On Campus: Digital Cameras

Coolness. Style. Megapixels. I’m talking about digital cameras. When it comes to capturing your favorite party pics, football stadium fan fun, or graduation ceremony moments, a digital camera is a college kid’s best friend. The compact size, versatility, and creative license offered by these cameras appeal greatly to the campus dweller. There are huge advantages over disposable and similarly sized film-equipped cameras. Picture quality is immensely better, and the smart options of digital cameras help you take better pictures. Plus, you can delete pics you don’t want before printing them. Try that with film. Best of all, these digital cameras can shoot short movies (10-15 seconds). Excellent for “surprise moments” and spontaneous fun.

Five models currently available really scream “good times”: Canon’s PowerShot S200, Kodak’s EasyShare LS420, Minolta’s DiMAGE X, Nikon’s Coolpix 2500, and Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-P5. Similarly equipped, they all offer distinctively cool styling, compact size, movie modes, and “let me try that” appeal.


Canon’s PowerShot follows the sleek and compact styling of Canon’s ELPH cameras. 2.0 Megapixel capability allows for some pretty sharp shots, and the 8 megabyte (MB) CompactFlash memory card will let you store about a dozen of those pics. At about $350, it falls into the middle range of the cameras listed, comparing with Nikon’s Coolpix.



Nikon’s Coolpix also captures 2.0 Megapixels. Its fun design lets the lens swivel out to three angles (about 45 degrees up and down, and horizontal), allowing pictures to be taken without having to tilt the camera or your head. The lens then swivels back into the camera housing for safe keeping. Out of the box, Coolpix stores more pictures than the PowerShot, with a 16MB CompactFlash memory card.



Minolta’s DiMAGE X is the most distinctively styled cam, at about the size and shape of a floppy disk and less than an inch wide. DiMAGE X can focus as close as 9.8 inches, making for some truly extreme close-ups. $400 gets you about 2 Megapixels and 8MB of memory (Secure Digital).



Sony’s Cyber-shot will land some ultra-sharp, detailed images with its comparatively large 3.2 Megapixels and 8MB Memory Stick, but that’s not all. This cam also has voice memo and e-mail modes, records longer movies, has built in editing capabilities, and is one of the sleekest packages available. Look to spend $500.



Kodak’s EasyShare LS420, coming in at $300, is the most affordable of the group, but it doesn’t skimp on the goodies. 2.1 Megapixels are available with 8MB of internal memory and an expansion port for Kodak’s Multi Media Card or Secure Digital memory cards. Kodak’s EasyShare system allows you to download your pics to your computer with one touch of a button. Included with the LS420 (and all EasyShare models) is Kodak’s innovative Camera Dock which hooks up with your computer, downloads your pics, and recharges your LS420’s batteries. The LS420 is also one stylin’ and compact cam.


All of these cameras include memory to store your pics, hardware and software necessary to hook up with your computer (through USB port) or photo printer, multi-function flash, multiple zoom and picture modes, and rechargeable batteries. Memory capacity can be upgraded for each camera as well, letting you take more pictures. All that's left is finding the funds to buy one…

by Matthew Schueller