I did a lot of low end camera research over this last week. I thought I would post what I found to assist you if you too are looking for a camera. These are sub $200.00 cameras. I found according to their reviews, offering a lot for the money and were in town to play with before deciding on which camera to buy. Honestly, if I were given any of these cameras as a gift, I would be perfectly happy with any one of them.

Sony W370 – Does almost everything as well as the FH20 but for more money.

Canon A490 – Amazing for what it does at its very low price.

Canon A495 – Almost a clone of the A490 with almost the same bells and whistles.

Sony T99  – I really wanted this camera, but it was mentioned in a few places that the low light ability left a lot to be desired.

Samsung HZ30W – One heck of a camera if everything works. Very mixed reviews out there on this camera.

Panasonic Lumix FP1 – Another great pocket camera with a lot in common with the Sony T line, only for less $$. It also suffers from low light problems.

Nikon S80 – Very nice camera competes well with the FH20, for more money.

Panasonic Lumix FH20 – I ended up purchasing this make and model. This camera edged out all others within $100.00 price range in a number of reviews.

low light, no flash

That was the line up in the low end price range that I seriously considered. There may be other models out there that compete as well, but I did not have access to play with them. All in all I was really impressed with Sony’s touch screen menu. It was easy to use I thought, though others did not seem to care for it. That means the menu designers and I think alike.

One thought to keep in mind is the megapixels of these cameras are now hitting fourteen. That is a huge picture allowing you to cut down the size of the picture removing the edges where most of the flaws are.

All of these models have the same basic flaws in their picture quality. In general, if you are shopping in this price range, you probably won’t notice the flaws inherent to the cameras, or they won’t be important as long as you don’t expect professional results and flawless large prints.

These cameras are so close in function and quality that any of them would make a great small camera. Try out the option and menus system of each one and decide what menu works best for you. That is the biggest deciding factors in this price range.

In closing, one thing I think is getting crazy is the megapixel numbers. I thought my now dead five megapixel camera took all the picture I really needed. Now I have a camera capable of taking great pictures of almost 2.5 times the size of my old camera. I don’t really need more megapixels next time out. What I would really like to see better built and thought out cameras with better menus instead of cramming in more megapixels.