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Great Shots under 10K
Sudeep Naik, Oct 29, 2007 1548 hrs ISTDo you look forward to buying a new digicam this Diwali? If so, here's a guide just for you.
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It's Diwali season once again, and something tells me you're planning to treat yourself to a new digital camera.
If you're a first-time digicam buyer, you may already have asked your relatives, friends, friends of relatives, and ooh, maybe you should ask that geeky cousin of yours (there's always one in the family, eh?). But there's always some room for additional reference -- and here I'm with the first of our TWO PART Digital Still Camera buying guide for this Diwali.
Canon PowerShot A550 : Rs.9,800
Launched in February this year, the Canon PowerShot A550 was launched as the successor to A530 in the A-series lineup from Canon. The boxy design makes it pretty ergonomic and easy to carry around in your cargo pockets. Basic specs include a 7MP CCD, 4x optical zoom (35-140mm effective), 4x digital zoom, 2" LCD, and an ISO range of 80-800.
Other features include AiAF 9-zone and single zone autofocus modes, AF Assist light for low-light focusing, 10 preset scene modes, and exposure compensation of +/- 2EV in 1/3 step increments.
Powered by the DIGIC II imaging processor, the A550 is comfortable to use and gives good quality, hi-res pictures with low distortion. It has good high ISO performance and low light shooting capability (for indoor or party shots). The movie mode lets you record 640x480 clips at 30fps with sound; the only glitch here is that the length is limited to 1GB.
The A550 uses twin AA batteries. On standard 1600 mAh NiMH batteries, it lasts for at least a couple hundred shots.
For the price mentioned above I'm sure you'll also find a 1GB SD card, NiMH batteries with charger and a camera pouch clubbed into the bundle.
Casio Exilim Z60: Rs.9,900
Want to show off on a budget? The Exilim series from Casio is the way to go. The slim, stylish, and sturdy Exilim Z60 measures 95.2x60.6x19.8 mm and weighs 118 grams (without battery). Most importantly, it has a 6MP CCD, 3x Optical Zoom, 4 x digital zoom, and Anti Shake DSP with a 2.5" LCD.
The Z60 features 33 Best Shot modes for taking pictures like Portrait, Scenery, Sports, Party, Night shot, Text, and Whiteboard, to name a few. Another icing on the cake is Revive Shot -- a feature that refreshes faded colors of old photos by automatically adjusting the obliquity even when photos are shot while still in the album.
The camera's Rapid Flash function enables 3 consecutive high-speed flash photos per second. The Easy Mode setting provides a simplified, easy to understand, and convenient version of the settings menu and camera interface. This is designed especially for novices but also comes in handy for those who prefer a basic camera-settings interface. One can also use preset image sizes from the normal 640x480 to 2816x2112, depending on how you want to use the pictures.
Overall, the Z60 has a decent still-picture quality in all the modes and image-size presets that are available. The video and voice recording quality is at par with the competition. One can shoot videos at resolutions of either 640x480 or 320x240 with zoom enabled and store the videos in AVI format. Voice recording is in the WAV format -- an in-line real-time MP3 recording would have been a more appealing add-on for sure. The Z60's 3.7 V 700 mAH Li-ion battery holds ground for around 100 snaps with constant reviewing of pictures and lots of flash bursts.
It's a good buy for those who want more style than the average camera offers. I'm not sure how many techies would favor it, though, because there isn't much scope for manual configuration.
For that price you might also get a 512MB SD card and camera pouch thrown in the bundle.
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