The cover of Consumer Reports’ November 2007 issue boasts “Best HDTVs, Digital Cameras, Laptops, and more.” For many people, Consumer Reports is their purchasing bible. They buy nothing without first consulting this magazine. And to an extent, this is good. When it comes to buying tires or toothpaste, you may want to know all the players and which performs best. However, CU has limited usefulness when it comes to recommending digital cameras. When I saw this most recent article filled with notions, half-truths and folklore, I finally decided to speak out. If you base your entire purchase decision on CU, you’ll most likely be sorry you did.

What is Consumer Reports good for?

Two things: listing the features of the product and giving you some indication of its reliability, based on CU readers’ who’ve purchased the product. But realize that bias exists. For instance, CU members adore Japanese cars. I bought a Nissan Maxima based on CU recommendation. Was it reliable? Sure. Was it devoid of soul? You bet! Worse decision I ever made. (I’m much happier with my Saab turbo converible, which CU gives an average or worse than average rating).

Digital cameras are much different from HDTVs and Laptop computers. The latter two items are basically commodities at this point–we buy them and we pretty much know how they work out of the box. Quality? Do you like the image on the TV? Does the laptop run all your Microsoft software? That’s about all there is to consider. But digital cameras are much different. How is “quality” quantified here?

Even though digital photography is really just in its infant stage, and the technology is rather complicated, there are some hard and fast truths. To its credit, CU has finally come out and said that digital zooms are inferior to optical zooms. However, they don’t go so far as to also tell you that without image stabilization, optical zooms greater than X3 are virtually useless.

Facts Avoided by Consumer Reports

1. There are many types of image stabilization, and some work better than others. Also, this feature only allows you to hand-hold a shot one or two shutter speeds slower than you normally could. It does NOT guarantee clear shots under all conditions!

2. There is no such thing as a fully automatic camera. Yes, any camera will take fine shots outdoors on a bright sunny day. The wheels fall off when you attempt to use a camera in low-light conditions, e.g. indoors at a birthday party. Believe it or not, most cameras cannot take a decent photo under these conditions–they require input (adjustments) from the user.

3. Pixel-counting is a great way to jack up the price, but realize that for snapshots, 3MP is fine. You’d be hard pressed to see a difference between a 3MP snapshot and a 7MP one. The reason? The overall size of the image sensor in a pocket camera remains fixed. Yes you can jam twice as many pixels into the same space, but your overall picture quality may not double. Forget this stuff about needing 5MP if you want to enlarge prints over 8 x 10 inch, and so on. That’s bullfeathers. To get better image quality, resolution, and light sensitivity, you need to get a camera with an overall larger image sensor, e.g. a DSLR.

4. Pocket digital cameras do not work well in low-light conditions.Therefore, you might need to use a flash. DSLRs are better in low light, because their image sensor’s pixels are bigger.

5. So what determines image quality? Certainly not brand. If you were a big Nikon fan in the film days, you’ll be quite disappointed in that brand’s digital pocket cameras. I know I am. MP count affects image quality up to a point, but it is also greatly affected by the image processing system and the lens (in the days of film, it was film and lens affecting image quality, right?). Most pocket cameras have bad lenses. Panasonic (Lumix) uses Leica lenses, one of the best on the planet (which is not mentioned by CU).

6. Pocket camera technology has just about plateaued. You’re paying for more bells and whistles. Want better image quality? Buy a DSLR. If you are temped to pay more than $300 for a pocket digital camera, you might as well just take that extra money, put it in a bag and leave it on a bus.

7. Manual controls on pocket cameras are virtually useless. For instance on many cameras you need to drill down through several menus to find the manual focus control (which of course is just about impossible to use).

How should you buy a digital camera?

Certainly not a bad idea to check CU first. Get an idea of what products are available in your price range. Then, go to a camera retailer and try some! Since most people want a camera to take pictures of indoor gatherings, turn the camera on and shoot the other customers! Did the flash come on when it was supposed to? Can you turn it off? Did the focusing system quickly lock on to your subject, or did it just hunt? Was the picture captured quickly when you pressed the shutter button? Activate the anti-shake button and take a picture while shaking the camera. Did it make a difference? These are the conditions under which most cameras fail to perform–any camera will work fine outdoors in the bright sun! For more guidance on choosing a digital camera, see my article Buying a Digital Point and Shoot Camera.