Top 10 Digital Cameras
New 3.3-megapixel cameras earn places on the chart, but more megapixels are on the way.
Tracey Capen and Alan Stafford
Monday, July 30, 2001
Digital cameras with 3-megapixel CCDs are becoming commonplace, and new
models packing four or even five megapixels are coming soon. So you can't blame
some photo enthusiasts for looking past the 3-megapixel models as if they were
the garbanzo beans at a prime-rib-and-seafood buffet. But some of those
3-megapixel models look considerably more appetizing when you consider their
under-$600 price: Two cameras, the Casio QV-3500EX we tested this month and the
Toshiba PD2-M65 from last month, dip under that level. When the new, higher
resolution models show up later this summer, most will be priced at about
$1000, or higher.
The other new candidates on our chart this month include the Epson
PhotoPC 3100Z, a $779 successor to our former Best Buy, the PhotoPC 3000Z. The
new camera did very well in our tests, snagging the number-two place on the
chart, though the Nikon Coolpix 995 kept Epson from the number-one spot.
We also tested yet another new Sony model, the DSC-S75 (the company
never seems to run out of cameras for us to test). This Sony performed well,
though its pictures didn't look as good as those from the Epson or Casio
cameras. It earned the number-nine spot on this month's chart.
We retired our former number-one camera, the Nikon Coolpix 880, because
it's getting hard to find, which usually indicates a replacement is in the
works. Stay tuned.
Photographs by Rick Rizner
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