Choose the Perfect Camera

The Backup Camera

Playing second fiddle to a single-lens-reflex or advanced camera (see page 122) isn't easy. A good backup camera needs to deliver many of the big dog's features in a lightweight chassis. Both of the models discussed here achieve this, and they also captured some of the sharpest images we've seen from recently tested point-and-shoot cameras.

Canon PowerShot SD500

Price: $500

A bulky fixed-lens model or SLR isn't practical to carry everywhere. A compact alternative is Canon's PowerShot SD500--it impressed us with the excellent quality of the photos it captured in our tests.

The SD500's tough metal body weighs just 6 ounces and fits comfortably into a shirt pocket or purse. It powers up quickly, and there's no noticeable lag when you push the shutter release. The 3X optical zoom and 2-inch LCD help you frame your shots easily. And you can switch to an optical viewfinder when you're following a moving target, for example.

The camera's nine autofocus points lock onto subjects swiftly. In our tests, the 7.1-megapixel sensor let the SD500 capture plenty of detail, but shots taken with the built-in flash scored lower than the pictures taken by most of the other models mentioned here.

The PowerShot SD500 has a fully automatic mode and nine scene modes--including settings for portraits, night scenes, and indoor shots, as well as for underwater and fireworks. The manual mode permits you to set white balance, ISO sensitivity, and exposure compensation. But while the camera's aperture range of f/2.8 to f/13 is the widest we've seen on such a small camera, you can't set the aperture or shutter speed manually.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W7

Price: $450

At 6.9 ounces, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W7 makes a good pinch hitter. Its 7.2-megapixel sensor records onto a Sony Memory Stick; but if you don't have one handy, you can save shots to the camera's 32MB of built-in memory. The DSC-W7's generous 2.5-inch display is more than large enough for composing your shots (and showing them off once you've taken them), and there's still enough room on the back for an optical viewfinder. The camera's 3X optical zoom takes you close to the action, and its seven scene modes help you snap subjects under different lighting conditions--twilight portraits, candlelit dinners, and beach trips, for example. Unlike the Canon SD500's manual mode, the DSC-W7's permits you to set the unit's shutter speed and aperture.

The DSC-W7 comes with a charger for its two AA nickel metal hydride batteries, but you can drop in a pair of disposable cells in an emergency. The camera also has a broad range of accessories, including several screw-on conversion lenses. The $130 Super Telephoto lens, for example, offers 2.6X magnification; the 1.7X telephoto lens costs $100.

In our lab tests, the DSC-W7 performed well all around, and its built-in flash easily outperformed the PowerShot SD500's. Our only disappointment was that, when we transferred our informal test shots to a PC, we had to rotate our portrait shots manually because the DSC-W7 lacks the orientation sensor we're accustomed to in Canon, HP, and Kodak cameras; those cameras tag images with data that the accompanying software then reads, enabling it to rotate the images appropriately when you upload them to your PC. Third-party software such as Adobe Photoshop can read this data, too, and will rotate the images accordingly.

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