Going for a long drive from Delhi to Jaipur for an outing this weekend and still wondering which camera to buy?
A camera in your budget, which clicks pictures better than what your Smartphone does and has various preset modes. The one which might help you click a better picture at night or might even help you get clearer and better pictures of your food or other small objects like flowers etc.
Well, the market is full of options. Selecting the one among the lot is not easy.
A simple point and shoot camera someday may as well be the reason for your newly developed hobby of Photography. So it’s important that the first camera you lay your hands on should be able to help you get the kind of picture you want.
Well for that I’ve selected three camera models out of the lot of Point and Shoot Cameras which are available in the market. This might help you with your new hobby of Photography.
The cameras that I have selected are priced less than 10,000 rupees.
You might be interested in knowing what parameters I considered to make my choice. So, I’ve listed them down.
- Design (in terms of weight, form factor and display),
- Sensor Specifications (in terms of the make, megapixels and ISO),
- Lens (in terms of zoom capabilities and auto/manual focusing),
- Features offered (in terms of available shooting modes and video capabilities), and
- Battery
Nikon Coolpix S6300
The best thing about Nikon Coolpix S6300 is that it’s an easy to carry around compact camera and weighs just 160 grams (with the battery and memory Card).
So that’s a relief if you’re going for a trek.
In addition it has a three inch display which has anti-reflection coating that Nikon promises will reduce the glare on the screen. This feature is not very effective though, especially if you are standing under the sun.
For some people who have a habit of checking every picture on the display after clicking it (photographers call this Chimping), this anti-glare on screen can be helpful.
It has a 16 megapixels CMOS Sensor (Complementary metal- oxide semi conductor) powered by the EXPEED C2 processor which can capture clear and bright images even in low light situations.
It has a good light sensitivity as it clicks good images even.
The Coolpix S6300 features a Nikkor lens with 10x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom and Auto Focus, which helps to focus and zoom into your subjects.
The best part about these optical lenses is that even with 10 times the zoom, image quality is not low. Because of the ‘optical’ zoom in which the subject is enlarged by the movement of lenses and not by constantly cropping the projected image, which usually pixelates the image.
Today, almost all the companies manufacturing cameras endorse a new technology according to which the camera automatically corrects the blur in the picture.
Nikon Coolpix S6300 is equipped with a Vibration Reduction feature in its Lens which basically performs this function.
The S6300 has many preset scene modes like Food, Museum and more. These preset modes are very helpful if you don’t want to mess around with the manual setting. Just select an appropriate mode depending on where you are and what you want to shoot, and the camera will automatically set everything.
It also has a Video Mode which allows you to shoot full HD 1080/30p videos.
The Nikon S6300 runs on a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery and can take up to 230 shots when the battery is fully charged, which I think is decent.
Sony Cybershot DSC-W690
The camera weighs just 142 grams (with battery and memory card), and is very portable and is the slimmest camera of all the three models.
It has a Clear Photo TFT LCD display, which is very sharp, clear and bright.
It packs a 16 megapixels Super HAD CCD sensor instead of Nikon’s CMOS. Though I was not impressed by its colour saturation, but if we talk about the clarity of the image, it is pretty much the same as that of Nikon’s.
Images clicked in Night Mode were also nice and decent.
Sony Cybershot features a Sony G-Lens which sports 10x optical zoom but 40 times the digital zoom instead of 4x, like Nikon’s.
As I mentioned before, one should always consider the optical zoom instead of digital, as with digital zoom, images may pixelate on zooming in. But with Sony’s 10X optical zoom, images were not only clear but also blur-free because of the Optical Steady Shot feature which helps the camera to adjust itself to the little camera shakes.
The Cybershot also has many preset picture effect modes and shooting modes like Toy camera, Pop Colour etc., with which one can bring a little more creativity into their images.
It also features a Video mode which is capable of making videos of upto 1280X720 resolution with 30fps.
It packs NP-BN Rechargeable lithium Ion Battery which can take upto 200 shots on fully charged battery, which is not that great.
You’ll either need to carry a spare battery or a portable charger if you’re planning to go for a long trek or a long drive.
Canon Powershot SX150 IS
Though it may look a bit bulky but it packs a good set of features for a basic camera. It’s a good buy if you want to learn photography, as it offers good manual controls.
Though the Canon PowerShot SX150 weighs 306 grams it has a sophisticated metal body design and also has a very good grip for your fingers. It has a 3-inch display which has a decent resolution and might just help you with the Chimping.
It packs a 14 Megapixels CCD Image Sensor powered by DIGIC 4 Image Processor which surprisingly gives great photographs. Though I felt that photographs clicked in low light without using flash were not that good, one can easily adjust the shutter speed to compensate the low light. But in that case you might need a Tripod.
The SX150 has a 12X optical zoom and 4X digital zoom with a good aperture range allowing good amount of light to enter the camera.
You can focus a subject which is just 10mm far, to infinity. The camera comes with Image Stabilization engine which controls the camera shake when one clicks a picture allowing blur-free images.
The Canon PowerShot also has many preset modes. One can easily optimize its setting manually.
PowerShot has the capability of making a full HD video which adds up to its overall performance making it a good buy if you are looking for a combo deal.
I especially got used to its manual mode when I laid my hands on it. I like the fact that it offers manual controls similar to the ones we find in a DSLR, like Manual Focus, Shutter Speed Control and a couple of other settings.
It works on 2 AA Alkaline batteries with which you can click up to 110 shots and if you use 2 AA NiMH batteries, you can click about 320 shots on a single charge.
According to me, you should go for Canon PowerShot SX150 if you’re looking forward to buy a DSLR in the future as the camera has some very user-friendly manual modes, with which you can learn various technicalities of photography like shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance.
Other than that, Nikon Coolpix S6300 and Sony Cybershot DSC-W690 are both equally good cameras. But, if I really had to make a choice for myself, I would have gone for the Nikon Coolpix S6300.
Divay Kumar
