Choosing a Camera

With the iPhone 4S out, Apple has advertisements all over the place telling you that it could be the only camera you ever need. Well, it's conceivable that they are right. But only if you have somewhat pedestrian standards when it comes to picture quality. Choosing a camera - a real camera - will often get you far better results.

The advantages of a dedicated camera are many. A real camera has a bigger lens. A bigger lens lets in more light and makes for a better quality picture. Low light performance is always better on a proper camera.

Now the best pocket cameras today certainly do just about everything you would need of a camera - especially since they use the same optics and sensors as a beginner level SLR's. You even get lots of manual control over your camera. If you want the convenience of a point-and-shoot without the fuss of an SLR, consider a Compact Camera System. These are tinycameras with big sensors. And you can switch lenses. If you're choosing a camera of this kind, go for what they call a Micro Four Thirds a model.

Basically, no matter how good a phone camera gets, it can always be nothing better than a gimmick, given how small the lens is. But while you want to go with quality, you don't want to go all the way and sink hundreds of dollars into a camera if you're not really that interested in photography.

If you just want the convenience of a phone camera with the quality of a real model, choosing a camera in the $500 range from among all the point-and-shoots on offer should do for you. If you really do want to take the next step forward, do consider a Compact Camera System. A model like the Olympus PEN E-P3 may be really entertaining to use. To begin with, it looks like an old 60s camera. But it's right up there in terms of innovation and quality.

A Micro Four Thirds camera of this kind is great because it works like a point-and-shoot, but it's very fast in every way. It's as fast as an SLR. Of course, it isn't exactly as feature-packed as SLR. You still don't get a real viewfinder, for instance. But if you could live with that, you probably wouldn't find much else that you miss.

If $800 seems like a bit much for you, a model like the Canon PowerShot S100 at $350 should be excellent. It's Canon's point-and-shoot flagship, and it does both wide-angle and zoomvery well. It's even got GPS and full HD video.