Easy to Use Cameras

For many of us, pointing and shooting is a whole lot more fun than tweaking, twiddling, fiddling and adjusting. That doesn't mean that no thought should go into your camera settings, though – we'll just leave the thinking to the increasingly sophisticated automated systems built into today's point-and-shoot cameras.

For example, we're seeing more compact cameras today that don't simply take a light reading but attempt to recognize the scene you're shooting (a portrait, a landscape, a close-up, etc.) and adjust settings accordingly. Panasonic pioneered this technology, which it calls Intelligent Auto mode, but versions are now found on cameras from other manufacturers.

Another handy feature for those who aren't going to bother with manual controls is a wide variety of scene modes. Scene modes allow you to handle difficult shooting conditions, such as a bright day at the beach or a nighttime portrait, by simply choosing that situation from a camera menu. It takes just a moment to choose a scene mode, but the results can be far superior to using the full auto mode.

We've also found automatic dynamic range adjustment systems can make a big difference in your photos without requiring any special effort. Dynamic range is the camera's ability to hold onto detail in scenes where there are both bright highlights and dark shadows, rather than just presenting solid blocks of white or black. The feature that helps compensate for this goes by several names: Nikon calls it D-Lighting, Canon says iContrast, Casio unhelpfully calls the feature Lighting.

When it comes to basic camera specs, there's not much to worry about. Even cameras designed for point-and-shooters today have high enough image resolution for any consumer's needs. The LCD can vary a bit, but expect a 230,000-dot resolution in a screen measuring 2.7 to 3 inches. You'll rarely find an optical viewfinder on a basic point-and-shoot anymore, but there are a few out there, and they're convenient when bright sunlight overpowers the LCD.

You'll  find an interesting range in zoom capability even for highly automated point-and-shoots. They start at a 3x zoom, but you can find 5x and 7x zooms that provide a lot more freedom when framing your shots.

A key spec to keep an eye on is battery life. Most of these cameras run on small rechargeable Lithium ion batteries, and you're not likely to order a spare (or remember to keep it charged if you do).  We see some batteries rated for only about 200 shots, while others last well over 300.

A movie mode offering 720p video is common, but not every camera in this class has stepped up to the high-def standard, so be sure to check the specs if video recording is important to you. Our testing consistently shows that high-def video, even in 720p mode (versus the higher 1080p standard) looks dramatically sharper than standard-def 640x480 recordings.

In reading through our testing results, two areas of particular importance are resolution and noise. Our resolution testing includes three sections that include sharpness, distortion and color imperfections caused by lens problems. Taken together, they provide a good indication of which cameras will give you those crisp, detailed photos you're after.

Image noise is that distracting grainy speckling you see particularly in solid-colored areas, especially when shooting indoors without flash. The lower the camera's image noise, the more successfully you'll be able to photograph babies without a blinding flash, and  indoor party scene candids.

Finally, check the shot to shot speeds, which vary widely, from the extreme case of the Casio EX-FC100, which can grab a blistering 30 shots in a second, to the pokey Fujifilm F200EXR, which inflicts a full second delay between shots. That may not sound like much, but if you're trying to take photos of a fast-moving pet, kid, or sporting event, a second is an eternity.