If you are a normal person and just want to snap pictures, then you probably dont care about image quality, and just about anything will do. Otherwise :

Canon S95/S90. Best image quality for its size. Smallest form factor that fits in pocket comfortably. Around $300 these days?

Olympus XZ-1. A bit larger than the S95 but a faster lens. Great IQ. Really like this one, but its a hoodie pocket-size kind of camera. Should be able to get it for $350 on a deal.

Olympus EPL-1. If you are serious about photography and dont mind the larger size, but dont want to lug around a DSLR. The newer PEN models dont add anything really in terms of image quality, and the EPL-1 can be got for $250 used in excellent condition. Buy used, and add a nice pancake prime or zoom for m43.

sikieiki wrote:

If you are a normal person and just want to snap pictures, then you probably dont care about image quality, and just about anything will do. Otherwise :

Canon S95/S90. Best image quality for its size. Smallest form factor that fits in pocket comfortably. Around $300 these days?

Olympus XZ-1. A bit larger than the S95 but a faster lens. Great IQ. Really like this one, but its a hoodie pocket-size kind of camera. Should be able to get it for $350 on a deal.

Olympus EPL-1. If you are serious about photography and dont mind the larger size, but dont want to lug around a DSLR. The newer PEN models dont add anything really in terms of image quality, and the EPL-1 can be got for $250 used in excellent condition. Buy used, and add a nice pancake prime or zoom for m43.

Well I'm looking for good quality image(pixels), HD video (aiming for 1080p) and a decent zoom function. Willing to pay 200$+ for it. I'm aiming on starting a youtube account soon for business purposes, so I want a camera that could upload good quality videos but then again ,is a digital camera good for this sort of thing? I plan to use it for numerous reasons, one is general pictures (good quality, potentially HD). Same with video. I'll be using it general reasons,for Japanese, for business purposes,etc. Not sure if this helps but I'll make sure to keep looking

kainzero wrote:

ta12121 wrote:

Well I'm looking for good quality image(pixels), HD video (aiming for 1080p) and a decent zoom function. Willing to pay 200$+ for it. I'm aiming on starting a youtube account soon for business purposes, so I want a camera that could upload good quality videos but then again ,is a digital camera good for this sort of thing? I plan to use it for numerous reasons, one is general pictures (good quality, potentially HD). Same with video. I'll be using it general reasons,for Japanese, for business purposes,etc. Not sure if this helps but I'll make sure to keep looking

For good quality image, what kind of images do you need? Megapixels aren't as important nowadays as the image quality of the sensor. Furthermore megapixels only matter if you're going to blow up your photo. For any web photos a cell phone camera is usually good enough.
I'm not sure what you're going to shoot, but if you're shooting indoors then low-light performance and noise reduction will be a priority and increase your image quality, though again, resizing photos to web size will make anything seem high quality.

Why do you need 1080p video? If you're going to upload it somewhere, it's going to take a lot of bandwidth. Furthermore, do you expect people to need 1080p instead of 720p? (Also make sure you look at the frame rate. If I use any video recording on my DSLR, it's on 720p because 1080p records at only 20fps or something and it looks pretty crappy.)

What's the zoom for? Outdoor shooting and shooting wildlife, or shooting something very closely? IIRC all compact digital cameras shoot macro better than DSLRs without a macro lens...

Thanks for the post, very useful info. I will definitely be uploading it on my laptop, so having good quality will make it sweet. Your right about the large bandwidth. I guess sticking too 720p wouldn't hurt. Well, seeing how I use my schools internet nowadays more than I use at home. Bandwitdh isn't a problem but it would definitely a large video file and would take a lot of space up on my pc+uploading it.

Well decent zoom wouldn't be bad. Most cameras have 4X zoom, while some have 30X.
So basically it comes down to a few good points that I will look when getting a camera:

720p, 4X-30X zoom, good for indoor taking and good quality for outside pictures(nothing long distance, just short-distance).

Not sure which brands are good but I hear canon are good. I see a lot of samsung ones that are cheap but not to sure if they are good to get. Then there is fuji-cameras. Overall I now have a good idea of what to get.

Regarding the zoom, go for optical zoom and avoid digital zoom. Digital zoom starts giving you that pixel/small boxes sort of look.

Like others have said, it really depends a lot on what you want to do. I'm nowhere near a professional photographer, I'm definitely a snapshot sort of guy, though when I put a little effort into it I'm not bad at positioning within the frame to create a decent composition, so I'm probably better at the aesthetics than the technical side of things. I guess I'd describe my skill level as above the typical snapshot point and shoot, but not above it by much. For my purposes, my Sony Cybershot (DSC H5) has been great. It has a decent optical zoom, 7.2 megapixel, though it's a bit of an older model now. I also used to have an older cybershot, but I upgraded for a higher resolution and better zoom function. Examples of quality are on my flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/green-sabe … 156058785/ (that set has stuff from both cameras. Photos are in chronological order, so anything with the dog and after are with the DSC H5).

Another thing I both love and hate about the Sony Cybershot: it uses AA batteries. While it eats the things like candy, they are also easy to find replacements when you run out, without having to go to a Camera shop or big electronics store to find a special replacement battery for it. I also have a couple of sets of rechargeable AAs that I swap out.

They make cameras now.that are virtually indestructible that you can also take underwater. If I was going to get a point and shoot that is what I would get so you can really get some interesting shots and not worry about dropping it or sitting on it.

That said, I have a DSLR and a prime lens with a large aperature (f1.2) and pictures of people turn out amazing.