6 Excellent Entry-Level Digital Cameras

July 23, 2008 in Digital Media
Tags: Cameras, Canon, Casio, Digital, Fujifilm, Kodak, Nikon

The digital camera market is positively flooded with models in all shapes and sizes, which makes the task of finding a simple, inexpensive, entry-level shooter a tough one. If you’re new to digital photography, your main objectives should be finding a camera that has both ease of use and room for growth. On one hand, you don’t want to spend a fortune on a confounding camera with a raft of features you won’t use, but settling on a super-cheap, stripped-down model that doesn’t offer anything beyond the very basics is shortsighted. After all, once you get the hang of taking pictures, you’ll want to play around with the camera to perfect your shots. Since manufacturers often slash features to keep prices down in the lower end of the spectrum, the key is finding the perfect balance of the two. These six cameras do just that.

Canon PowerShot A580
The Canon PowerShot A580 is a fine entry-level point-and-shooter, but for $30 more you can get the nearly identical A590 IS, which adds image stabilization and manual controls.
Canon PowerShot A590 IS
With excellent image quality, face detection, image stabilization, and manual exposure settings, we love this point-and-shooter because it offers a lot for a little.
Casio Exilim EX-Z9
The EX-Z9 is a good-looking, easy-to-use compact cam that takes terrific daylight shots and continues Casio’s tradition of quality video recording in digital cameras.
Fujifilm FinePix J10
Newbies will appreciate this credit-card-size camera’s dead-simple menu system.

Kodak EasyShare M1033
Kodak comes through with great images and plenty of features, including 720 HD resolution movie recording in this moderately priced, simple-to-use shooter.
Nikon Coolpix P60
Despite its heft and somewhat slow response times, this point-and-shoot model offers an impressive range of features like an electronic viewfinder and in-camera editing. And it takes great daylight shots.