Best Consumer Digital Cameras

Leica, and its partner in the consumer realm, Panasonic, dominate the Best of the Best consumer digital cameras reviewed. These cameras share many of the same features as their best value brethren, but take the best category to the highest level with a combination of high-quality optics, a small sensor size and a good MP (mega-pixel) count. You need to look for consumer digital cameras that have the best optics, (the larger optical zoom the better), the smallest sensor size (measured by the smallest number denominator), and the largest MP count for your budget. Plus, these cameras in the Best of the Best category have additional valuable features for your investment.

All Best of the Best cameras have the enhanced ability to capture images in RAW format for more flexibility than standard JPEG. Many of these cameras have a hot shoe attachment so you can use external flashguns and attach the camera to other light sources. More lighting options will give you the ability to take better quality photographs. The Canon PowerShot G10 has the added ability to accept both wide-angle and tele-photo lenses allowing for even more flexibility and better optics. Keep in mind that if you are selecting a camera with an optical zoom above 6x, you will typically get a larger camera – mostly in the lens area.

The challenge with digital cameras is that sensor sizes vary depending upon the manufacturer and the price point. The cameras in the Best of the Best consumer digital category have slightly smaller sensors, so just because you are looking at two different 12 MP cameras, the sensor size will tell you more about the quality of the images then the camera’s MP count.

If you want to get the Best of the Best Consumer Digital Camera, then you need to purchase the Leica V-Lux 1. Leica is considered the ‘Rolls Royce’ of cameras and this digital model has the added ability of setting the aperture at f/11, which is much higher than any other consumer model listed. This larger range in the depth of field will allow for sharper landscape images throughout the photograph.