One for Every Pocket

Every year it’s suspense as to what will the next generation of hardware, laptop, phones and digital cameras have in store. The current generation models are so feature rich that it becomes difficult to predict what’s going to come up. But when the latest models are out, they never fail to win our hearts. The latest digital cameras don’t look very different from their predecessors, but they offer improved performance and a bunch of new and exciting features. What we’ve been lately seeing is the shrink in form factor due to increasing use of lithium ion batteries. Some models are bulky because they still use AA batteries, while some are slim and light enough to be carried in pocket. Despite their compact form, they manage to pack large screens for comfortable viewing and a host of interesting features. Lately even entry-level models feature wide angle lenses that allow you to shoot wide landscapes with great ease. Digital cameras are also moving on to be able to shoot HD videos from standard 640x480 videos. We’re not talking about expensive high-end cameras, but you can get all the features we’ve talked about yet, for as less as Rs 5,500. Cameras have also become more intelligent than before – with improved image processing engines, they can automatically discern settings to capture optimal colors, details and exposure levels. So you don’t necessarily need to know how white balance, aperture, shutter speed and ISO influence image quality. Simply set your camera to Auto mode or select one of the scene modes and you can rest assured you’ll get a great shot. If you want to control the parameters manually, you can resort to the program mode which allows using custom values. In this roundup we tested 11 digital cameras priced under Rs 7,500. In addition to comparing feature sets, we tested each and every model and found out which model performs the best and the one that offers best value for money.