Point and Shoot Camera Review

Thanks to the advent of digital media, cameras are more readily available and varied than ever before. Standard digital cameras, professional DSLR cameras and children's digital cameras – the available options fit many needs and uses. For beginners less concerned with manual controls and more interested in ease of use, point and shoot cameras fit a wide range of needs without forcing you to prepare for every shot.

The best point and shoot digital cameras are small and ready to use. Most of them come with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, so you'll never have to deal with changing batteries. Today's best fast-draw digital cameras combine high-quality pictures with HD video recording. What sets point and shoot cameras apart from other compact digital cameras is their ability to teach you more advanced techniques. With a wide range of features and capabilities crammed into its tiny package, a point and shoot camera offers great all-around usage for anyone.

We compiled the best of the best point and shoot cameras. Many of their differences are subtle, but we were able to find the top-performing cameras. To get a better idea of what to look for or fun projects you can tackle with your camera, read our series of articles covering point and shoot cameras. Soon, you'll know what you need in a new camera. We are impressed with all of the cameras we reviewed, but three stand above the rest: Fujifilm FinePix F800EXR, Samsung MV900F and Canon PowerShot SX260 HS.

Point and Shoot Cameras: What to Look For

When comparing the best point and shoot digital cameras, you'll find the devil is in the details. In order to figure out the absolute best, we explored a wide range of qualities and features. Our review breaks cameras down to these features:

Image Quality
Obviously, one of the most important aspects of a camera is the visual fidelity of your pictures. Higher resolution allows for better images, but these higher resolution images take much more storage space. The best digital cameras let you specify the resolution you'd like before you take the photo, and the resolution you choose will depend on what you intend to do with the photos. If you plan to print and share your pictures through a scrapbook or a frame, you'll want the digital pictures to look as close to analog film as possible, so you'll want to select the highest resolution. But if you're only going to post these pictures online, you can turn down the resolution and save some storage space on your camera. Another resolution consideration comes from the type of image sensor. CCP image sensors use every pixel to capture light and are able to create beautiful, near-analog images. An efficient MOS or CMOS sensor can capture accurate pictures without consuming as much storage and battery.

If you're interested in learning new techniques and increasing your knowledge of photography, look for a camera that lets you play with as many image settings as possible. For example, most cameras let you adjust, to some extent, the ISO range. A large ISO range also helps control the amount of light going into your camera's iris. A higher ISO allows more light, but keeps the iris open longer and reduces the visual quality. If you're in a low light situation and don't want to use your flash, manually switching to a higher ISO offers more options. We also looked at finer details that you will need for your amateur photography projects, like zoom capabilities and focal length.

Features
All modern point and shoot cameras offer basic features, like image stabilization, red eye reduction and a self timer. More unique features, like HD video quality and continuous shooting speed offer you more flexibility with your camera. You can film your daughter's ballet performance in beautiful 1080p HD video or capture your nephew's perfect pitch at the state championship with high-speed continuous shooting. Many cameras also feature face recognition, color effects or slideshows.

Battery Life/Storage
Most point and shoot cameras come with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, freeing you from ever buying another battery for your camera. These batteries can last several hundreds of pictures, so with a full charge, you can confidently cover your weekend trip to Vegas and leave your charger at home. Many cameras also feature internal memory and are ready to take pictures after their first charge, and most cameras allow further storage through an SD memory card.

Design
All point and shoot cameras are designed to be small, lightweight and portable. Some cameras have larger LCD viewfinder screens, and as these cameras get smaller, so do the screens. Button placement and style becomes a major distinguishing feature of these cameras. Some buttons are flush with the camera's body, protecting against accidental button presses. Others use dials or raised buttons to make scrolling and selection incredibly easy. Finally, some cameras forego buttons entirely to save space and use a touchscreen viewfinder instead.

Help & Support
All of the cameras on this list come with a standard one-year warranty, but some manufacturers offer extended warranties for an additional price. The top-scoring cameras in this category offer online manuals, FAQs, phone and email support, and live online chat with a service representative.

Point and shoot cameras give beginners the portable design necessary to capture any moment. You'll be able to explore new techniques and methods without spending an arm and a leg.

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