Take Your Pic
Why should choosing the right gadget to document your offspring require a gestation period all its own? Our top still and video cameras for any budget.
By Christopher Healy
- DIGITAL CAMERAS
Basic- PowerShot SD1100 IS
Motion sensors actually speed up the shutter if your subject starts to crawl out of the frame, while "face detection" tells the camera exactly where to focus.
Canon, 8 megapixels, $250, amazon.com.
- Splurge
- C-Lux 2
This astoundingly light (five ounces) pocket-size wonder has an array of customizable features, but it also delivers automatically sharp, blurproof photographs.
Leica, 7.2 megapixels, $400, leica.com.
TIP: Create a (truly) cool photo slideshow with music at animoto.com.
- VIDEO CAMERAS
BASIC- flip video ultra
This cutie doesn't require tapes or discs; it records onto a built-in two-gigabyte (about 60 minutes) hard drive. Plus—drumroll—it allows one-touch uploading to YouTube via a flip-out USB port.
Pure Digital, 640 x 480 resolution, $150, theflip.com.
- SPLURGE
- HDR-TG1
Baby's first steps might look crisper onscreen than in real life when they're recorded on this powerhouse—one of the slimmest, smallest high-definition camcorders on the market.
Sony, 1920 x 1080 resolution $900, amazon.com.
TIP: For super-user-friendly video editing, try Pinnacle Studio Version 12 (PC only; $50, amazon.com), and to back it all up use the stackable Brick 500-gigabyte hard drive ($140, lacie.com), which holds up to 500,000 images.
- Keywords:
- rating digital cameras,
- best digital cameras,
- new mom,
- baby gear,
- gadgets
