Cameras for Singles
Life moves fast. You’re out of high school, into college or a job, you’re hanging out with friends and trying to find that special someone. Nights out with friends, parties, road trips, vacations, even the things you’d rather forget. You want to capture them before they’re gone.
A digital camera for a single him or her should be budget friendly, compact, stylish and feature filled. If it’s too expensive there are books to buy, rent to pay, car payments to think about. If it’s too big, you won’t take it anywhere. You need to look good, as well. You don’t want to be sporting mom and dad’s old thing. It’s possible at times you may loose the ability to focus and pay attention to the camera, so face detection (so the guilty parties are in focus) comes in handy.
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 party photos where it can be hard for the camera to figure out what to focus on. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as well if they aren’t looking at the camera or you’re taking a picture of something other than a face. Very handy to have, never the less.
HD Video
You’re going to be looking at these movies for at least a half a century, so go for the best video quality you can get. At least 720p, no 640×480 old school square TV here.
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 you’re all 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 and sometimes it’s hard to hold a camera steady. 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 is probably a good bet. That’ll be enough space to store hundreds of pictures or 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 you friends head or stand on uneven surfaces.
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 $150, though a lot of the nicer models are $200 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 Singles We Like
The Samsung SL420
Less than $150, this camera has face detection, a 2.7 inch LCD and image stabilization. If you’re on a budget, it’s a great camera. If you can afford to move up to a higher end model, do.
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.
The Panasonic Lumix ZS3
This camera comes in a little over $250 and has a wide angle lens, super long zoom range for travel, HD video with stereo sound, face detection and image stabilization. A great camera for lots of situations.
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!’
