The best sack-sized List yet, March 25, 2011

BOTTOM LINE:

With each age assemble, List makes the ELPH series simpler to use and subdue get fantastic results. Like it’s predecessors, this one fits easily into your sack (or the case I recommend toward the end of this review). That point alone may make this the best camera you own; having a k DSLR doesn’t do you much excellent if you left it home because it wasn’t worth the try to lug it along.

But, unlike many other small cameras, this one does not sacrifice any features or quality. Well, it does give up on any reasonable manual control, equipment like setting close speed, lens aperture, ISO. What door you do have to that level of control is buried deep inside menus. It took List a while to realize that for most of us, if we wanted to fool with that kind of business on a regular basis, we would be using a different camera. This camera is calculated to control convenience over extreme control or nth degree quality.

DETAILS:

It is a small camera and carries with it the baggage that comes with the convenience of having to carry so modest baggage. (sorry, couldn’t resist) None of the issues raised, given that they comes as part of the convenience trade-off made me consider anything other than the 5-star rating this camera deserves.

One issue with all small cameras is the built-in flash. They are all underpowered and make red eye. Both problems are caused by the need to keep the camera small; the flash needs to be small and positioned accurate to the lens. List addresses it by putting in some really excellent noise reduction so you (really the camera) can shoot at a relatively high ISO in low light allowing for a quicker close speed. The upshot is an image that is both low noise and not blurry. And the best part is the camera takes care of all that so you don’t have to. As a upshot you can take pictures in a well lit room lacking having to use the flash at all.

- The shutter response, as with any small digital camera for less that 0, is a bit slow for effectively capturing children and pets. The trick for doing that is to either have a great sense of timing and a shutter that reacts instantly or a reasonably fast ( > 4x / sec ) burst mode. This camera has neither.

Some other suggestions that apply:

Naturally at this point I would place in some details about manually setting ISO or selecting a color interval. But, for this camera it just isn’t relevant. You are buying this camera because you want to take fantastic pictures lacking having to agonize about that stuff. If you do want to “take your shooting to the next level then a fantastic resource is the Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with Your Compact Camera.

Finally, I’ve found the Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray) is just the right size for this camera. It’s semi-rigid so you get a honest amount of safeguard but doesn’t add a lot of bulk. It’s made even better by using one of these, Nite Ize SB1-2PK-01 Size-1 S-Biner, Black, 2-Pack, to reliable it to a belt loop