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Best Point-Shoot Digital Camera

Updated on September 15, 2014

Waiting On The Top Digital Camera

This is the young lady before she got the best point and shoot digital camera that her mom's money could buy. (She is using my back-up DSLR in this photo.)
This is the young lady before she got the best point and shoot digital camera that her mom's money could buy. (She is using my back-up DSLR in this photo.) | Source

Quest For The Best Point Shoot Digital Camera

Finding the best point shoot digital camera is not as easy as it sounds. Well, maybe it doesn't sound that easy to you if you have been searching for a top digital camera recently.

There are hundreds of models to choose from, and they all sound good from the manufacturer's description. So, just checking the number of megapixels and zoom capability is not enough to narrow the search at all.

I decided to see if I could come up with a legitimate plan to at least get the top point and shoot cameras to a manageable number, say 5.

By the way, this search is not for yours truly. I had a mission, or should I say, "commission," from my daughter-in-law. She wanted to get my granddaughter a camera for a special occasion that was coming up. And she knew I have a passion for photography, and I was the logical one to ask which one she should get. Because she, too, had encountered the vast array of products calling out, "Buy me! Buy me!"

Personally, I use an SLR that does very well for me, but that is not the issue. There really is no way to narrow it down to a single choice because I have a more professional model. It's like comparing oil and water. They just don't mix.

After deciding that this project was going to take more time and effort than I had first thought, I settled into a routine, and eventually, I came up with a formula. Being somewhat of a perfectionist and totally logical thinker, my solution is rather complex, but you can see it below if you are interested, LOL.

Top Digital Camera - X3

It turns out that the results had three top digital camera choices that were too much camera for a budding teenage photographer. But yours truly was impressed. In fact, I am thinking about maybe investing in one of them as a "carry everywhere" camera that I don't have to lug a 40# backpack full of lenses, flashes, and other paraphernalia.

The 3 top point and shoot camera choices were separated by only 0.07 star points. That's a tight race. But there was not enough cash in the piggy bank, so I looked deeper into the list.

The Best Point Shoot Digital Camera ~ Top 3

Canon G12 IS the Best Point Shoot Digital Camera

Canon G12 10 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.8 Inch Vari-Angle LCD
Canon G12 10 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.8 Inch Vari-Angle LCD
The rating on this model came up at the top, beating out the #2 camera by a mere two hundredths of a Star.
 

And The Winner Is...

Here she is with the best point shoot digital camera her money could buy.
Here she is with the best point shoot digital camera her money could buy. | Source

Panasonic FH 25 Images by Megan

Rounding Out The Top 5 Best Point Shoot Digital Camera List

Number 4 and 5 on the list are almost identical in features and price. It was a flip of the coin to pick one.

The eventual winner was a Panasonic Lumix FH 25. I am totally impressed with this camera. It has a Ginormous 16 megapixel sensor, so, even if you crop out a bunch of unnecessary clutter in your photo, you are left with a large enough picture to print.

The real decision came down to two things, though. First was the price. Mom did not want to spend too much money and have something happen to the camera.. which is totally possible when there are 3 younger siblings in the house.

The second thing that clinched the deal is the ease of use. So many customers had alluded to the fact that there was virtually no learning curve to get started taking fantastic pictures. Of course, you can read the manual and get more creative with the settings, but you can also just take the camera out of the box, pop in the storage card, and start shooting.

Here Are The Final Two Cameras In The Top Digital Camera List

Formula For Finding The Best Point and Shoot Digital Camera

I will try to explain the formula here. (Let it be known that I am a "died-in-the-wool" online shopper. I have always gotten super good products because I don't have to settle for a substitute like when you go to the supermarket and they are out of the thing you went there for. (And if I do happen to pick a real DUD, I can return it with no questions asked.)

Step one: Create a list of top sellers from three or four Internet sources. This is done using search criteria that will give you the best sellers.
Step two: Check the Star Ratings that come from actual buyers of those products in my list.
Step three: Read the customer reviews, specifically the ones that give the model a poor score. Are these low ratings legitimate? Or are they due to some bad experience that had nothing to do with the camera itself? This is a very important step.
Step four: Take the scores from all the sources and crunch those numbers using a formula in Excel to give me the final rating.
Step five: Tell my daughter-in-law the resulting winner.

This turned out to be a fun exercise, as well as being very informative. Is this a list of Best Point and Shoot Camera - 2012? Maybe, but I will continue to monitor the market for new arrivals and changes in the user satisfaction list.

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