TEch Friday: Pocket cameras

Sometimes you want to travel light. As a photographer, the thought of going anywhere without a camera is unthinkable. Fortunately, today there are many small compact cameras that are capable of yielding great results in a very small package. If you are considering picking up a small camera let me make some suggestions to consider.

Most people have only one question when they consider a new camera, how many megapixels does it have? Actually that is far from the most important consideration. I do presentations all over America and I have a half dozen images in my portfolio piece that many people rave about. They always guess that I used something like the D3x (24 megapixels) to shoot them, it’s always fun to tell them that they were shot with a D70 (several generations old 6 megapixel camera).

Far more important than megapixels is color quality and sharpness. Today many small cameras go as high as 14 megapixels and higher! The following list (in order) are what I would look for in a compact camera.

1. Excellent image quality (regardless of megapixels). * Sharp lens/good zoom range.
2. Low noise out to at least ISO 400.
3. Minimum shutter lag and Vibration Reduction feature.
4. Good adjustment of white balance, saturation and sharpening.
5. Wide angle to at least 28mm equivalent.
6. Good automatic white balance.
7. Viewfinder or very good LCD panel for composing.
8. At least 720P movie mode.
9. HDMI connectivity.
10. A reasonable price.

There are quite a few attractive cameras out there that can fill these requirements. Since I work for Nikon I use the Coolpix S8000, it works great for me and is very slim and easy to pocket. Look for
the camera that you enjoy using and you will be a happy camper.

One big advantage to a small camera is most people will pay very little attention to you! Better shots!

Does it make nice images? Judge for yourself………

My best,

the pilgrim