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newest
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highly rated
The release date is the date the product was first available for purchase, which is often a while after the manufacturer officially announces a product.
The people have spoken! But are they worth listening to?
Sortable considers not only how highly reviewed a product is, but also how many reviews it has received to boil down a single number that tells you your odds of getting a lemon.
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Canon
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Nikon
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Sony
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Panasonic
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Pentax
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Fujifilm
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Olympus
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Samsung
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Leica
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Casio
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Kodak
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digicam
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DSLR
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mirrorless
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travel zoom
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super zoom
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pro digicam
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ultra compact
We use digicam to mean your typical digital camera, which includes a large range of cameras in different sizes, in different prices ranges, but excludes any interchangeable lens camears such as DSLRs or Mirrorless.
Digital single-lens reflex cameras (or DSLRS) feature interchangeable lenses are are known for incredible image quality, responsive performance and the ability to control every aspect of your photography.
At Sortable, we include the recent translucent-mirror cameras from Sony in the DSLR category.
Mirrorless cameras are a new category of camera, that offer most of the benefits of a DSLR in smaller package. Mirrorless cameras differ from DSLRs in that they don't offer an optical viewfinder, and typically have smaller sensors and lenses.
Travel-zoom cameras offer large zoom lenses in a reasonably compact body, often a great choice for travel photography where you want a fair amount of zoom, but might not want to luck around a super-zoom or DSLR.
Super-zoom cameras offer incredible 20x or larger zoom ranges, great for nature and sports photography. Super-zooms are also often called Bridge cameras because they tend share some of the aesthetics and features of higher-end DSLRs, and as such bridge the gap between point and shoot cameras and DSLRs.
We define some digicams as PRO if they have advanced features such as a 1/1.7" or larger sensor or an f/2.0 or faster lens. These cameras appeal to appeal to power users, especially those used to a DSLR's capabilities and features but looking for something much smaller.
These are the smallest cameras you can buy, we define an ultra-compact camera as being 20mm or thinner.
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zoom
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wide angle
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fast aperture
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macro
Optical zoom refers to the range between how far the lens can zoom out and in. A large zoom range means the camera can take a variety of shots including closeups of distant subjects.
Comparing zoom values is a little tricky, if you take a picture of a subject at 6x zoom, the subject will be four times bigger than if you had taken it at 3x zoom, not two times as it sounds.
Having a wide angle lens is great for taking large groups shots, indoor shots and scenic shots of landscapes and buildings.
Wide aperture lenses let in more light, letting you take shots with less blur or in more dimly lit situations. Shooting at wider aperture also narrows your depth of field, allowing you to focus selectively on your subject and blurring the background.
Macro refers to how close you can get to your subject and still take a photo. A good macro lens is useful for detail shots of flowers, insects, and other small objects.
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large
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high res
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touch
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OLED
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flips out
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live view
Larger screens make it easier to see the photo you're about to take and to review and show off photos you've already taken.
High resolution screens let you see more detail in the photo you're about to take and in photos you've taken, making it easier to determine if the photo you've just taken is in focus.
Many new camera's have a screen you can control by touch, usually instead of physical buttons on the back of the camera.
Most camera screens are LCD. Newer camera's have OLED screens which can be much brighter and more vibrant.
Having a flip out screen means you can move the screen around separate from the camera, allowing you to take photos from interesting angles easily.
Some DSLRs do not let you see the photo you are about to take on the screen, instead you have to use the viewfinder. Most modern DSLRs have live view, which lets you see the photo you're about to take on the screen.
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1080p
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24p
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high speed
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mic jack
1080p refers to high definition (HD) video at a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, in progressive (rather than interlaced) format.
24p refers to 24 frames per second. This is highly sought after by video enthusiasts as it helps get that film-look since films are traditionally shot at 24 frames per second.
Some cameras can record movies at much higher frame rates than normal, which is great for recording high speed events such as sports and playing them back slowly to see what really happened.
By plugging an an external microphone you can record much cleaner audio as part of your videos. External microphones filter out background noise much better than in-camera mics, and they don't record noises that come from the camera such as zooming or focusing noise.
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raw
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3D
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GPS
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HDR
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panorama
RAW is an image format that captures more information and requires you to process the image on a computer to produce a final photo. Many professionals use RAW. RAW images typically are better quality, capture more detail in highlights and shadow, and can have their white balance adjusted.
Some cameras offer the ability to capture 3D photos by combining multiple images from slightly different angles. These usually require a special printing process or TV to be viewed in 3D.
Cameras that have a built in GPS can record the location of each of your photos directly in the image. This way you can remember where you took them, and organize them by location automatically!
HDR stands for high dynamic range, which refers to how much range in lights and darks are captured in a photo. Many cameras will take multiple exposures of the same scene, and combine them together for you to produce a photo which captures both brights and darks really well.
Ever wanted to capture a huge wide scene in a single photo? Many cameras will let you take multiple photos capturing different parts of the scene and then stitch them together into a single impressive photo.
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battery life
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rapid fire
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minimal delay
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fast startup
Cameras are rated on how many photos they can take on a single battery (or set of batteries) using the CIPA standard.
Continuous shooting refers to how fast the camera can take images one after another in rapid succession. Fast continuous shooting is great for catching action shots.
Shutter lag refers to how long the camera takes to take a photo without having to focus, for example if you have already focused the camera, or if you are using manual focus.
This refers to how long it take to turn on the camera and take a photo.
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small
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thin
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light
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waterproof
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weather sealed
Waterproof cameras are great for holidays, whether you're snorkling, or exploring waterfalls, or just relaxing on the beach.
Higher end cameras are often built with weather seals to keep water out, meaning you can shoot with them even in the rain.
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high resolution
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large
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CMOS
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Backlit CMOS
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dust removal
More megapixels is meant to mean more detail in your images, however many cameras have large advertised megapixel values but do not actually capture better images.
The camera's sensor is what turns light into a digital image. The larger the sensor, the more light you capture, and the better quality image you get. Most digicam's have the same size sensor, but a few have bigger sensors, and DSLRs have much bigger sensors.
The camera's sensor is what produces the image. Most camera's have CCD sensors, but some have CMOS sensors which often produce better quality images.
The camera's sensor is what produces the image. Most camera's have CCD sensors, but some have CMOS sensors which often produce better quality images.
Cameras with interchangeable lenses can accumulate dust on the sensor and this can show up as spots on your photos! Many cameras now have built in dust removal systems to keep their sensors clean automatically.
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optical
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coverage
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large
Until digital cameras you had to look through the viewfinder to take a photo. There are optical and electronic viewfinders, and viewfinders that look through the lens (as found in SLRs) and viewfinders that only give an approximation of what the photo will look like.
Viewfinder coverage specifies the percent of the image seen in the viewfinder that will actually be captured by the camera.
Viewfinder size describes how big the scene will look in the viewfinder relative to what the naked eye sees. Sortable corrects this value to account for different crop-factors so this value can be safely compared across cameras with different sensor sizes.
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Digital
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Optical
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Sensor shift
Image stabilization prevents blurring images from camera shake. Its especially important to have image stabilization when buying a large zoom camera, or when shooting in low light situations.
Image stabilization prevents blurring images from camera shake. Its especially important to have image stabilization when buying a large zoom camera, or when shooting in low light situations.
Image stabilization prevents blurring images from camera shake. Its especially important to have image stabilization when buying a large zoom camera, or when shooting in low light situations.
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built-in flash
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popup
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flash hot shoe
A built in flash is important for taking shots such as indoor shots and evening shots when there isn't as much light.
Some cameras let you connect a separately purchased flash, giving you more range and allowing for more natural looking flash images by bouncing the flash off walls or other surfaces.
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long exposure
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high speed
People don't normally need to take long exposure photos, but they can be really interesting, for example you can take long exposure shots of the night sky to capture the movement of stars across the sky.
Having a faster max shutter speed means you'll be able to take pictures of fast moving subjects without any risk of blur, for example formula one cars whizzing by at a race.
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overall
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low light
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dynamic range
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color depth
A camera's overall image quality score takes into account: color depth, dynamic range and low light performance.
Sortable uses metrics from DXOMark to determine how good a camera's overall image quality is. DXOMark only benchmarks cameras that shoot RAW, which covers most DSLRs and a few high-end des onigicams.
When taking pictures without enough light, you can increase the camera's light sensitivity (ISO) to avoid blur, which usually decreases image quality. A camera's low light performance score is measured in ISO, and is a measure of how high you can set the ISO on your camera and still get a good quality image.
Sortable uses metrics from DXOMark to determine how good a camera's image quality is at high ISO. DXOMark only benchmarks cameras that shoot RAW, which covers most DSLRs and a few high-end digicams.
Dynamic range is measured in EV. Cameras with better dynamic range capture a wider number of values from dark to light, usually resulting in more details in shadows and highlights.
Sortable uses metrics from DXOMark to determine how good a camera's dynamic range is. DXOMark only benchmarks cameras that shoot RAW, which covers most DSLRs and a few high-end digicams.
Color depth is measured in bits, the better a camera's color depth the more color nuances it can distinguish.
Sortable uses metrics from DXOMark to determine how good a camera's color depth is. DXOMark only benchmarks cameras that shoot RAW, which covers most DSLRs and a few high-end digicams.
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SD
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Compact flash
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Phase detection
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focus points
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cross-type points
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continuous
Having many focus points gives you a lot of flexibility in picking which part of the scene to focus on, they also give the camera a better chance of finding the right part of the scene to focus on in more automatic focus modes.
Often some of the focus points in an autofocus system can only detect horizontal or vertical contrast but not both. Cross-type focus points can detect both horizonal and vertical making them the most sensitive and reliable focus points to use.
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Displaying 1,132 cameras
Oct, 2011
