My friends and colleagues always ask me to recommend which is the best compact camera. Here are my personal reviews on some of the cameras that I am familiar with:

1. Fujifilm Finepix F31fd - So far this is the best digital compact camera.

Pros: Big Sensor (1/1.6″). Good image quality @ high ISO (1600) meant you can capture natural photo in dim light condition such as indoor, party & able to freeze the movement of fast moving object. Another pros is the battery very long lasting (580 shots). How long is 580 shots? i went to penang for 3 days 2 nights, no need to re-charge during the trip. Got Aperture or Shutter priority mode.Cons: not slim enough due to big battery which can snap more shots. No optical Image stabilizer. Obsoleted product and quite hard to find in market now. No wide angle (start from 36mm)

2. Fujifilm Finepix F40fd - Alternative if can’t find F31fd. This is upgraded version of F20.

Pros:Same pros as F31fd except for battery life. Slimmer than F31fd.

Cons: The image quality @ ISO1600 not as good as F31fd but still better than all compact cameras. Battery can last 230 shots compare to F31fd 580 shots. No wide angle (start from 36mm). Do not have Aperture and Shutter Priority mode.

3. Fujifilm Finepix F50fd - Replacement model of F31fd.

Pros: Same pros as F31fd except for battery life. Slimmer than F31fd. Now come with optical image stabilizer. Now F50fd can freeze the fast moving object with high ISO and reduce hand shake to get sharp sharp picture.

Cons: The image quality @ ISO1600 not as good as F31fd but still better than all compact cameras. Battery can last 230 shots compare to F31fd 580 shots. No wide angle (start from 36mm)

4. Nikon Coolpix P5000 - a compact camera with prosumer function and control.

Pros: nice and stylish design. built quality is solid because using metal body. Able to add on external flash. come with Vibration Reduction to prevent hand shake. High ISO to allow you to capture image @ dim light.

Cons: No wide angle (start from 36mm). Quality of image quality @ ISO 400 is bad and 800 or above is unusable (can’t compare to Fuji F series at all). Smaller Sensor (1/1.8″).

5. Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3

Pros: Wide Angle & Long Zoom 28-280mm (10x). High ISO to allow you to capture image @ dim light. 16:9 ratio aspect which allow you to capture a wide angle pic with different perspective. Come with Mega OIS (Mega Optical Image Stabilizer) to reduce hand shake.

Cons: Quality of image quality @ ISO 400 is bad and 800 or above is unusable (can’t compare to Fuji F series at all). Very Small Sensor (1/2.35″).

6. Panasonic Lumix DMC LX2

Pros: Wide Angle 28 with 16:9 ratio aspect which allow you to capture a wide angle pic with different perspective. High ISO to allow you to capture image @ dim light. Come with Mega OIS (Mega Optical Image Stabilizer) to reduce hand shake. Big Sensor (1/6.5″). Full Manual Control like dSLR available. Can shoot RAW image (uncompress before save the pic as JPG format)

Cons: Quality of image quality @ ISO 400 is bad and 800 or above is unusable (can’t compare to Fuji F series at all). Price is high (RM2k).

See Sample pictures that taken by LX1 here & LX2 here

I am personally use Fujifilm Finepix F31fd and here is the sample http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/456543

Now you will ask why i didn’t recommed any Canon or Sony, see this video for the answer HERE. Just kidding, i just not familiar with Canon and Sony and don’t really have any good review about their compact camera.

Visited the Practical Photography Forum this morning as usual and saw this Joke about photography. So would like to share with our PixelRaves readers.

Source: http://www.photographymags.co.uk

The Roberts were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family.

On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Roberts kissed his wife goodbye and said, “Well, I’m off now; the man should be here soon.”

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale.

Good morning, Ma’am”, he said, “I’ve come to…”

Oh, no need to explain,” Mrs. Roberts cut in, embarrassed, “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Have you really?” said the photographer. “Well, that’s good. Did you know babies are my specialty?”

“Well that’s what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat”
After a moment she asked, blushing, “Well, where do we start?”

“Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.”

“Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn’t work out for Harry and me!”

“Well, Ma’am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results.”

“My, that’s a lot !” gasped Mrs. Roberts.

“Ma’am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I’d love to be in and out in five minutes, but I’m sure you’d be disappointed with that.”

“Don’t I know it,” said Mrs. Roberts quietly.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. “This was done on the top of a bus,” he said.

“Oh my God!” Mrs. Roberts exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

“And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with.”

“She was difficult?” asked Mrs. Roberts.

“Yes, I’m afraid so I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look.”

“Four and five deep?” said Mrs. Roberts, her eyes wide with amazement.

“Yes”, the photographer replied. “And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in.”

Mrs. Roberts leaned forward. “Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh ..equipment?”

“It’s true, Ma’am, yes.. Well, if you’re ready, I’ll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away.”

“Tripod?”

“Oh yes, Ma’am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It’s much too big to be held in the hand very long.”

Mrs. Roberts fainted.

haha…

I uses Picasa most of the time to enhance my photographs. I find it more simple and useful if compared to a much complicated Adobe Photoshop. Here some steps on how to use this tool.

Step 1: Double click to open the picture you would like to enhance

Step 2: Now you are in the editing view

Step 3: Click the Tuning tab, adjust Highlights to increase the brightness and adjust the Shadows to increase the contrast of the photo. This photo color too warm, I have adjusted the Color Temperature to left to reduce the warmness.

Step 4: Now click on Effects tab for more enhancement. I have selected Saturation and to give the photo a little bit more vivid.

Step 5: Next, I click Glow to give the photo some gauzy glow feel.

Step 6: I would like to make the blue sky darker to simulate polarizer effect. I have used Graduated Tint and adjust the Feather value to maximum to give the smoothest feel and increase the Shade value to darken the sky.

Now I am done and satisfied with the result and I am ready to export this enhanced photo to a smaller size.

Step 7: Click File -> Export Picture to Folder…

Step 8: In this window, you can select the size and image quality that you want to export. For this photo, I have selected 1024 x 768 and Maximum Image Quality.

Step 9: Compare the exported and edited copy against the original image. Now you should be able to see that the image has become much better.