Best Point and Shoot Cameras of 2008

With the holiday season here and the new year quickly approaching, it's time to take a look at some of this year's best point and shoot digital cameras. If you want a nice, compact, portable digital camera to capture the many moments that happen at this time of year then one of these cameras should be perfect for you or as a gift.

First off let's take a look at some of the reasons you might want a point and shoot over a dSLR. DSLRs offer better image quality because they have larger image processors. You can change the lens on a DSLR which makes them highly adaptable to various situations and offers many creative possibilities to photographers. DSLRs also offer a large ISO range, which allows for shooting in different conditions. You get more control with a DSLR as well because everything can be done manually, as opposed to many point and shoots. Also, what you see through the optical viewfinder on a DSLR is what you get, due to the reflex mirror. That being said, there are some downsides as well. A DSLR will not slip in and out of your pocket to catch surprise moments like a compact point and shoot. They also tend to be quite a bit more expensive (although entry level DSLRs are starting to come down in price). The design for manual use can also be overwhelming for beginning photographers and maintenance must be taken into consideration, unlike point and shoots. It really comes down to what kind of photography you are interested in. If you want to easily take quality pictures of birthday parties, sporting events, vacations, etc. with a camera that will fit in your pocket, then you want a point and shoot. If you want more options at your fingertips and professional image quality and you have the budget then you might want a DSLR.

Here are the best point and shoot cameras from each of the industry's top manufacturers (in no particular order) and their prices at the web's best camera retailers. Be sure to keep an eye on the camera kits - they often contain useful accessories such as memory cards (which you will need anyway), camera cases, tripods, etc. and sometimes it is actually cheaper to by the camera as part of the kit than by itself.

Canon PowerShot SD880 IS

The PowerShot SD880 is the latest in Canon's popular Digital ELPH line. This 10 megapixel camera has a 4X optical zoom plus optical image stabilization, which greatly reduces any blur caused by camera shake. It has a 28mm wide angle lens that allows you to capture more in each shot. The new DIGIC 4 image processor delivers better image quality, even at high ISO speeds. The SD880 also features red-eye correction and intelligent contrast (i-Contrast) correction which helps to brighten dark areas without brightening the light areas of a picture. The PowerShot features 19 different shooting modes including 16 special scene modes that let the camera set the exposure, aperture and flash depending on the conditions, making it easy on the photographer.

Fujifilm FinePix F100fd

The FinePix F100fd is part of Fujifilm's compact digital F-series, which has enjoyed a reputation of better than average high ISO noise performance for some time now, due to its SuperCCD sensor. It is a 12 megapixel camera with a 5X optical zoom (28-140mm) lens. Sensitivity is ISO 100 - 12800. It has a 2.7" LCD display. It features four primary shooting modes - Auto, Manual, Scene and Movie. Auto lets the camera control most of the settings while manual gives the user more control, as you would expect. The scene mode lets the user choose between 16 scene-specific shooting modes including Natural Light, Natural Light with Flash, Portrait, Portrait Enhancer, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater, Museum, Party, Flower and Text. The movie mode allows you to capture video (with sound) at 640x480 or 320x240 pixels at 30 fps.

Nikon S710 CoolPix

The Nikon CoolPix S710 is la creme de la creme of digital point and shoots. It is a 14.5 megapixel camera with a 3" LCD display. It features a 3.6x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens, which means the optics are very high quality. It has an optical VR image stabilization system that reduces blur by compensating for hand shake. You can manually control the cameras settings or use the scene auto selector which will automatically recognize the scene in your picture and adjust the settings appropriately. It also will auto adjust up to ISO 3200 which lets you shoot in low light conditions. You can also set the ISO sensitivity up to 6400 and 12800. You can also record video with sound.

Panasonic Lumix FX150

Panasonic's 14.7 megapixel Lumix FX150 features a 28-100mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens and Panasonic's new Venus IV image processor. It has a 2.7" LCD display. It also features a new AF tracking mode that lets the camera lock focus on a moving object. It has increased face detection accuracy over its predecessor and can track up to 15 faces. It also features image stabilization, red eye correction and intelligent ISO. It can shoot 1280x720 video at 24 fps.

Samsung TL34HD

Despite the lackluster name, Samsung's flagship point and shoot is a nice 14.7 megapixel camera with a 28mm wide angle 3.7X Schneider optical zoom lens. It has a 3" LCD touch screen interface, dual image stabilization (meaning lens and body) and face detection, which detects faces. This camera can also shoot HD video and has an ISO range up to 4800.

Sony CyberShot W300

The name itself is synonymous with quality, and usually a ridiculous price, but there are some nice deals on this camera now. It features a Carl Zeiss 3X optical zoom lens, a 2.7" LCD and a scene recognition mode with several settings: Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a Tripod. There are a plethora of other features, take a look...

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