Best Digital Camera $600
Help finding a digital camera around $400-$600. January 19, 2014 Subscribe Looking for best quality photos in a reasonably small package.If you shoot most of your snapshots and video on your smartphone, you’ve probably been disappointed in how some of them look. Sometimes, the light’s not great—especially at a Thanksgiving dinner or holiday party—and your photo ends up underexposed, or simply dull and lackluster. In other cases, you’re too far away, or you just can’t freeze the action in a sports shot. In fact, unless you’re shooting in relatively bright light, even very good phone cameras may just not be up to the task in a lot of shooting situations. That’s why buying an advanced camera, like those you'll find in our Ratings of SLR, mirrorless, and advanced point-and-shoot cameras, will make a world of difference. Compared to phones, these models have larger, more capable imaging sensors, which more accurately capture the scene you’re shooting with less distortion.
So, we’ve combed through our Ratings and compiled a list of five very capable, extremely versatile advanced cameras that won’t break your holiday budget, whether you're shopping for yourself or for someone on your gift lift.
Puppies For Sale In Central Coast NswSome of these models have been around for a couple of years, but they’re still available and they still take great pictures. Check Consumer Reports' 2015 Holiday Guide for our picks of the best gifts, details on the latest deals, time-saving tips, and much more. And see our countdown calendar for top gift ideas for everyone on your list. Although it’s an entry-level SLR, this Nikon is very versatile and has both an excellent quality viewfinder and LCD, so you’ll never miss a moment when composing your images or checking how they look. The camera is also very fast: It can fire off 5 frames per second in burst mode, in full resolution.
If you like to do a lot of cropping when you're image editing your photos, you’ve got 24-megapixels to work with, which means you’ll have lots of pixels to spare. And it even comes in three colors—black, gray or red. Canon Rebel SL1 ($500) Like the D3300, this is a very compact and lightweight SLR (although it’s still larger and heavier than most other types of cameras). But it’s packed with powerful features. It can fire off 4 frames per second in burst mode, in full resolution, and it has a very good through-the-lens viewfinder. For those who want to experiment with effects, it includes a number of built-in creative filters, such as a water painting effect and soft focus. Like the Nikon D3300, this Canon is cheap enough that you might even consider spending a little extra money to buy an extra lens to go along with the 18-55mm kit lens. What types of photos do you shoot during the holidays? Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF7 ($510) If you’re looking for a lot less bulk and weight, but still want an interchangeable lens camera, like an SLR, you should consider a mirrorless camera like this one.
This Panasonic is roughly half the weight of each of the two SLRs we mention above. But it’s got lots of premium features, including an excellent quality, swiveling, touchscreen LCD that allows you to set focus and shoot by touching the display. Plus, unlike both the SLRs we mention, this one comes with built-in Wi-Fi, including near-field communication (NFC), which allows you to control the camera from a smart phone or tablet or back up your photos and video to a computer. Unfortunately, this camera lacks a hot shoe and an electronic viewfinder. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100M2 ($600) This advanced point-and-shoot is small and compact enough to fit in a pocket. It’s easy to use, yet very versatile. It’s also very powerful, like an SLR or mirrorless camera: It not only lets you capture JPEGs, but also RAW files, which give you the most flexibility when editing your images in image-editing software. The camera itself offers precise, nicely designed controls for tweaking photos and capturing videos.
Unlike some in its class, this model has a hot shoe, for attaching an external flash and a swiveling LCD. It also has built-in wireless and NFC capabilities. Olympus Stylus 1S ($600) One very nice feature on this wireless advanced point-and-shoot is that it has a long 10.7x optical zoom, which means you can zoom in close to the action without worrying that you’ll degrade your image the way you do when you use digital zoom on your smartphone. It also comes with an excellent quality image stabilizer, which will compensate for handshake that can produce blurry photos or jittery video. And, it has a long battery life, so you can be out in the great outdoors longer and not worry that you’ll run out of juice during your holiday photo shoot.Skip to main content Best DSLR (under $600) for Film? Many people rely on their smartphones or tablets for taking photos and videos. But there are many good reasons to own one of today’s highly advanced but easy-to-use stand-alone cameras (or to give one as a holiday gift).
For example, the sensor size in almost all digital cameras is larger than it is in phones or tablets, and a larger sensor size means better image quality. Also, there are no true optical zoom lenses in phones or tablets. Instead, they rely on digital zooming that simply crops the optical image and, in the process, degrades image quality. Virtually all cameras either come with optical zooms built in or have the capability to use interchangeable lenses. More advanced stand-alone cameras also provide a full range of exposure-control options, giving you the ability to use fast shutter speeds to capture action, such as kids playing sports, or to manipulate lens apertures to precisely control what is or isn’t in sharp focus. Despite the dizzying array of cameras on store shelves, there are essentially only four types of dedicated digital still cameras. The trick to identifying which category of camera suits you is to ask yourself (or your gift recipient) some basic questions—how much creative control do you want (or not want)?…how big (and heavy) a camera are you willing to carry?…is video quality important to you?
Digital cameras range in price from less than $100 for a simple compact model to several thousand dollars for a professional-level model, but you don’t need to break the bank to get a camera that takes great photos. Here are the four basic digital camera types and my favorite models… Basic compact (price: $100 to $400). These small, easy-to-use cameras fit in a pocket and are ultra-simple to operate. My favorite: The Nikon Coolpix S3700 (20 megapixels, MP, with an 8x optical zoom and built-in Wi-Fi that allows you to easily share photos, $109). For adventurous types, there are waterproof cameras including my choice, the Olympus TG-4 (16MP with Wi-Fi, $379). It has a modest 4x optical zoom but is waterproof to depths of 50 feet, freeze-proof to 14°F and shockproof up to seven feet—perfect for extreme sports enthusiasts. Superzoom ($200 to $600). Superzoom cameras offer much more built-in zooming power than a compact and are ideal for shooting sports or wildlife and make great travel cameras.
Most superzoom cameras offer advanced exposure and metering modes. My picks: The Fuji FinePix S9900W has a 50x optical zoom, a range of exposure modes and a 16.2MP sensor ($274). The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ300K ($597) offers a 24x optical zoom, a 12.1MP sensor and 4K video capability. Compact mirrorless ($400 to $1,000 with one lens). Compact mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (some makers use the acronym MILC) are the new kids on the block and were first introduced in 2008. They offer a much lighter alternative to their larger counterparts, DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras, yet retain the ability to use interchangeable lenses. Many pros now use mirrorless cameras because of the lighter weight (of both cameras and lenses). The smaller size was achieved by removing the viewing mechanism found in a DSLR that allows you to view your subjects optically through the lens. Instead, with a mirrorless camera, you compose images using either the LCD screen on the back or an electronic viewfinder (or both).
My picks: The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G7KK/G7KS (16MP, $748 with a 14-42mm lens included) and the 24.3MP Sony Alpha a6000 with 16-50mm lens ($648) are excellent entry points to mirrorless photography systems—both are lightweight and small and create superb images. DSLR (entry level: $500 to $1,000 with one lens). Digital single-lens-reflex cameras are the big guns (technically and physically) of the camera world, and they are the preferred cameras of most professionals. The advantages include interchangeable lenses, very large sensors, endless accessories and the most sophisticated of exposure systems. My picks: The Canon EOS Rebel T6i (24.2MP with an 18-55mm lens, $799) and the Nikon D3300 (24.2MP with an 18-55mm lens, $496). Here are the key features most worth comparing…Lens focal lengths are expressed in millimeters, and the zoom lenses that are built into cameras (like point-and-shoot models) are always described as the ratio of the widest setting (for taking wide views such as landscapes) to the longest telephoto setting (for photographing distant subjects like wildlife).
A 10x zoom lens has a maximum focal length that is 10 times more powerful than its widest setting. A zoom ratio of 8x is good for everything from scenics to portraits, while a longer range of 16x or more is great for sports and wildlife.Digital camera resolution is described by the number of microscopic light-sensitive photo elements, or “pixels,” on the sensor. All sensors contain millions of pixels, and one million pixels equal one megapixel (or MP)—a 12MP sensor, for example, has 12 million pixels. Any camera with a pixel count of 10MP or higher can take superb photos if the camera’s other components are of high quality. Camera makers would like you to believe that more megapixels than that automatically means better photos, but that isn’t so. Other things being equal, as more pixels are crammed onto a given size of sensor (different types of cameras have different-sized sensors), each pixel must be smaller and picture quality becomes degraded. Size and ease of use.