Spotlight: Powerful Cameras for Serious Shooters

• See our chart: Cameras for Serious Shooters

If photography means more to you than family mug shots and vacation snaps, a new digital camera is a significant investment--not only in dollars, but in the time required to find the model that best matches your photographic talents and needs. Fortunately, with the recent arrival of consumer digital SLRs and fixed-lens advanced cameras with 8-megapixel resolutions, 10X zoom lenses, and loads of professional controls, your choices have never been better.

We tested three new models this month: one fixed-lens camera from Canon, the PowerShot G6; and two digital single-lens reflex units, or SLRs, the Canon EOS 20D and the Nikon D70. All three newcomers deliver excellent images and offer a wealth of creative controls for experienced photographers, but they satisfy very different needs. We also got an early taste of two new 8-megapixel Nikon cameras: the Coolpix 8400 and the Coolpix 8800. Even though it's still too early to rate the preproduction units for the chart, we offer a preview in "New Twins From Nikon."

Chart-Worthy Cameras

Of the three new cameras we formally tested, Canon's PowerShot G6 earned top honors for overall value. The latest upgrade in a long line of G-series models, this incarnation has a similar look and feel to that of its immediate predecessor, the G5, but it keeps pace with the latest improvements in camera resolution and speed. It has 7.1-megapixel resolution--2 megapixels higher than the G5. Its combination of well-placed controls, intuitive yet powerful settings, and a comfortable grip make it a pleasure to use.

The G6 earned top scores in our lab-based image-quality tests. (For our formal testing, we operate and score all cameras in their full-automatic mode. We follow up with informal shots, in which we freely manipulate the settings to optimize the quality of each camera's images.)

Though fairly bulky, the G6 is not as massive as our number two Best Buy, the Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom. Priced approximately $200 higher than the G6, the C-8080 is a slight step up in photographic horsepower. Its zoom range is a little longer (starting at 28mm, versus the G6's 35mm), and its resolution is 1 megapixel higher. The two cameras are near equals in image-quality scoring, features, and ease of use. Each would be best for photographers who want to steer clear of the cost and weight of an SLR camera and its many attendant lenses.

This month we took a second look at one of the two true consumer digital SLRs currently available. Unhappy with the quality of the images that an early-production Nikon D70 captured for us, we ordered and tested another one. Though we got better results this time around, the D70 is not a camera we learned to love. It clearly has a more rugged body, but its menu system feels cluttered (though better than those of previous Nikons). And the D70 is missing some features, such as a way to store combinations of camera settings.

For the legions of people who already own Nikon lenses, the D70's $1000 price is a great deal. But for others, the better bet is to purchase the $1300 kit, which includes the body and a 27mm-to-105mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens.

Canon's EOS 20D is $1500 for the body only and $1600 for a kit with a starter lens. An upgrade of the popular 10D, this chunky SLR features an 8.2-megapixel sensor (the 10D was 6.3 megapixels) and faster burst mode and automatic focus. The 20D's nine-point autofocus system is fast and precise, and a diamond-shaped array of lights in the viewfinder makes composing shots with the desired focus very easy. It also has a nice black-and-white mode with simulated color filters to give you the same sort of effects and quality as shooting with monochrome film.

In our image-quality tests, neither SLR performed as well as our top-rated, fixed-lens models. In full-automatic mode, both SLRs (but especially the Nikon D70) tended to underexpose and undersaturate images. The conventional wisdom, at least from the manufacturers, is that as an SLR user, you should expect to put more effort into editing images on your PC, where you can more easily reveal details in shadows; this might come as a surprise to people buying their first digital camera.

In our informal image testing, we got attractive results when we turned each camera's mode dial to the manual zone. Bracketing was the most valuable tool for getting fine shots with these two SLRs. Both models let you bracket your exposure and your white balance--frequently the two most critical controls.

Both SLRs also have one distinct advantage: They can power up and fire off a shot almost instantaneously. If you frequently shoot fast action, an SLR is truly the ideal tool. For more on the differences between SLR and advanced fixed-lens models, see "When an SLR Is Not the Best Choice"

During long exposures at higher ISO levels, such as when you're shooting in low light, your images commonly incur a lot of random graininess (noise). Our two SLRs were much better than previous digital SLRs (and the fixed-lens models) at dealing with this, but we could see some noise in the images when we looked closely. We took shots in various low-light conditions, and when we used Adobe Photoshop to zoom in on the Canon 20D's darkest shots, we could see colored dots in areas of shadow, while the Nikon D70's noise tended to be more monochromatic and easier to edit out.

Have It Your Way

Advanced cameras are becoming increasingly customizable. Nearly all of them let you adjust sharpness and contrast in the camera (as many point-and-shoots now do), but several of the models on the chart, such as some units from Canon and Olympus, also have programmable buttons or modes that let you quickly recall your favorite exposure selections for specific shooting conditions. With the Olympus C-8080 you can select from eight My Mode settings, and you can set the custom button on the top of the camera to assist in switching between them.

The Canon PowerShot G6 takes it one step further by adding two customizable shooting modes to the selection dial. You might set one bank to help with portraits when you're shooting in aperture-priority mode, by turning on the spot-focus, single-shot, and flash options. You might set the other bank to capture moving objects, such as action at a sporting event. The main drawback: The camera does not let you label each bank of settings. Neither of the two new SLRs has a way to save multiple personalized settings, though each does provide settings for fine-tuning your exposures.

Nearly all advanced cameras support uncompressed RAW image formats. (Of those in our chart, only the Casio Exilim Pro EX-P600 and the Olympus C-770 Ultra Zoom do not.) Compressed JPEG files always lose some image data, though the difference between a minimally compressed JPEG and a RAW file is subtle. But cameras differ in how they process an image, and RAW files enable you to control image processing on your PC.

Paul Jasper