Digital camera features: What you need, what you don’t

[ Photo courtesy of Gabriella Fabbri ]

Summer photography can bring out the best and worst in a point-and-shoot camera.

For example, imagine you're at the beach on a bright, sunny day and want to take a shot of your friends or family. But when you try to compose the picture, the LCD is washed out by the bright sunlight. And if your camera is a fairly recent model, it probably has no optical viewfinder, which would have let you view the subjects you want to photograph.

If this has ever happened to you, you were the victim of a camera industry trend of reducing the number of models with a viewfinder. And you're hardly alone: In our recent subscriber survey, 68 percent of point-and-shoot owners said they found it hard to view images on their LCD in bright light.

In that same survey, 72 percent of those who had a point-and-shoot with an optical viewfinder found it useful. And about half of point-and-shoot owners said it was very important that their next model have one. Those findings raise make me question the wisdom of eliminating this vital feature from so many new cameras. To finds out which new point-and-shots still feature a viewfinder, check our latest camera Ratings (available to subscribers).

Meanwhile, our survey found, some features that camera makers highly promote underwhelmed our subscribers. For example, geographic tagging (digitally stamping a photo with the location at which it was taken), smile detection, panoramic mode (combining multiple images together) and blink detection were judged not especially useful by many whose cameras had them.

(For details on other, important digital camera features, check out our Digital Camera Buying Guide.)

And what about you? You've probably got some features on your camera that you love, and some you could do without. Let us know. —Terry Sullivan

Comments

[Jim F]

I would not buy a camera without a viewfinder. Aside from convenience and usability, not turning on the screen saves battery power. I have a Sony Cyber-shot 12.1 megapixels and am very happy with it!

[Alan B Steele]

Have you noticed that all cameras are built for the right handed user? Not too much of a problem when the shutter release was raised above the body of the camera.
But in recent years the fashion has been to have the shutter release almost flush with the body; a real problem if you are left handed or suffer from a joint problem like arthritis etc. Most who have this situation find it difficult to adapt their touch and feel for the button.
But there is a remedy; by using a mini self adhesive plastic foot. By sticking one on the shutter release you now have a raised button which is much easier to locate with the finger. It should be no more than 1/4in diam. and should be solid plasic or rubber; and easily removed if selling on the camera at a later date.

[ukibas]

looking for pocket digital camera with best price. Features has optical zoom min 3x, taking good picture with anti blurr and stabilizer.

[Steve P]

Camera manufacturers go for features which allow them to stand out from the others while at the same time ditching features which cost them money.

Face detection has been on my last two P&S models and I have never bothered with it. I sure do miss the optical VF, though.

Consumer demand can be effective - Canon inexplicably dropped RAW image files from its G series and then replaced it in the subsequent model after complaints.

I suspect the problem is with focus user groups. The manufacturers put together a target market group (likely young trendy people) and see how they like the product. There is not time to cross-reference the makeup of the test group against the actual purchasers, so sometimes they get it quite wrong.

And there is a certain amount of industrial delusion that goes on. We made this great product, so you WILL buy it. Look how wrong-footed Kodak has been lately.

Regarding video on P&S cameras - the latest Panasonic GH-1 (admittedly a psuedo-DSLR) has incredible HD video (including external mic input). It's only a matter of time until all high-end P&S "still" cameras also offer HD video.

[RC]

I'd like to see a roundup of the best cameras based on their video quality and ability. With SD cards getting bigger and bigger, the reason for NOT shooting video all the time with a compact camera goes away... as long as the quality is high.

720p video compact camera anyone?!?!