Once I got my iphone I thought I was done with point and shoots, but as I have learned over the past few weeks, compact digital cameras do have a purpose. Here’s a quick guide of how to find the perfect point and shoot for you. It will be in three parts going up over the next week or 2 and linked together.
1. Know what you need
The best point and shoots have 18 MP photos with full HD video, but odds are not every user needs a camera of that quality. Some cameras are fast while others are slow. Some cameras have a long range of optical zoom while others do not. It’s all relative. If you plan on taking pics and vids of your kids playing soccer, you’re going to want something fast with decent resolution (8MP +) at least VGA video (640×480) and a fast shutter. With sports you only have one chance to get that perfect shot. For this case I’d check the lower end of brand name companies such as Canon because real camera brands tend to be faster. If you don’t need speed, you can get a much cheaper camera from a company such as GE with decent to nice photo quality and a high amount of zoom. So before you buy a camera with a zillion nice features, think about whether you will really need or use those features.