shutterpro recommends Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 as Best Digital Camera for Young Children, Action, Easy, and Under $400.

With so many digital camera options out there, we want to focus on the features we need the most. For shooting fast action, the goal is to find a camera that offers fast shutter speeds and high ISOs with minimal shutter lag. Here are a few important areas to look at when deciding which camera is right for you:

• START UP TIME, LAG TIME AND SHUTTER SPEED: When it comes to a digital camera’s ability to capture children or pets, sports or fast action photography, there are some extremely important key features to look for. How quickly the camera can freeze action and how quickly the next photo can be taken are at the top of the list. With young children or pets, actions are spontaneous and poses are not held for long, so it is also important that the camera can be ready for operation at a moments notice. Unfortunately, in most cases, even with all of the digital cameras available on the market today, these are usually the features that most point and shoot cameras seem to struggle with. If you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a child or a pet, sometimes so much time goes by while you attempt to take a photo, that you are only left with a background and no subject. Something to keep in mind is that pressing the shutter button is a two stage process, meaning that by pressing the shutter button, the first stage is where the camera is focusing on the subject, then once the button is pressed the rest of the way, only then is the photo actually taken.

• APERTURE: Aperture refers to the size of the opening in which light is able to transfer through the lens and onto the camera sensor. A low number, such as f 2.8 is considered a large aperture, and allows much greater amount of light in than a higher number, such as f11, which is a small aperture, allowing much less light to transfer through the lens. In sports photography, we will look for the widest aperture (smallest number f stop) we can find in the given budget.

• ZOOM: In the price range that we are targeting, a digital SLR is going to be out of reach, but we will be able to look at high end point and shoot cameras that offer a built in lens and a good amount of optical zoom. In this case I recommend at least a 10x optical zoom. One important detail worth mentioning: don’t be fooled by tricky advertising. Many manufacturers factor digital zoom into the equation when rating the camera’s zoom power. For example: a camera with a 12X optical zoom may only be a 6X optical zoom with a 2X digital zoom. Optical zoom means that the magnification is happening “optically”, using glass. Digital zoom means that the magnification is happening “digitally” using the sensor. This method cuts into the megapixel count and reduces overall picture quality significantly. So, based on this information, we will only look at optical zoom.

• IMAGE STABILIZATION: When shooting In low light situations, camera shake can cause image blur. This is because with minimal available light, the camera is forced to use slower shutter speeds that are not capable of freezing the image. Image Stabilization helps to compensate for these subtle motions and allows for blur free photography, even in low light.

• MODES: Many digital cameras are completely automatic and do all of the thinking for you. This could be a problem if there is a fast moving subject. This is because the camera has no way of knowing whether you’re shooting a race car or a still portrait. Some digital cameras also offer manual and scene modes as well. Shooting in manual mode allows the photographer to take complete control of the camera. While this offers total creative freedom, it also requires much more understanding of how the camera functions. Scene modes offer a happy medium between automatic and manual modes. I like to think of these modes as semi-automatic, allowing the photographer to select an icon that relates to the type of photo being taken. The feature we are focusing most closely on in this case is fast action, so by selecting the sports mode, it will automatically optimize the settings properly on the camera

• IMAGE QUALITY, ISO AND NOISE: Noise is essentially the digital version of film grain. While film grain sometimes offers a “desired effect”, noise very rarely does. Noise causes degradation of the overall color, detail and image quality. ISO can be thought of as the digital version of film speed. Typically, higher ISOs are used to capture fast moving action. Therefore, it is important for a camera that we are looking for to offer high ISOs. The downside to using high ISOs is that noise is increased with ISO. Again, more unwanted degradation of the picture quality. One huge advantage to going with a DSLR at this price range is that the size of the sensor that the image is exposed onto is significantly larger than that of a compact camera. Having a larger sensor size results in higher picture quality and less noise.