It is quite rare to find a camera which offer control over the pictures and still stay in the ultra compact range. TL320 is one of them, it gives you control over saturation, contrast, tweaking of sharpness, shutter speeds and aperture, color and white balance. We really liked this camera for the amount of features that it offered, however the photo quality didn’t live up to our expectations. Usually you find a LCD in the back of the camera but this one has a three inch AMOLED display screen which is used in high end mobile phones. AMOLED phones gives you crisper image due to their superior quality. The brightness of the screen is more and it can stand bright sunlight. Finally AMOLED is economical on batteries as they consume less power. There are two gauges on the top of the device which we thought was a nice innovative feature on a camera. The gauges are for battery life and memory card space on the camera. Other buttons on the top of the device  [...]

SD camcorders are still lurking around even though world has moved to HD quality recorders. Some people still stick to SD devices if they don’t care much about quality and want to save disk space. This device that we got from Canon is an SD recorder with pretty good video quality. The camcorder can record movies or shoot photos and there is also an option called Dual Shot which lets you switch between video and still capture and you don’t have to change modes. However you can click photographs while you are recording a movie. On the bottom door are the battery and card slot. You can’t put in another battery for more life and the built in battery gives you recording of about an hour and 40 minutes. The FS200 is user friendly and even newbies won’t need much time to get used to it. There is a 2.7 inch display screen and next to it there is a five way joystick. Apart from this, there are a set of buttons below the screen for recording. We  [...]

This camcorder from Sony has GPS built in and it is something that surprised us when we got the product in our test centers. Other than that is has the new Exmor-R back-illuminated CMOS sensor inside. You cannot use the GPS feature for heavy use since it lacks features that you find in dedicated GPS systems but we thought this was a really cool thing to have in a camcorder. Sony also puts in a lot of new technology in to the camcorder to make it one of the best in its class. This series offers two camcorders, HDR-XR500V which has a 120 GB hard drive and stores 14.5 hours of video in best quality and there is XR520V which has a 240 GB hard drive and gives you 29.3 hours of video recording in best quality. We were glad that the record button was very close to the thumb hence making it easy to operate. However the mode button which toggles between video and photograph mode is positioned in such a way that it is difficult to reach. We had to use our  [...]

This camera from Canon belongs to the SX xxx IS family and hence it looks quite similar to the SX100 IS and SX110 IS which the manufacturer brought to the market earlier. This new product has been shipped with some improvements in features like 10 mega pixels instead of the standard 9 mega pixels. Apart from this, the unit uses Canon's Digic 4 image processor, the battery life is improved and so is the red-eye correction. Motion and face detection features have also been improved to give you better quality. The controls behind the camera are pretty much the same as the predecessors which include exposure compensation, menu, display and face detection. There is a big three inch LCD display behind the camera and also the four way navigation button. The button has four buttons are short cuts to timer, flash, focus (macro, normal and manual) and ISO sensitivity. The navigation button is too sensitive be wary or else you might end up mishiting. Other than this there is a playback button on  [...]

SD940 IS is the next installment after the SD780 IS from the same manufacturer. It is still the same compact and lightweight camera. SD780 IS had a viewfinder, this one doesn’t have that space is taken up by a bigger LCD for better viewing. We thought the camera was really comfortable when using it for shoot pictures. Even large hands won’t have problems handling this device. We were a bit disappointed with the four way navigational button and we often ended up hitting the middle button when using the four way button because it is a bit small. The help system was great while using the camera as it gave us tips and hints while clicking. Other than this, the help system also tells you what shooting mode you are in. We appreciate Canons effort in accommodating the help system in a small screen like this. The camera has three modes for shooting which are movie, program/scene and smart auto. The latter picks from twenty two different scenes and  [...]

This camcorder from Sony is hard disk based; it is an 80 GB model. The presence of hard disk makes the device heavy but the protrusion makes it easy to handle. We thought that Sony has got this device a bit over priced, there are other camcorders offering the same set of features and for a smaller price. The device has a touch screen interface; the screen is a bit small and if you have thick fingers, be wary of mishits because the buttons are tiny. The camcorder doesn’t have headphone or microphone jacks, accessory shoe, video light or flash. What you do get on the HDR-XR100 is USB connectors, proprietary AV and mini-HDMI. There is a lens cover which protects the lens of the device. There is a 5.1 channel microphone which we thought was more of a gimmick than a necessity and it could have been sacrificed to bring the price down. Behind the hard drive is the photo button and zoom switch. The latter is a difficult to control because it is a bit wobbly.  [...]

Pocket camcorders have become popular now since the full fledged camcorders are big and hence a bit difficult to carry. Also these pocket camcorders have been getting better and they now have the basic features for recording video and hence great option for people who don’t want those big camcorders. Now in pocket camcorders, Flip Video managed to remain on the top till now because there were no products as good as Flip Video that was until we got Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera in our test centers. We were glad to find features like external mic support, electronic image stabilization and not to mention the great video quality. Zi6 had AA NiMH rechargeable batteries, this device has lithium ion rechargeable battery and we think this is the reason behind its slim body. You can charge the device through AC adapter or USB cord both of which are provided. The camcorder can record full HD videos but don’t expect the quality to be anywhere near the full  [...]

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS15 is a simple camera with simple functions and so is the photo quality, quite simple. It is for newbies or for people who don’t look for high end features in a camera. Considering the price that it is offered for, this is a good camera for basic photography. The features worth mentioning here are 5x zoom and 29mm-equivalent wide-angle lens. Shutter lag makes this camera churn inferior quality photos but if your prints are small, then you won’t be disappointed by this camera’s photos. The controls on the camera are simple and it shouldn’t bother you too much if you are used to using digital cameras. On the top there is a power button and shutter release and zoom ring sit right next to it. There is also a button for Panasonic's Intelligent Auto mode (iA) which is decides the best Scene mode and is used resolving issues of brightness, focus and blurring. The iA button also lets you switch between movie and photograph mode. You  [...]

Oregon Scientific ATC5K Waterproof Action Camera is made for people who want rugged video recording devices. This camera while shine even if you accidentally drop it on to the floor. It can live in water up to ten feet. These 2 features are the main selling points on the other wise low quality video recording camera. We were glad to find that the camera is water proof and still has a LCD built on it that can last under water. The LCD is shock proof too. The lens of the camcorder is recessed and it has lots of rubber and plastic around it to keep the water from going inside. There are light indicators, red lights up when the camcorder is writing and green lights up when the camcorder is recording. There are 2 rubber buttons, one for photography and video each. The buttons will register press only when you keep it pressed for more than 2 seconds but we were told that this was done to prevent accidental presses. There is a 1.5 inch LCD screen that  [...]

The next level after the simple point-and-shoot cameras is the dSLR which have advanced features. However a newbie might get intimated by the variety of options and features that a dSLR has to offer. There are manufacturers who make one of the best point and shoot cameras coming on to the dSLR’s territory. But they are not making full fledged dSLR devices because they are still retaining those simple basic features found on point-and-shoot cameras. D3000 is one of those devices and hence we will call this a entry level dSLR camera. The Fn button is programmable and the features offered here are release mode, self timer, image quality, white balance, ISO sensitivity, Active D-Lighting menus. Other than this there is shutter button, power switch, info and exposure compensation buttons. The info button is used for back display toggle. The top mode dial gives you options of aperture and shutter priority, program, manual and full auto modes. If you  [...]