Digital Focus: Gifts for Camera Buffs

Great camera gift ideas, must-have add-ons, and a creepy Praying Mantis.

Dave Johnson

Holiday Digital Camera Buying Guide

The holidays are right around the corner, and like many people, I've put a new digital camera at the top of my wish list. But I know what many of you are thinking--which camera does Dave want? How do I choose the perfect camera for him? Well, dear friends, read along and I'll help you pick the right camera for me. If you have any money left over, you can also use this advice to buy a camera for your own friends and family.

What's It For?

The first question to answer when looking for a digital camera is: How will it be used? Just to post photos on Web pages and e-mail? For printing enlargements? For a "serious" photographer or a casual snap-shooter? I like to divide the digital camera market into three big chunks that are appropriate for these different types of tasks: budget cameras, performance models, and digital cameras for professionals.

Cameras on a Budget

At the low end of the scale, you'll find a wealth of cameras that cost less than $300 and capture 1- or 2-megapixel images, fine for e-mail attachments or printing up to 5-by-7-inch photos. These inexpensive models are easy on the checkbook and typically offer point-and-shoot ease of use. Some of the most popular cameras in this class include the Toshiba PDR-M61, Kodak DX3500, and Canon PowerShot A20. We recently reviewed all three of these cameras.

I sometimes call these "mom cameras" because that's all my mom wants--a point-and-shoot camera that she can use to e-mail snapshots to friends. She wouldn't know how to use matrix metering or shutter priority anyway, so a budget camera is great for her. (I'm just talking about my own mom; your mom may be a more demanding photographer.)

Budget cameras are a great introduction to the world of digital, but be ready to compromise. I have yet to find a budget camera with razor-sharp focus, and they often omit an optical zoom to save some bucks.

Looking for Performance

In the $500 to $1000 price range, you'll find performance cameras. This is the sweet spot where you'll find the best camera values, in my opinion, though you'll invest a lot more money in the process. These models capture no less than 3-megapixel images, great for printing 8-by-10-inch enlargements. Even better, they usually have a suite of SLR-like features that let you customize your photos--stuff like shutter- and aperture-priority exposure modes, a zoom lens, and fast-action settings.

If you're shopping for someone who takes photography seriously, investigate the Olympus Camedia C-3040, Nikon CoolPix 995, or Epson PhotoPC 3100Z. These cameras offer lots of exposure settings, complete manual control, sharp optical zooms, and even the ability to capture short movies in addition to still shots. Read our reviews of these models.

For the Pros

If you recently cashed in your bond funds or sold that nicely appreciated piece of real estate and want to go whole-hog, professional-quality digital cameras offer the no-compromise power of SLR cameras in a digital package. Most pro cameras feature interchangeable lenses and lots and lots of pixels--anywhere from 4- to 6-megapixel resolutions, which rival the resolution of 35mm print film.

Professional photographers, as well as serious amateurs, use cameras like the Olympus Camedia E-10, Nikon D1X, and Canon EOS-1D, though they're priced beyond the reach of most folks. Only the E-10, priced at $1799 and lacking interchangeable lenses, is priced low enough to make sense for non-pros.

Gizmos and Gadgets

When you compare individual cameras, look for the little things. The flash should include a red-eye reduction mode, for instance, and optical zoom is always better than digital zoom. You'll probably have to spend a few extra dollars for those features, because budget cameras often leave such goodies out. I think you'll find it's worth spending a little more to get a better-equipped camera, though. Does the camera include rechargeable batteries? Cameras tend to eat batteries like popcorn, although some cameras are less greedy than others.

Check our Top 10 Digital Cameras (both $500 and Over, and Sub-$500) to see if the model you're interested in has been reviewed.

And because cameras thrive on memory cards, find out what kind of card the camera uses. CompactFlash is less expensive than Secure Digital right now; Memory Stick card capacity tops out at a mere 128MB. If you're buying the camera for someone who already has an assortment of CompactFlash memory cards for an MP3 player, a CompactFlash-compatible camera will make more sense than one that uses SmartMedia. The camera will also be more valuable if it captures short movies or can take wide panoramic photos.

For back issues of my column, visit our Digital Focus Archive.

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Dave's Favorites: SiPix StyleCam

When trying to infiltrate KAOS, Maxwell Smart once used a spy camera that fit into a cigarette lighter. And while that was incredibly small, it wasn't USB-compatible, nor could it do double duty as a Webcam.

The $69 SiPix StyleCam would make any CONTROL agent proud. This miniscule digital camera is 3 inches long, 2 inches high, and just.75 inches thick. It's nearly weightless as well, at only about 3 ounces--its USB cable almost doubles its weight.

The StyleCam is a VGA-quality digital camera (it shoots 640-by-480- and 320-by-240-pixel images) and is not a serious threat to the Nikon CoolPix 995. Nonetheless, it's a fun little camera that might be the perfect gift for junior shutterbugs this holiday season. Equipped with a fixed 8MB of memory, it can store about 65 standard pictures or 180 low-res images. It has an action mode that captures a continuous stream of images, which you can turn into a movie on your PC. And the camera's simple mode control lets you choose between indoor or outdoor photography.

Thank goodness it costs just $69, because the image quality is nothing to write home about. There's no flash, and images in a poorly lit room are quite dark indeed--if there were KAOS agents in the picture, you'd never see them. Brighter scenes suffer from the opposite problem--overexposure. The inexpensive CMOS sensor (most digital cameras use a higher-fidelity CCD sensor) generates somewhat grainy pictures with almost psychedelic color reproduction.

But that's not what the StyleCam is all about. I had a blast with it despite its shortcomings, and I daresay it's perfect for kids who want the freedom to take their own digital pictures. Images are easy to transfer to the PC via USB, and the package includes a generous software suite for editing and printing pictures. The StyleCam also includes Inetcam iVista, software that transforms your camera into a live Webcam. Best of all, it makes you feel like a spy.

Q&A: Video Editing Software

I have several VHS tapes of home movies transferred from 35mm that I would like to copy to CD. I'd like to digitize and edit both the video and audio. Do you know of any software that will do this?

-- Larry Ahlquist, York, Maine

A number of programs are capable of doing what you need. I've used several good products, including:

MGI VideoWave ($129),

Pinnacle Systems Studio DV ($129),

Ulead MediaStudio ($199),

and Adobe Premiere ($549).

I'd need to know more about your needs to recommend a specific program, though. If you want to do fancy MTV-like video effects, go with VideoWave, which is also the program with the simplest interface and easiest learning curve. If you want to edit and layer lots of audio, Premiere and MediaStudio are better choices. And with DVD-R drives now under $500, I'd give some serious thought to creating your own DVDs instead of lower-resolution, lower-capacity CDs. If that interests you, MediaStudio is the obvious choice.

Send your questions to question@bydavejohnson.com, and please be sure to let me know where you're from.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $10 and $100.

A gentle reminder, folks: We're disqualifying some really wonderful pictures every week because the submissions aren't following the rules. Be sure to include everything we ask for in the e-mail message, or your entry is wasted!

Here's how to enter:

Send us your photograph in JPG format at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels to hotpic@pcworld.com. Entries at higher resolutions will be disqualified immediately. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo, along with a short description of the photo and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering please read the full description of the contest rules and regs.

This Week's Hot Pic:

Orb by Daniel Hoffman, Potomac, Maryland

Daniel says:

"I took this photo indoors with a Canon Powershot A20, but I accidentally set the white balance to daylight. Since I had a normal incandescent/halogen light above my desk, I ended up with this neat sepia-tone effect.

"This was just one of those 'I've got to share this with someone!' pictures.

"Incidentally, the oddly shaped glass-and-metal orb in the photo is a 575-watt lamp for an ETC Source Four theatrical lighting instrument that had 'bubbled' where someone's fingerprint left an oily mark."

November's Hot Pic of the Month:

Each month we choose one of our weekly winners to be the Hot Pic of the Month. This month we've chosen the slightly creepy, kinda cute Mantis, taken by Stacy Niedzwiecki from Rockford, Michigan. Stacy has won a PC World CD carrying case.