The Photo Times: Best Compact Point-and-Shoot Cameras 2013

If you’re like many people, a convenient, always-available camera embedded in your iPhone, Galaxy S4 or favorite code of smartphone is a usually device we ever need to snap and share photos with friends and family. So given would we cruise shopping a stand-alone compress camera when your smartphone does it all?

Because, photographically speaking, smartphones don’t do it all. For instance, many phones don’t come versed with optical-zoom lenses, so they’re invalid if you’re sharpened inspired lions or only your kids personification soccer or baseball. Also, good point-and-shoots will also simply beat many smartphones in low light, either you’re sharpened with or though a flash. These 4 point-and-shoot cameras take your photography a nick above smartphone cameras while still being simply pocketable.

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Best Basic Point-and-Shoot Camera: Nikon Coolpix S31 ($99)

With a colorful cosmetic pattern (available in yellow, pinkish or blue), this really affordable point-and-shooter blends only a right multiple of controls and facilities to furnish a acceptable sharpened experience. Nikon’s 3X wizz lens, built-in peep and 10-megapixel picture sensor assistance furnish higher-quality still images and video clips than your average smartphone. This camera is also easy to operate, given there are only a few control buttons, though they’re vast and easy to push. You can even dash and float with this camera down to 16 feet (5 meters), and it survives knocks and falls to about 4 feet (1 m).

Best Ruggedized Point-and-Shoot: Olympus Tough TG-2 iHS ($359)

Olympus’ Tough TG-2 iHS is designed from a belligerent adult for journey or adversity â€” anytime, anyplace. Its rugged, large hard-shell box is shockproof (can tarry a dump of adult to 6 feet, or 2 m); dustproof; freezeproof (down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, or reduction 10 degrees Celsius); and waterproof down to a abyss of 50 feet (15 m). This camera facilities built-in GPS, a compass and an altimeter, creation it ideal for holding off a grid and into a wilderness.

It gets better. The Tough can be duped out for critical scuba diving by adding an discretionary outmost housing that allows it to dive to 147 feet (45 m). It also takes auxiliary fish-eye or telephoto lenses to enhance on a capability of a built-in 4X wizz lens. The lens’s f2.0 aperture, a brightest of any ruggedized compact, enables good low-light photos.

Best Social Point-and-Shoot: Canon PowerShot N Facebook Ready Cam ($299)

The 2.8-inch (7 cm) sloping hold shade grabs your attention, though that’s not a best underline on Canon’s PowerShot N Facebook camera. So what is, then? The dedicated symbol that automatically connects to your iPhone or Android smartphone, and sends your cinema and videos directly to your Facebook friends. What’s more, we can simply supplement comments or captions, and even spiff adult your images with special effects and tradition frames. The Canon PowerShot N’s, 12.1-MP CMOS censor, 8X wizz lens (with loyal wide-angle coverage); a ability to fire objects as tighten as 0.5 inches, or 1.3 cm, away); intelligent picture stabilization for rock-steady pictures; face-recognition capability; and a accumulation of renouned module modes give it a leg adult over smartphone cameras.

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Best Feature-Rich Point-and-Shoot: Casio EX-ZR400 ($225)

Kids, animals, sports â€” Casio’s EX-ZR400 is a fast-shooting, fast-operating camera for throwing high-velocity subjects. This is distant and divided a fastest point-and-shoot on a market, with a near-instant startup, probably inaudible DSLR-like shiver lag, discerning autofocus, shiver speeds adult to 1/25,000 of a second, an implausible still-image detonate mode of 30 fps and super-slow-mo video during adult to 1,000 fps. What’s more, a EX-ZR400′s low energy expenditure extends sharpened ability adult to 515 shots per assign â€” about twice that of a competitors.

In further to regulating automobile mode, we can set a orifice or shutter, or go all manual. You can also use a brood of module modes and in-camera modifying functions. High Dynamic Range mode captures improved cinema in low light. A 12.5X visual wizz and 16-MP picture sensor constraint high fact nearby and far.

BONUS: Best Smartphone-Friendly Point-and-Shoot: Sony DSC-QX10 ($249)

Perhaps a ultimate countenance (or final gasp) of digital-camera expansion isn’t accurately a smartphone-camera hybrid though an innovative jigger that preserves any device’s strengths. Sony’s “lens-style” QX10 camera utilizes an wholly apart lens and wiring package that clips onto (or is remotely tranquil by) any iPhone or Android smartphone versed with Sony’s giveaway app. The QX10′s components promulgate around Wi-Fi. The smartphone’s hold shade doubles as a viewfinder, and it offers an array of renouned camera functions and features.

The $250 DSC-QX10 comes versed with a 10X wizz lens and a larger-than-average 18.9-MP picture sensor, permitting it to take much-higher-quality images and videos than can be prisoner by even a best smartphone. (Sony also offers a $500 DSC-QX20 lens-style camera, that combines a 3.6X wizz lens with a most larger, higher-quality 20-MPl DSLR-type picture sensor.)

Daniel Grotta has been covering digital photography given a infancy. You can follow him during a DigitalBenchmarks Lab Notes Blog on Grotta.net, on Twitter @TeamGrotta, on Google+ and on Facebook. Follow usÂ @tomsguide,Â onÂ FacebookÂ and onÂ Google+.