Cameras for Families
Families have a million moments to capture. We all grew up with big photo books of family snapshots, pictures faded over time. Birthdays and weddings and family vacations. Today we have digital photo albums. Grandparents can watch their grandkids birthday even when they’re across the country. Cousins in one town can comment on pictures of cousins in another. Digital pictures don’t fade (though don’t forget to back them up), and now we can take movies of special moments that all stay in the same digital photo album.
A digital camera for a family should be compact, durable, feature filled. If it’s too big, you won’t take it anywhere. If it breaks, well, we’re all on a budget. Cameras that intelligently focus on the kids faces, make sure that nobody’s blinking when you take the family portrait and can take great video of the reunion or birthday are all available now.
A few common things you might come across, and what they mean for you:
Face Detection
Most higher end cameras now look for faces in the picture and try to keep them all in focus. This is great for family snapshots. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as well if they aren’t looking at the camera or you’re taking a picture of the family pet. Very handy to have, never the less.
Blink Detection
Some cameras can tell, since they know where the faces are, whether people are blinking in the picture and wait till everyone’s bright eyed before snapping the image.
HD Video
More and more families are getting big screen flat panel TVs, and the old home movies on VHS or DVD just don’t look as good anymore. A lot of point and shoot cameras these days can capture lovely 720p movies, a big step up from the grainy video of their predecessors. If you don’t plan on capturing a lot of video, you might not even need to own a camcorder anymore.
Wide Angle
We love wide angle cameras. A wide angle lens on a camera will let you capture more of what’s in front of you without moving backwards. They’re great for pictures indoors (where you can’t step back because there’s a wall in the way) or outdoors (the mountain your kids are standing in front of isn’t getting any smaller). You can gauge how wide a cameras lens is by looking at the wide and telephoto (how far away it can zoom in) numbers of its lens. For instance, a 28-135mm lens is 28 millimeters on the wide end and 135 millimeters on the long/telephoto end. A wide millimeter number of less than 30 is what we consider a ‘wide angle’. You can search for just wide angle cameras (or just wide angle point and shoots of a specific price) over on the left.
Image Stabilization
People are shaky. You show me someone that can hold a camera perfectly steady and I’ll show you a professional cameraman. The rest of us inevitably move the camera around some when we take pictures. Image Stabilization (or Vibration Control, Anti-Shake and a wide variety of similar manufacturer terms) is technology in the camera or lens that tries to compensate for this. No Image Stabilization: blurry pictures. Image Stabilization: less blurry pictures.
Memory & Accessories
If you get a non-Sony camera chances are that it’s going to use SDHC cards, a small card format about one inch by an inch and a half big. (Sonys use a format called Memory Stick which is slightly more expensive, but not by much.) They’re very common and are therefor low in price. In general memory prices drop by half every year and new doubled capacities come out to fill the higher price points. Right now a 16 gigabyte card or two is probably a good bet. That’ll be enough space to store hundreds of pictures and an hour or so of movies. Most camera manufacturers don’t include cards with their cameras, so make sure you pick one up.
A small tripod can be a good investment. In particular we love the little Gorillapods, small tripods with bendable legs that you can wrap around a pole or stand on uneven surfaces.
A case or bag can be a good idea if you want to carry the camera on your belt or worry it’ll be scratched in a purse. Manufacturers often make stylish cases for their cameras and there are plenty of other options.
Camera Shopping
Pay attention to reviews and overall ratings, that will tell you a lot about a camera. You probably want to start with something that has at least 4 stars. Set a budget, good cameras can be had for less than $200, though a lot of the nicer models are $250 or more. I would recommend that you pick a camera from a major manufacturer. Some cameras from companies you’ve never heard of can be cheap, but it’s much easier to get questions answered if a lot of people own the same camera, and the build quality is often a little better.
Specific Cameras for Families We Like
The Canon Powershot SD780IS
Though it doesn’t have a wide angle lens, it does come in around $200 and has HD video, face detection, blink detection and image stabilization.
The Samsung HZ15W
Around $250, this camera has face detection, a wide angle lens, HD video and image stabilization. It also sports a large 3 inch LCD screen.
The Canon Powershot SD960IS
This camera comes in around $250 and has a wide angle lens, HD video, face detection, blink detection and image stabilization. It’s one of the first Canons with a touch screen, which some people love and some people… don’t.
If you’d like to find more cameras, just click the boxes next to ‘Point and Shoot’, the price ranges you’re interested in, and the features you’re interested in on the left. Then hit ‘Find my Camera!’
