at least
7 m
egapixels.
If
you n
eed high
resolu tion an d impec
cab le quality, choose one of
the
high
re solution
com p acts
or
SLRs
that
h
ad
exc
ellent
print
or im
age
qua lity in
our
tests.
Sh
ooting a
t
a high er resolution
with
ou t
usi ng a
com pressed
forma t
such
as
JP EG
can
fill
your me
m ory
card
and
h
ard
drive
more quic
kly Thi
s year; though, more
ca
meras
ca
n r
ecord
on
a n
ew; higher
capacity
ca
rd known
as
SDHC.
If
high
re
s
olution
isn' t critic
al, a model in our
Ratings
with very
good
image quality and
6 or
7
m
egap ixels of
resolution should
be
fin
e.
Among
p
oint-and-shoot
ca me
ras,
the
hi
ghest ISO lig
h t -sensitivity
setting has
ge
n er ally
been
400, too low
to
make sh arp
h
a ndheld
shots in dim
light with out a
flash. Som e mo
de stly
priced mod els
h
ave
b
egun featu
ri ng
settings
of 1600
or
even
3200, but
resul ts
can
be
grainy and n
otice
ab
ly
worse
th an th ose shot
a
t
equival en t
se
ttings u
sing
SLR
s
and
the priciest
point -an d-shoots.
If
yo
u
'r e
attr acted
to a
p
articular su
bc om p act or com p ac t b
e
ca
us e of its h
igh
ISO se ttings,
check its
performan
ce
in our
Rat
in gs
and make
sure you
ca
n return it at n
o cos
t if its
low
light results are disappointing.
Canon PowerShot A460
Kodak EasyShare C653
Canon PowerShot A460 (5
MP),
$130
These have lower resolut ion
and smaller
LCOs
th
an
the
ir high-rat ed siblings.
th
e
Canon
Powershot A64 0
(1)
and
A630
(3).
And neith
er
offe rs manual
controls,
which
t
hose model s
do. But
their pe r
formance is
solid
across the
boa rd, and
they have a 4x
optica l zoom, the
highest
of
the
group.
Competent though slower than most:
Kodak
EasyShare C653 (6
MP),
$140
Nikon Coolpix LlO (5 MP), $120
Pentax Optio M30 (7
MP), $190
Olympus
FE-21O
(7 MP
),
$140
These
will
ta ke decent pictures,
but
more
slowly
than the best models
in th
e Rat
ings. Shutte r
lag is
1
sec
ond
(1'1,
seco nds
for
the Kodak). The Nikon
is
the only
budget su
bcompact
tested, a
nd it
has
face det ect ion, as does
th
e Penta
x.
The
Olympus has
a
built-in help guide,
but its
next-shot de
lay
is
3 seco nds, the longes t
of the
budget models.
Too slow for action-packed scenes:
Polaroid
T737
(7
MP),
$180
This has
th
e biggest
LCD
of
the
gro
up,
at
3 inches,
but its
image
quality
is
fair
to
middling. Next-sh ot delay
is a full 5
seco
nds,
lon ger
than
a
ny
rated model,
while
sh
utt er lag
is also on
th
e
slow side,
at
1'1, seco
nds.
NOVEMB
ER
2
0 07
0
www.ConsumerReports.org
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