Tips For Buying A Point and Shoot Camera

Personally I think it is a little silly when people buy a camera just because it has a ton on megapixels.  But then again commersals and advertisements don't do a good job of  teaching consumers what else to look for when shopping for a point and shoot camera.  I want to give a list of other things to look for when comparing cameras.  I think the biggest hurdle in taking better pictures of your children is overcoming low light that occurs in most homes, without resorting to using flash (more on that another day).  Some features to look for that will help in low light situations are:

• high ISO (400+) ISO is the equivalent to film speed in film cameras.  The higher the ISO the brighter you can make your images.  It's like being able to add a light blub to lamp.  The down side the higher the ISO the higher the digital noise (grain)
• Large aperture capabilities.  Look for a camera that has a f/2 or f/2.8 aperture or f stop.  This lets more light enter the camera sensor.
• Optical Image Stabilizer.  This help reduces the shake that happens when you take a picture. Yay for sharper pictures!
• The ability to shoot RAW.  Raw is a file format like JPEG.  If you want to get into the editing side of photography RAW stores more data for you to play with you.

So what camera would I buy?  the Canon powershot a90  about $342  It's small, light weight and all the features listed above.  I own an older powershot model and love it. 

Can you guess which two images of my son where taken with a point and shoot and which two where taken with my DSLR?