If you haven't considered moving to digital photography, you should. I've just made the switch myself, and here's why. One, I love not having to deal with film. I simply hook my digital camera up to the computer and download images to my hard drive. I can share my efforts with my online buddies in mere minutes--without scanning. And the LCD display on the back of most cameras means you can instantly see if your snap panned out, and delete it if it didn't.
I'm no photographer, but I do know what looks good. I acquired two state-of-the-art digital cameras to test on my recent trip to Europe--Canon's Powershot S100 Digital Elph and Kodak's DC4800. I was impressed with both; the former for its portability, and the latter for its sensational 3.1-megapixel pictures and advanced creative features. Alas, neither of these units is what you'd call an impulse buy. The S100 runs about $550 ($699 list) on the street, while you can get your hands on the DC4800 for about $700 ($799 list).
Both cameras share some basic features. Each uses industry-standard CompactFlash cards for storage, connects to your computer via the USB port, and has both optical viewfinders and LCD displays on the back. But size-wise and feature-wise, they are as different as night and day.
Canon PowerShot S100 Digital Elph
I used this camera the majority of my trip, simply because its rugged 3.4-inch wide, 2.2-inch high, 1.1-inch deep, 6.7-ounce steel body fit conveniently in my shirt pocket. The lens barrel retracts fully within the camera body and when closed, is automatically covered to prevent scratches. The S100 can operate as a fully automatic happy snap camera (my lazily preferred method), or in manual mode for those who desire more control over focus, exposure, and white balance. It has a 2X optical zoom lens which may be upped to 8X by digital enhancement; it also has an automatic flash with red-eye reduction. Also, it takes pictures at either 640-by-480 pixels, or 1,600-by-1,200 pixels in both fine and superfine resolutions.
The S100's removable battery recharges in a standalone tray with retractable AC prongs. I averaged about 40 pictures with flash per charge. The S100 takes excellent pictures, even in the full-auto mode. I found the colors extremely lifelike and the rendering of detail, especially in the superfine 1,600-by-1,200 shots, very accurate. My only complaints about the S100 are its meager 8MB memory card and a rather weak flash. The S100 came bundled with PhotoStitch software for piecing together my panoramic shots, the home edition of Adobe's Photo Deluxe for touchups, and Canon's ZoomBrowser EX for managing the camera and your files.
Kodak DC4800
If the S100 is the ultimate in portability, the DC4800 might be the ultimate digital 35mm replacement. Its 3.1-megapixel resolution lets you take pictures up to 2,160-by-1,440 pixels, and it's packed with creative features. The DC4800 does everything the S100 can and adds three B&W modes (the S100 has one), a sepia mode, 3X optical zoom, a more powerful retractable flash, and a dedicated composite video output for displaying pictures on TVs (the S100 uses the USB port for this). There's more, but suffice it to say, it provides a lot more creative control and options than the S100. The DC4800 also accepts an optional lens adapter and specialty lenses for close-up, telephoto, and wide-angle work.
The 13.1-ounce DC4800 won't fit in your pocket like the S100, but it's attractive and no larger than the average 35mm product. It also excels in picture quality. At its highest resolution-3.1 megapixels without compression-the pictures I took with it were much sharper than those I took with the S100, especially when enlarged. Unfortunately, each one of these uncompressed snaps uses a whopping 9MB, so only one will fit on the included 16MB CompactFlash card.
The DC4800 comes with Kodak's Camera Control software, its Pictures Now photo file handler, and ArcSoft's Panorama Maker 2000.
