ultracompact for tween

[jmcheerio]

Looking for ultracompact for tween daughter to use for photos of friends, little video clips, colorful - preferably pink..
Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible. $100 - $175

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?

Ultracompact

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you? 8 - 10

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify) standard

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)6 - 9

Do you care for manual controls? would not mind some manual controls - will be signing her up for a photog course to learn basics (she will use my old SLR for that)

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for? snapshots of her friends, trips, family, short video clips

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?no

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? probably yes

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? some

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? like Canon, her older sis has a Sony. Not impressed with our old Kodak easyshare.

Are there particular models you already have in mind? Am considering Canon SD 1100, Sony 120, Casio exilim Z8 or higher, Pentax option M50, am also wondering about panasonic or samsung.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD) image stabilization and face detector would be nice.

[SpecialK]

Samsung L210 at Best Buy today for under $115. It has 10 MP, optical stabilization, LCD-only, and I can not get sound on the movies played on the computer for the life of me (sound in camera is fine). Some codec crossed up somewhere...

I reviewed it on Amazon, and Steves-digicams put it in his "best compacts" list.

[KCook]

The Canon SD1100 is very nice outdoors. Reviews give me the impression the Sony W120 has a slight edge indoors. For ideas on more budget cameras run a Google search on the string "Simple and Easy Digital Cameras".

Kelly Cook

[tizeye]

While links are not allowed, dpreview just released a comparison review of 9 "Budget Cameras" priced $150 and below. The two overall winners were the Sony 120 (comes in pink) and the Panasonic LZ8 (not in pink). May want to read the full article to see which ones they absolutely would never recommend, and which ones - other than the two overall winners - performed tops in the 3 sub categories.

[tx photo mom]

My tween daughter has been wanting a pocket digital camera for a couple of years. She's recently been swayed by the Nikon Coolpix commercials. The camera features sound great, but the reviews on Amazon are for the most part lukewarm to negative (fuzzy pictures, touch screen reponse). Has anyone here used this camera? Or does anyone have a suggestion for a good pocket sized camera? Thanks!

P.S. The reveiws here a couple years back on the Cannon G7 were extremely helpful and I've really enjoyed the camera.

[AndyfromVA]

Canon, Sony and Panasonic make the best small digital cameras. Nikon, Samsung, Fuji and Olympus sometimes have hits but often have misses. So if I were you I'd stick with Canon, Sony or Panasonic.

[KCook]

My tween daughter has been wanting a pocket digital camera for a couple of years. She's recently been swayed by the Nikon Coolpix commercials. The camera features sound great, but the reviews on Amazon are for the most part lukewarm to negative (fuzzy pictures, touch screen reponse). Has anyone here used this camera? Or does anyone have a suggestion for a good pocket sized camera? Thanks!

P.S. The reveiws here a couple years back on the Cannon G7 were extremely helpful and I've really enjoyed the camera.
As Andy noted, not all Nikons have been a success. However the S210 ain't bad, more stylish than most, and is currently offered at only $120 or less!!! I'm tempted to pick one up myself at that price. For more style the Nikon S52 also gives decent results, though don't expect it to be quite as good in low light without flash as the S210. There certainly are other cameras at the S52 price with better performance, as Andy noted, but not the sytle. Neither of the S210 nor the S52 are touchscreen. Ultimate in styling is arguably the Sony T-series. But those start at about $100 more than the Nikon S52.

Kelly