Straight Talk recommends Canon PowerShot SD800 IS as Best Easy Ultra Compact Digital Camera with a Wide-angle Lens for Travel Photos Under $400.
Overview
A great camera for general-purpose photography and blur-free shots, the Canon SD800IS offers great image quality, captures panoramic views of landscapes and has good low light performance.
- Travel
- Wide-angle lens
- Fits in a small purse or small pocket
- Easy-to-use point and shoot camera
- Under $400
What's Important for These Needs
While traveling, we would like to have a camera with a long battery life as it won’t be easy keeping it charged. It should also have enough zoom for closer views of the sites (e.g. snow-covered mountains, waterfalls, monuments, etc.) and be able to take panoramic views of landscapes.
We need a wide-angle lens to fit everyone into those large group shots, capture the breadth of a landscape shot, and see more of the room when shooting interiors.
What we’re looking for:
- 3x or more zoom
- A wide-angle lens
- Good resolution to support printing large photos. 7 megapixel is sufficient resolution for prints up to 8”x10” size at 300 dpi (300 dpi is considered ideal for lab quality prints). Here “dpi” stands for printed Dots Per Inch of length/width.
- Good image quality
- Good battery life
- Ultra-compact cameras with a thickness less than 1”
Leading Contenders
We’ll focus on top-rated compact cameras that have wide-angle lenses with mid-zoom (3x-6x) range and a 6 megapixel or above sensor resolution. We would also like them to run on AA batteries, which is convenient when traveling because they can be purchased off the shelf wherever batteries are sold.
Canon is one of the leading camera manufacturers with a wide and versatile range. Their best ultra-compact camera overall in this price range is the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS (0.99” thick). It received the “Recommended” rating at Digatal Photography Review. This camera has a 7 megapixel resolution sensor and a wide-angle lens with 3.8x optical zoom (equivalent to 28-105mm on a 35mm camera). It has an optical Image Stabilization feature to reduce blurring of pictures because of camera shake, a Face Detection feature (to set the focus and exposure on a person’s face in the picture) and an optical viewfinder. It has a battery life of 270 shots/charge (600 shots without using the LCD screen).
This is the ultra-compact camera (0.8” thick) with an ultra-wide angle lens of 23mm. The body also houses another lens with 3x optical zoom (equivalent to 39-117mm on a 35mm camera). The Kodak EasyShare V705 has a 7 megapixel resolution sensor and the battery life is approximately 150 shots/charge.
In the Panasonic line-up, the DMC-FX30 is their thinnest camera (0.87” thick) with a wide-angle lens. It has a 7 megapixel resolution sensor, 3.6x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 28-100mm on a 35mm camera) with an optical Image Stabilization feature. Battery life is claimed to be 280 shots/charge.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T100 model is 0.87” thick and has the greatest zoom with a wide-angle lens among the ultra-compacts. The camera has an 8 megapixel resolution sensor and 5x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 35-175mm on a 35mm camera) with an optical Image Stabilization feature. It also has a Face Detection feature. Battery life is claimed to be 340 shots/charge. The camera received a good review at Digital Trends (an independent camera review site).
Top Pick
All of these cameras are built well and have metal bodies.
The Kodak V705 stands out because of its useful ultra-wide angle zoom lens, but it falters on image quality. The images are highly compressed (each image being compressed to have about half the size when compared to similar images from other 7 megapixel cameras like the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS. This high compression inevitably leads to smearing of some fine details even at low ISO settings. Also the camera zoom jumps abruptly from 23mm to 39mm (one lens has a fixed focal length, while the other starts after a gap).
The Panasonic DMC-FX30 scores higher than the Kodak V705 because of its image stabilization feature, continuous zoom lens and good battery life. However, there is heavy noise reduction at ISO 400 and above, leading to smearing of fine details and watercolor-like artifacts. This has been a problem with previous Panasonic cameras too.
So this leaves us with the Sony DSC-T100 and Canon SD800 IS cameras. Both have good image quality. While the Sony DSC-T100 has more resolution and more zoom, the SD800 IS scores higher because of its wider angle zoom lens (useful for landscapes/beaches/buildings photography, which normally comprises a larger portion of one’s portfolio than close-up shots), and optical viewfinder (which helps preserve battery life in extended outings as one can switch off the LCD screen). The Canon SD800 IS is therefore our Top Pick.
Tips
- One should avoid putting keys etc in the same pocket with the camera. This will reduce the chances of scratching the LCD screen.
- It is advisable to cover the camera in a poly-bag (which normally comes with it) or the camera case before putting it in your pocket. This will reduce the chance that dirt will get inside your camera.
