this mode a lot - this way everyone can get into a pic! I wish they had longer delay time and more lead up warning to when the picture is going to be taken.



In summary, I would highly recommend this camera for anyone who wants the ability to take a wide variety of high quality pics but doesn't want to lug around a big camera. The cons are far outweighed by the pros. Don't hesitate - you will love this camera!

Pentax Optio W30 Silver 7.1 MP 3X Zoom Digital Camera

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compartment was wet as was the USB compartment. I had carefully checked both were closed correctly before starting into the water.
After drying out the camera was still not functional so I took it apart and did not find any obvious damage to the seals although water was still present in the main body of the camera. A check with a magnifying glass found no faults with the seals. It was not apparant where the water had initially got into the camera. I reassembled it making sure that the seals were installed correctly and took it back into the sea. This time the camera flooded before I even had my mask in place, again the camera was clipped on to the float. Water had penetrated battery compartment, screen and the main body of the camera. Again on strip the seals were in place properly.
At this point I conclude that assembly is correct, the design limitations were not exceeded. It would appear that there is either a manufacturing issue that results in some cameras with good seals and some with bad ones or the seals have degraded since new. As the camera is now useless I plan to carry out some more tests using additional sealing to see if I can determine the origin of the failure and to explore whether temperature is possibly an issue (hot camera going into colder water for example). I am buying a W60 to replace this one but I think it will be treated as a 'splashproof' camera rather than a waterproof one. It is a shame because this is a very nice camera in general use and reliable waterproofing would make it a great camera for so many people.

Panasonic DMC-TZ5K Lumix 9.1 Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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pocket camera does everything that all that bag of expensive 35mm hardware, and all those digital cameras, do and much more. I have never seen another camera, especially one that you can put in your pocket, that has such a high quality 28mm wide angle with a 10X zoom to 280mm.

It has amazing features that I have never seen on a camera before, but this is the first camera I have purhased one in a couple of years. I especially like the ability to add a 5 sec. voice clip along with the picture so you can remember what the shot was all about. Some of the reviews I have read say it has issues with some of the quality standards, but all I see is wonderful pictures...

For a full range, take every picture you will probably want, and still fit in your pocket, this is the only camera I have found that works.