What do you call a digital camera that’s neither an SLR nor a superzoom nor an “ultraslim” compact? For lack of a sexier term, we’ve settled on standard compact. That makes these cameras sound like photography’s version of the sensible sedan, but in fact this is the biggest category in cameras, spanning everything from $50 bubble-pack specials to the sophisticated models here, this year’s top choices.

Smaller than superzoom compacts, standard compacts accommodate more features and overall imaging power than their ultraslim cousins. Some even accept accessories from their makers’ D-SLR systems, such as hotshoe-mount flashes and off-camera TTL cords. Standard compacts are also usually more comfortable to hold than ultraslims, and unlike the latter they often still have optical finders — allowing eye-level viewing for steadier shooting than is possible with now-familiar arms-length LCD-screen composition. Last but not least, because they aren’t trying so hard to stay small or achieve superzoom-level magnification, standard compacts are often less expensive than other kinds of point-and-shoots with otherwise comparable features.

Standard Compact of the Year: Samsung NV24

If there’s anything more useful in a compact camera than having a 28mm-equivalent focal length, it’s having a 24mm-equivalent focal length — at least if you’re photographing the city, a wide-open landscape, or in a small interior. Twenty-four millimeters is where the Samsung NV24’s lens starts zooming, ending up at the equivalent of 86.5mm — a moderate tele focal length long enough to minimize apparent distortion in tight portraits.

If that snug interior you’re shooting is dimly lit, you’re also in good shape. At 24mm, the NV24’s zoom has a maximum aperture of f/2.8, which along with the NV24’s lens-based image stabilization and top sensitivity of ISO 3200 helps minimize blur. (The lens slows to a not-so-bright f/5.7 at the long end.) For videos of spaces wide or claustrophobic you have the option of 1,280 x 720 pixels at 30fps, with high-definition 720p HDMI output to an HDTV through an accessory cradle (about $50). And if your HDTV happens to be a new Samsung model, you can navigate through the camera menus using the television’s remote control.

The Samsung NV24’s viewing screen is probably the first on your block — an active-matrix organic LED (AM-OLED) rather than a conventional LCD. AM-OLEDs have a wider color gamut and faster “redraw” (the speed at which image-forming elements actually change), and can be made thinner too. The buzz among videophiles is that the flat-screen TVs of the future will be OLEDs. (Samsung is already showing some OLED TV prototypes.) Adding to the multimedia savvy of the NV24 is a Multi-Slide Show mode that lets you create transitions in-camera.

The array of buttons along two sides of the NV24’s screen may seem intimidating at first, but they actually make settings simpler and faster by reducing the amount of menu-scrolling you have to do. One pushbutton mode is Self Portrait, in which the shutter won’t fire unless a subject is in the center of the frame. That may not be the best composition, but at least you won’t crop off your own head.

At a Glance: Samsung NV24

Other Top Standard Compacts:

Canon PowerShot G9

The PowerShot G9 is a D-SLR wannabe: All that seems to be missing is a pentaprism viewfinder. Successor to the somewhat stripped-down G7, the G9 gets a horsepower boost from its new 12.1-megapixel sensor, a big three-inch LCD screen, RAW and RAW+JPEG capture, a hotshoe compatible with E-TTL II Canon Speedlites, and improved image stabilization (IS). The latter now includes a special mode for panning that limits stabilization to just the vertical axis, as in IS lenses for EOS SLRs. Even face detection rises to a new level with the G9. The camera can track a selected face in a group of faces, and, in playback, automatically zoom to magnify faces in the frame.

The G9’s zoom has the same 35-210mm (35mm equivalent) range and f/2.8-4.8 speed as in the G7. A well-regarded feature of the included Canon software is Adaptive Noise Control, which lets you control the degree of noise reduction during conversion of RAW files in order to minimize loss of sharpness. Auxiliary lenses (wide, macro, tele) and an underwater housing are available for this powerhouse compact.

At a Glance: Canon PowerShot G9

Fujifilm FinePix F100fd

The latest F-series FinePix gets a next-generation image sensor and processor designed to significantly expand an image’s dynamic range. The camera also goes wide with a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) f/3.3-5.1 zoom. Its second-generation face detection not only detects faces head-on or in profile but upside-down or tilted at any angle — good for kids on a jungle gym. For subjects too old for such fun, Portrait Enhancer minimizes wrinkles and blemishes. Can Botox Mode be far behind?

The F100fd’s Dual Shot mode takes two images in quick succession, one with and one without flash; you can pick the better one, or keep both. If your subject suffers from red-eye in the flash version, not to worry: The camera does red-eye removal on the fly. And when it comes time to transfer images, you can do so without wires or dock to any device compatible with the IrSimple infrared standard.

At a Glance: Fujifilm FinePix F100fd

Kodak EasyShare Z1085 IS

Few compacts have offered so much capability at a price as low as Kodak’s EasyShare Z885, a camera that posted excellent image quality results in Popular Photography’s lab tests. The new EasyShare Z1085 IS certainly does, though, even adding two megapixels and in-lens image stabilization to the Z885’s long list of features.

Like the Z885, the Z1085 has a noisy but usable ISO 8000 setting; together with image stabilization and a relatively fast Schneider 35-175mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.8-5.1 zoom, this makes available-candlelight photography perfectly viable. Easy-to-use manual controls inherited from the Z885 invite such experimentation.

The Z1085 can capture stills or 1080p video in 16:9 wide-screen format and output either one to an HDTV in HD format. Small-scale sharing is possible too, though: You can save downsized versions of your favorite pictures in the camera’s internal memory, making it a sort of digital wallet.

At a Glance: Kodak EasyShare Z1085 IS

Nikon Coolpix P5100

Another compact that aspires to D-SLR sophistication, Nikon’s magnesium-bodied P5100 upgrades the Coolpix P5000 with a jump to 12.1 megapixels (from 10.1 megapixels) and an improved face-detection system (one that sorts out up to 12 faces in one frame). Digital SLR-style features include a dedicated hotshoe that supports i-TTL Nikon Speedlights such as the SB-800; manual and priority exposure controls; and in-lens image stabilization, the latter borrowed from Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) SLR lenses.

The P5100 adds red-eye removal to adjustments that already include in-camera image cropping and D-Lighting, Nikon’s technology for increasing shadow detail without blowing out highlights. The lens remains a 35-123mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.7-5.3; it accepts front-mounted wide-angle and telephoto supplementary lenses that spread the focal length range to the equivalents of 23.5mm and 369mm respectively. The P5100 even performs a clever software trick with the wide-angle converter: real-time correction of barrel distortion, the bowing out of straight lines near the edges of the frame. The camera manages to fix this without visibly reducing image quality.

At a Glance: Nikon Coolpix P5100

Best Buy: Pentax Optio M50

Yet another all-purpose compact that breaks through the 3X ceiling, the Optio M50 zooms from 36-180mm (35mm equivalent). It also does face detection one better with a Smile Capture mode that fires the shutter only when it detects a smiling face. And it corrects red-eye automatically.

In case you can’t decide which mode to use, the camera’s Auto Picture setting will evaluate what’s happening in the scene and automatically pick one of six shooting modes. (Part of that analysis includes determining if there’s a moving subject that needs focus tracking.) But the M50 has one of our favorite things ever in a compact camera: Its panorama mode provides onscreen templates for composing three pictures, then stitches the finished shots together automatically, in-camera — no software or computer required.

At a Glance: Pentax Optio M50

Ricoh R8

Though it’s easy to be impressed by the R8’s zoom range, the longest in this group, the camera also wows us with sheer quality. Its big LCD has 460,000 dots, about twice the number of a typical screen, providing an unusually crisp image for composing and reviewing pictures. Bumped up to ten megapixels from the R7’s eight, the R8 also gets a metal top plate for better durability and a rubber grip for a more secure hold. In macro mode the R8 can focus down to a bug’s-eye view one centimeter from the front lens element; an unusual minimum aperture-priority mode sets the smallest f-stop possible to maximize depth of field.

Meanwhile, a sensor-shifting system stabilizes shots for less blur, and image adjustments include settings for brightness, contrast, and saturation. In keeping with Ricoh tradition, an interval timer lets you set the camera for time-lapse photography. And unlike some other models with longer-than-usual zoom ranges, the Caplio R8’s lens — a 28-200mm (35mm equivalent) f/3.3-5.2 zoom — folds flat into a body less than an inch thick.

At a Glance: Ricoh Caplio R8

Ricoh GR Digital II

The original Ricoh GR Digital, available in the U.S. only through a few dealers, earned cult status among professional photographers as a roadworthy camera you could stick in your pocket, but that delivered image quality way better than what you’d get from a run-of-the-mill digital compact. The next-generation Ricoh GR Digital II (about $700, available at adorama.com) ups that image quality from the original’s eight megapixels to ten — an increase reasonable enough for the camera’s new image processor to offset any extra noise. But this die-cast magnesium model inherits most of its sharpness from an excellent single-focal-length wide-angle lens, one that’s equivalent to 28mm in the 35mm format.

With a maximum aperture of f/2.4 the lens is also unusually fast, a plus because the camera has no image stabilization. Its seven-blade aperture diaphragm smooths out-of-focus detail; close focusing is also very good, by our measure nearing a foot without having to shift into macro mode. The 2.7-inch LCD can be used for both viewing and reviewing, but you can mount an optional rangefinder-style auxiliary optical finder on top of the camera, for that serious-photographer look.

Pro-style features on the GR Digital II include aperture-priority autoexposure, a manual mode in which f-stop and shutter speed are easily adjusted with a wheel under your index finger and a slider under your thumb, and sensitivity to a reasonable ISO 1600. Images can be saved as either JPEGs or RAW files, the latter in the increasingly common Adobe DNG format. The LCD screen even displays a level indicator, to help you keep your limitless horizon straight when you’re on the road. We just wish you could cancel the annoying off-level warning beep.

The post Editor’s Choice 2008: Standard Compacts appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The photo industry likes to call these cameras “high zooms,” a reference to their exceptional magnifying power. We think “superzooms” is more descriptive, but either way their focal-length ranges of 10X, 12X, 15X, or even a staggering 20X make them just the ticket for shooting sports and wildlife (or even celebrities) if you don’t want to carry a massive, expensive supertele and digital SLR. In the past these cameras have usually incorporated an electronic viewfinder (EVF), which allows steadier handheld shooting than composing with an LCD screen, especially when the lens is zoomed out to long tele. But a number of manufacturers are foregoing the EVF to keep cameras compact and leave space for a bigger screen. Fortunately, most of these models now have optical image stabilization to minimize blur due to hand shake — and make your pictures sharper.

Superzoom Compact of the Year: Casio Exilim EX-F1

For photographers who’ve grown blasé about fast firing rates, Casio’s new Exilim F1 is the ultimate antidote. It can rip 60 still frames at full resolution — a respectable six megapixels — in a single one-second burst. But our jaws really hit the floor when we set this paradigm-shifting model to its highest-speed video mode, in which it delivers a hard-to-believe 1200 frames per second. Played back at standard speed, the latter stretches one second of real time into 40 seconds of super slo-mo. Cracking an egg into a pan takes nearly a minute. (Visit our Sneak Peek for a demo.)

Resolution at 1200fps is limited to a wide-format 96 x 336 pixels, so the picture looks better when kept small. But if you lower the frames per second to 600fps or 300fps you get higher resolution with faster yet still-smooth slo-mo. (We stuck with 300fps to get full-format, full-screen coverage, and the effect was still mesmerizing.) Then, at 60fps, you can make movies with full HDTV resolution — 1920 x 1080 pixels — and stereo sound. You can also shoot 30fps video at a high-def 1280 x 720 or, to save memory, a ho-hum standard VGA (640 x 480).

Need more subject-stopping speed? The EX-F1’s electronic shutter can shoot stills at 1/40,000 second. And its built-in flash recycles fast enough for you to fire seven full-resolution frames per second in bursts of up to 20 shots. Not fast enough? The F1 can even take a picture in the future, sort of: Its image buffer stores whatever the lens sees in the second before the shutter button is pressed, so you can retrieve a full-res image even if you miss the moment.

With its 36-432mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.7-4.6 zoom, the F1 performs these tricks both far and wide. It can even combine them with the manual focus, manual exposure, and RAW capture options that control freaks love. Could this be the hybrid still/video camera we’ve been expecting all these years?

At a Glance: Casio Exilim EX-F1

Other Top Superzoom Compacts

Fujifilm FinePix S100fs

You can shoot Fujichrome Velvia, Provia, or Astia with the new FinePix S100fs. How’s that? Fuji’s new superzoom evokes those iconic slide films with several film-simulation modes (hence the “fs” designation) that apply appropriate saturation, hue, and contrast to JPEG images. You can even autobracket your film simulation, capturing the same moment in different film palettes.

For photographers weaned on the moderate contrast and long tonal scale of color negatives — and who prefer not to use the S100fs in its RAW mode to achieve those qualities — there’s even a JPEG portrait mode that simulates color neg. A dynamic-range adjustment lets you expand tonality another 400 percent. (You can even autobracket by dynamic range.) The new model’s all-things-to-all-photographers effort continues with such amenities as a Super Macro mode that allows focus down to one centimeter in front of the lens; face detection that can automatically apply red-eye removal; and VGA-resolution video. And if you run out of existing light but can’t use flash, you can shoot three-megapixel images at ISO 10000.

At a Glance: Fujifilm FinePix S100fs

Best Buy: Kodak EasyShare Z8612 IS

It’s a good thing the EasyShare Z8612 IS has image stabilization to steady your shots, not only because of its powerful but shake-prone 12X top magnification but also because you have to compose at arm’s length on its LCD screen. (It has no eye-level viewfinder.) The new model sure is a superzoom, though, with its Schneider-branded 36-432mm (35mm equivalent) lens, respectably fast at f/2.8-f/4.8. And this optical reach comes in a camera no bigger than some standard 5X-zooming compacts. In fact, the Z8612 fits in a jacket pocket.

The new EasyShare can choose an exposure mode for you using its Smart Scene capability, but you can pick an auto mode yourself if you prefer, or go fully manual. The camera will shoot stills in high-def, wide-screen format and display them on an HDTV when you connect it with Kodak’s EasyShare HDTV Dock. (Video is standard VGA.) Or drop the camera into the optional EasyShare Printer Dock and make 4 x 6 prints on the spot: Press a button and it does the rest.

At a Glance: Kodak EasyShare Z8612 IS

Olympus SP-570 Ultra Zoom

The league leader in superzoom magnification, this new 10-megapixel model posts the biggest numbers yet, ranging from an extrawide 26mm to a breathtaking 520mm — real optical zoom, not pixel-stealing digital zoom. Despite that huge magnification, the lens is relatively fast, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8-4.5. Features for knowledgeable photographers include manual exposure, RAW image capture, a dedicated flash hotshoe, and wireless control of Olympus accessory flash units. There’s even an underwater mode for when you’re shooting the depths with the SP-570 in its dedicated underwater housing (which Olympus also sells).

Perfect Shot Preview shows the effect of changing various settings before you take a picture; Perfect Fix lets you correct poor exposures, blur, and red-eye after you take the picture; and Shadow Adjustment can boost dynamic range, also after the fact. The camera’s advanced technology also addresses snapshot basics, offering Smile Shot — a refinement of face detection in which the camera automatically fires at the instant someone in the frame smiles.

At a Glance: Olympus SP-570 Ultra Zoom

Panasonic Lumix TZ5

Panasonic’s fifth-generation Travel Zoom (that’s what the TZ stands for) gets a resolution boost to 9.1 megapixels, a sharper LCD (one with 460,000 dots, twice that of typical screens), and several advances in automated shooting. Among the latter is Intelligent ISO, which Panasonic says analyzes 3,000 “cells” throughout the picture and-get this-adjusts the ISO in each cell for better exposure and dynamic range. The system also analyzes motion and will automatically raise overall ISO as needed to minimize blur.

Most point-and-shoot models have an image aspect ratio of 4:3, but the TZ5 lets you choose from 4:3, 35mm-style 3:2, and wide-screen 16:9. The TZ5 also adds 720p high-def video capture, in wide-screen format; unlike video in many compacts, you can actually zoom while you’re recording. Good stuff from previous TZ models is also carried over, notably the wider-than-usual 28-280mm f/3.3-4.9 Leica-branded lens, a clipboard memory for storing files such as street maps, and in-lens image stabilization.

At a Glance: Panasonic Lumix TZ5

Nikon Coolpix P80

Nikon came late to the superzoom party but makes up for it with the Coolpix P80. Featuring a compact body that bears a family resemblance to Nikon’s D40x digital SLR, this 10.1-megapixel camera has a 27-486mm (equivalent) zoom lens that’s relatively fast (f/2.8-4.5); a slew of exposure modes that include full manual; and speed, speed, speed. Downsize the image to three megapixels and you can fire up to 30 shots at four, six, or thirteen frames per second. What’s more, the P80 can capture color and monochrome JPEGs simultaneously.

Viewing and composing can be done either through the electronic viewfinder or on the camera’s 2.7-inch LCD screen. The P80 steadies its image by shifting the sensor, a departure from Nikon’s usual lens-based Vibration Reduction. But traditional Nikon goodies include Best Shot mode, which takes multiple images and keeps the sharpest one; in-camera red-eye removal; and D-Lighting for opening up an image’s dynamic range.

At a Glance: Nikon Coolpix P80

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50

Sony’s new model tweaks the Cyber-shot DSC-H9, one of last year’s Editor’s Choice superzooms and already one of the best EVF cameras around. The new rig gets an extra million pixels of resolution, for a total of nine; user-selectable noise reduction (low, standard, or high); an improved Dynamic Range Optimizer that has a new Plus mode for a greater boost in shadow detail; and autoexposure bracketing that automatically adjusts white balance and color in between frames to better suit the different exposures.

The H50 takes smile-detection shutter priority a step further, allowing you to set it so that the shutter is triggered by either a child’s or an adult’s smile. Otherwise, Sony smartly kept the H9’s virtues intact: the wide-to-supertele 31-465mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.7-4.5 Zeiss lens; the big, tilting LCD that lets you view and shoot with the camera at waist level or overhead; and HD output for 1080i viewing of stills on a high-definition TV.

At a Glance: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50

The post Editor’s Choice 2008: Superzoom Compacts appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.