November 25th, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Digital cameras for kids

Posted by Janice Chen @ 9:51 am

Categories: Digital Photography, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: LEGO Co., Digital Camera, Holiday Gift Guide, Camera, Kid, Janice Chen

Kids love digital cameras. Whether it’s the happy chorus of “Can I see? Can I see?” and subsequent jockeying to get a glimpse of the LCD, or the fact that you can just let them snap away randomly without worrying about wasting film, digital cameras provide a level of gratification for kids that their film counterparts never did. While it’s tempting to just pass along your old digital camera to the children when you upgrade, cameras that are designed just for kids offer features that make them better suited to the smaller set.  Here’s a list of my four favorite digital cameras for kids:

Vtech Kidizoom Plus
This is an update to my favorite kids digital camera from last year, and it’s still a winner. The “plus” version of the camera retains all of the kid friendly features of its predecessor, such as the rugged construction, two-eye viewfinder, 1.8-inch LCD, video capability, playback on TV, and on-camera games and special photo effects. It also doubles the built-in memory to 512MB (expandable with an SD card) while retaining the 2.0-megapixel resolution (which is really plenty for most young kids), bumping storage up to 2,000 photos or five minutes of video. There are all new games and new special effects, including several Funny Face liquid distortion filters that lets your child make entertaining caricatures (remember Kai’s Power Goo?).  The menus and function buttons have been updated as well, but they’re arguably more complicated. Instead of the joystick button, the Kidizoom Plus uses a four-way rocker and a new mode dial to switch functions. Volume control is now a less-intuitive two-step process though the addition of a dedicated flash button is nice. There are also buttons to control the new 2x digital zoom feature, which is fun for kids to use (though for adults digital zoom isn’t all that useful).

The Kidizoom Plus (list price $59.99) is a great camera for younger kids and comes in blue or pink versions. I’d recommend it for children about 3 to 8 years old. Non-readers will need help accessing menus and changing settings, but will still have fun snapping photos and videos until they grow into the more advanced features.

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November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: The best all-around pocket digital cameras

Posted by Rachel King @ 9:36 pm

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Video, Digital Camera, Camera, Optical Zoom, Photographer, Rachel King

There are a plethora of point-and-shoot cameras out there, and it’s difficult to sift through all the possibilities. Here are my five choices for the best all-around ultracompact cameras (though, not in any particular order) on the market this holiday season for the avid photographer in your life. These were based on the quality of photos and features in relation to the camera’s sticker price. Plus, they fit well in any stocking.

Canon PowerShot SD940 IS
Hailed by CNET as “one of the best ultracompacts available,” this 12-megapixel camera packs a 2.7-inch LCD screen, 4x optical zoom and a wide-angle 28mm-equivalent lens. While there are only three shooting modes (Smart Auto, Program/Scene, and Movie), video mode does allow for recording of up to 720p HD resolution, but you can’t use the optical zoom while recording. The only major qualms about this camera were some hints of purple fringing and noise in photos above ISO 800.

Available in black, silver, blue and brown, these smooth, very lightweight cameras work well in a variety of situations and be carried almost anywhere.

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November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Five camcorders under $300

Posted by Rachel King @ 9:35 pm

Categories: Digital Camcorders, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Camcorder, Video, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Rachel King

Many of us are still on tight budgets this holiday season, but if you’re looking to give your favorite photographer a new camcorder, there are some affordable options. Here are five camcorders under $300 (not including shipping, sorry!) that could please the videographer in your life:

Flip UltraHD
You might think it’s over-hyped, and it some extent, it is. But that doesn’t escape the fact that this is a darn good gadget for what it is and for its price (usually about $199). It shoots 720p HD video, repeatedly reviewed as very good quality for its Mini-HD status class, and its compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems. Users can charge and transmit videos via USB, and there’s also a special YouTube capture mode. It comes with 8 GB of internal hard drive space, but unfortunately, there’s no external memory card slot.

Available in both white and black, it’s a sleek, small camcorder (2.2 in x 1.2 in x 4.3 in and only 6 oz.) that can fit in almost any sized stocking.

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November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Digital SLR camera accessories

Posted by Janice Chen @ 9:32 pm

Categories: Camera accessories, Digital Photography, Gadgets, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: DSLR, SLR, Accessory, Camera, Janice Chen

There’s probably nothing a digital camera enthusiast likes better than gear and gadgets, which makes shopping for your favorite shutterbug a cinch.  If you’re looking for a great holiday gift for someone who already has his or her dSLR of choice, one of these dSLR camera accessories — ranging in price from about $33 to $118 –  will have them smiling for the camera.

SanDisk Image Mate All-in-One

Every digital camera user should have a fast memory card reader for quick and convenient image downloading, and the SanDisk Image Mate All-in-One ($33) is a great match for the dSLR shooter. It not only supports all the popular memory card formats (SD, SDHC, mini SDHC, micro SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro Duo, xD Picture Card, and CompactFlash), but it also lets you perform card-to-card transfers when you insert cards simultaneously — so you can transfer from SD to CompactFlash, for example. I like the sleek design and the slick way the silver tripod base attaches magnetically, so you can easily detach the reader from the stand and pop it in your bag. Plus, it’s not just a pretty face: the card reader can transfer files up to 34 megabytes per second (when using a high-speed SanDisk Extreme IV 45 MB/s Compact Flash card).

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November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Digital SLR cameras

Posted by Janice Chen @ 9:32 pm

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Digital SLR, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Nikon Corp., DSLR, SLR, Video, LCD, Camera, Canon Inc., Corporate Communications, Marketing, Janice Chen

It’s been a great year for digital SLR shooters: There have been no fewer than 17 new dSLRs released this year, with HD video shooting coming to the low-end and long-awaited updates to stalwarts like the much-loved Nikon D40. Prices have come down and features have continued to ratchet up, so if you’re shopping for a dSLR as a holiday treat (for yourself or a loved one), your dollar will go further than you think. To help you narrow down the options, here’s a list of my five favorite dSLRs of the season:

Canon EOS Rebel T1i
If you’re looking for an entry-level camera with all the bells and whistles, and are willing to spend a little more than rock bottom, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i should definitely be on your short list. As we’ve come to expect from Canon dSLRs, image quality is top notch, but it’s the video recording capability that really sets this dSLR apart: The T1i serves up 720p (1280×720) HD video capture at 30fps and 1080p (1920×1080) at 20fps. You’d have to spend almost twice the T1i’s $899 price to get much better from a dSLR. Other highlights include the fantastic 3-inch, 920,000-dot LCD and an extended ISO sensitivity range up ISO 12800.

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June 15th, 2009

Top five digital cameras for Father's Day

Posted by Janice Chen @ 6:05 am

Categories: Digital Photography, Holiday Gift Guide, Megazoom, Waterproof

Tags: Panasonic, Brother-in-law, Digital Camera, Camera, Janice Chen

Next Sunday is Father’s Day and while I can’t afford to buy all the fathers in my family a new digital camera, my favorite fathers make such a diverse group that this fantasy wishlist for my top five dads makes a great top five cameras list for those of you shopping for your favorite patriarch:

My Father: The World Traveler
I clearly inherited my penchant for traveling from my peripatetic dad.  Though he boarded his first plane relatively late in life (in his late 20s, compared to my children who both got their first passports at 3 months of age), he has made up for lost time in spades, especially now that he is semiretired.  Among the other trips he drags my mother on several times a year, he’s closing in on his mission to visit 50 Places of a Lifetime (and is actually in Vancouver ticking off one more place as I write this).  His digital camera needs to be easy to use, pocketable, and very versatile — in a nutshell, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3. I’ve written about this megazoom a lot (because I love it). With its 25-300mm-equivalent 12x zoom lens,  3-inch high-res LCD, and AVCHD Lite HD video-shooting capabilities — not to mention 27 easy-to-use and useful scene modes — the ZS3 would have served my folks well on their month-long jaunt through Africa back in February. If your favorite father has the wanderlust as well, look no further than this camera.

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Go to My Father-in-law: The Tech-Savvy Grandfather »

June 5th, 2009

Top Five Digital Camcorders for the New Graduate

Posted by Janice Chen @ 6:05 am

Categories: Digital Camcorders, Holiday Gift Guide, Waterproof

Tags: Camcorder, Video, Graduate, HD, VPC-WH1, T1i, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Janice Chen

While digital still cameras are among the most popular graduation gifts (see my recent post, Top five digital cameras for the new graduate), post-graduate life also offers up plenty of video-worthy moments.  Outfitting the new graduate in your life with video gear that suits his or her new lifestyle is easy given the huge range of options available.  Here are some of my top camcorder picks for the various grads in your life:

The Budding Videographer
It used to be that to get high-end digital video, you needed to lug around an enormous three-chip camcorder.  Well, times have changed. If your favorite graduate is an aspiring documentary shooter, Canon’s top-of-the-line prosumer camcorder, the Canon Vixia HF S100, will offer top-notch HD video quality in a relatively compact package.  Actually, make that next-to-top-of-the-line, since the flash-memory-based HF S100’s sibling, the Vixia HF S10 adds 32GB of built-in memory for $200 more. But with memory card prices so low these days, I think the HF S100 (which records to SD/SDHC memory cards) is actually a better buy.  The camcorders both  record 1,920×1,080 HD video and combine a relatively large, 1/2.6-inch 8-megapixel CMOS sensor with a large f1.8 10x HD lens for excellent video quality.

[Read the review] [Check prices]

Go to Best Camera for the YouTube Junkie »

June 1st, 2009

Top Five Digital Cameras for the New Graduate

Posted by Janice Chen @ 6:05 am

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Digital SLR, Holiday Gift Guide, Megazoom, Waterproof

Tags: Digital Camera, Camera, Graduate, Stylus Tough-6000, Nikon Coolpix S230, Janice Chen

With commencement speeches abounding, it’s time once again to think about what to get for your favorite new graduate. At the top of many lists (just below Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!“) is a new digital camera. What recent graduates wouldn’t want a flashy new gadget to document the new journey on which they are about to embark? So, herewith, are some of my top picks for the various grads in your life:

The Graduate Student
As the unemployment rate increases, so do graduate-school admissions, so there’s a good chance your favorite graduate is about to become a graduate student. Unless they’re headed off to study visual arts or something, busy grad-school students that are hitting the books won’t have the time or inclination to figure out a complex camera (or pore over a manual), so a simple but robust point-and-shoot is a good option. Though it’s over a year old (which is middle-aged in digital camera years), I still like the Canon PowerShot SD880 IS as a solid, compact point-and-shoot option that offers a nice wide-angle lens. The camera’s successor, the PowerShot SD960 IS, just came out in March, so you can probably get a pretty good deal on the SD880 IS.

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December 15th, 2008

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Best high-end compact cameras (Canon G10 vs. Panasonic Lumix LX3)

Posted by Janice Chen @ 8:43 pm

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Panasonic, Lens, ISO, LCD, Camera, Canon Inc., Canon G10, LX2, LX3, Iso standards

Holiday shoppers looking for a high-end compact camera this year are likely to be choosing between two hot cameras: the Canon PowerShot G10 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. Both cameras list for $499.95 and can be found selling for about $420 this holiday season. While the competition between their predecessors wasn’t much of a battle–with the Canon G9 handily outshining the LX2–it’s a lot harder to choose between the G10 and the LX3 (though there are some significant differences). First, a quick chart to sort out the specs:

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at each camera individually. First up: Canon’s PowerShot G10.

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November 26th, 2008

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: The best digital cameras under $200

Posted by Janice Chen @ 9:16 am

Categories: Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Digital Camera, Camera, Canon Inc., Optical Zoom, Janice Chen

Okay, let’s get real. A lot of us are just not going to be ready, willing or able to plunk down $500 on a digital camera this holiday season, no matter how much we adore our gift recipients.  So for the rest of us, here’s a list of my favorite digital cameras for under $200.

Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS
I’ve always been a big fan of Canon’s Digital Elph point-and-shoots and though this isn’t my favorite of the Canon models, it’s hard to beat the SD1100 IS’s image quality at this price. It’s an 8.3-megapixel model and serves up a 3x optical zoom lens (38-114mm equivalent f/2.8-4.9), optical image stabilization (as with all the Canons that include IS in their names), face detection, an optical viewfinder, and a 2.5-inch LCD.

The SD 1100 IS can detect up to nine faces in a scene and use them to set exposure and focus. It uses face detection to remove red-eye automatically as you’re shooting and to calculate white balance for better skin tones. It can even let you choose a specific face in a scene to track as it moves around the scene you’re shooting. Canon’s Motion Detection Technology also uses face detection to determine if your subject is moving and adjusts settings to prevent motion blur.

Top that with relatively fast performance and minimal shutter lag (not to mention five metallic colors to choose from) and you’ve got a super deal that anyone would be pleased to find under the tree.
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