'The grip-less camera feels surprisingly good in the hand, thanks to thoughtful ideas like a small but well placed thumb rest on the rear panel.'
'carry-anywhere all-purpose camera'
'The best part about the Olympus XZ-1 was the fact that its image quality backed its hardware, and the camera proved itself a well-equipped tool that excelled when it came to manual controls.'
'At ISO 400, the noise was rampant, making all but 4x6 prints unusable.'
'competitive with some of the higher-end compact cameras.'
'Once you get over ISO 100, the images were pretty noisy.'
'Not only has the company that once dominated amateur photography had to watch consumer electronics manufacturers muscle in on its turf, it's now losing yet more ground as photographers migrate to digital SLRs.'
'the Canon PowerShot S3 IS's combination of features, performance, and relatively compact design certainly gives megazoomers a compelling alternative.'
'S3 shooters have a fast, accurate, and very quiet ultra-zoom digital camera that's capable of capturing reasonably sharp handheld shots at shutter speeds that are beyond the ability of other (non IS) long zoom digital cameras.'
'It offers just about everything you want in a camera, from a big zoom lens to optical image stabilization to manual controls to a fancy movie mode.'
'The S3 IS fit well in my hand and felt sturdy, though it's light and fairly compact.'
'The Z612's slow refresh rate probably won't be a deal breaker'
'Kodak's EasyShare Z612 has a ton of useful features, including the normal complement of scene modes plus auto and program modes for people who want simple snapshots, as well as a full array of controls for more advanced shooters'
'For the photographer looking to go beyond the basic, wanting manual creativity of the shot, and not seeking to dump $1000 plus into a digital SLR, the P850 is the ticket.'
'extremely accurate colors'
'I found it a bit difficult to follow a moving subject as the image on the LCD/EVF lagged behind what was happening in real time'
'Directly behind the shutter release are three small round buttons'