Camera finder - quickly find the digicams that best fit your personal needs

This tool will help you come up with a short list of compacts and/or bridge cameras (no SLRs are included) that can be a starting point in making a decision which camera to buy. Once you're down to a few cameras, you should read some reviews, check sample photos (both reviews and photos are available on pixel-peeper) and most important of all, go to a local shop to get a feel of the camera.

Each parameter can be either set to a specific min/max value (to filter out all non-matching cameras), or you can simply say how important the parameter is. The resulting list will include a score for each camera based on your choices. Note that most parameters have a long description that you can click (red links) if you're not sure about their meaning.

Max. resolution

Any value Only specific value
How important is this parameter to you?

[Show/hide parameter description]

Even though the manufacturers' marketing people want us to believe that the more megapixels, the better, it's not true. Higher resolution theoretically allows you to get larger prints or to crop the image. The problem is that a high resolution should also come with a large sensor size and a high quality lens. Otherwise the real image resolution and quality will not gain at al from more megapixels. Most digicams today have a very small sensor and you will not see real resolution improvents beyond 4-6MP.

Sensor size

Any value Only specific value
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[Show/hide parameter description]

The sensor size is likely the most important parameter influencing final image quality. Unfortunately it also greatly affects the manufacturing costs. A large size will be especially important when taking photos at a high ISO sensitivity, when there is not much light, usually in order to reduce image blur. Small sensors don't allow increasing ISO beyond around 200 without tremendous quality losses (even though theoretically most cameras' ISO can go up to 1600 or even more -- this is another trick of the marketing people)

Min. focal length (ability to take wide angle shots)

Any value Only specific value
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Generally neglected by digicam manufacturers, the wide angle is extremely useful, either when taking photos inside, or to make more 3D-like photos, especially from close distances. While most digicams start at around 35mm, a lens starting at 28mm will make a huge difference and is highly recommended.

Max. focal length (ability to take telephoto shots)

Any value Only specific value
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The telephoto capability is important when photographing details from a far distance (magnifying). Note that the telephoto range is much more prone to camera shake, so you will often need an optical image stabilizer to get sharp images.

Optical image stabilization

This feature must be present

[Show/hide parameter description]

Optical image stabilization will allow your photos to stay unblurred (sharp) when exposing an image 2 or 3 times longer than without this feature. Seen from another perspective, it allows you to zoom in 2 or 3 times without adding risk of blur to the image (normally zooming in, that is using a greater focal length, will increase the risk of image blur). Warning: many manufacturers use similar terms in the feature list even if a camera has no such capability (this may be called electronic stabilization or anti-shake). What they refer to is plain misleading and in reality not at all helpful. To make sure you're not being misleaded, check if this is an OPTICAL, or otherwise called CCD SHIFT, stabilization as opposed to an electronic one.

Closest focusing distance (macro)

Any value Only specific value
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[Show/hide parameter description]

Virtually all digicams have a macro mode allowing you to take photos of objects only a few cm away from the camera. This option represents the minimum distance at which the camera will be able to take a picture.

LCD Size

Any value Only specific value
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Weight

Any value Only specific value
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Dimensions (W + H + D)

Any value Only specific value
How important is this parameter to you?

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