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If you're still shopping for that gadget fan on your holiday list, don't despair: Canon, Nikon and Sony sell cameras that are perfect stocking stuffers.
While there's not a heck of a lot of time left before Christmas, larger camera stores generally stock both analog and digital models. For orders placed by Saturday evening, Amazon.com still promises to deliver your purchase by Christmas Eve.
But what camera to buy? Consider that there are two types of photographers: people who just want to point and shoot with no fuss, and those who want absolute control and demand tons of features.
Over the last two years, Canon and Nikon finally have introduced digital cameras good enough to satisfy serious photographers. These cameras look just like traditional analog cameras and let you add dozens of different types of lenses.
You pay dearly for this flexibility. The Canon EOS D30 runs about $2,200, the Canon 1D costs $5,500, and the Nikon D1x costs $5,400 -- and that's without lenses. (Other companies make similar cameras, but pros tend to stick with Nikon or Canon.)
Besides the nosebleed cost, there are drawbacks to digital cameras that use interchangeable lenses. Unlike analog cameras, which allow you to change the lens without exposing the film to light or dust, digital cameras expose the sensor to dust whenever you change the lens in less-than-pristine conditions. (The Nikon D1's CCD is notoriously bad.)
But the most serious pitfall is a well-known one: Because these digital cameras' sensors are smaller than a 35mm piece of film, photos taken with them have the unfortunate effect of additionally zooming in by anywhere from 1.3 to 1.6 times.
If you're using a telephoto lens and want even more magnification, that's not a problem. In fact, it's nice to be able to turn a 400mm lens into what would be a far more expensive 640mm lens, which is what my Canon EOS D30 does.
But this is undesirable for wide-angle shots, in which you'd like to zoom out and capture more of the scenery and surroundings in the photo. The D30's 1.6x magnification factor, for instance, makes some of the more stunning wide-angle shots impossible.
For point-and-shoot photographers, compact digital cameras have some advantages. Some are so small they'll fit comfortably in your shirt pocket. Even many modestly priced models do an acceptable job with wide-angle shots. Some popular models, like the Nikon Coolpix line, offer fantastic wide-angle lens attachments.
The Nikon Coolpix line also has excellent close-up "macro" capabilities for photos of flowers, stamps or insects, without having to change the lens. Because the sensor is never exposed to the air, you don't have to worry about dirt: My Nikon Coolpix 950 survived a dust storm in the Nevada desert at Burning Man.
The drawbacks to compact digital cameras, which generally cost $1,200 or less, are image quality, speed and flexibility. Image quality isn't determined merely by resolution but by the ability to focus sharply, which some compact cameras have trouble doing. They also tend to be painfully sluggish, sometimes taking seconds to take and store a photo. (The $5,500 Canon 1D, by contrast, can take eight photos a second.) And they don't offer the complete control that serious photographs demand.
Few digital cameras can produce images with the same quality as 35mm analog units. Enlargements larger than 5 by 7 inches, even from expensive digital cameras, aren't nearly as good as those from an inexpensive analog camera outfitted with a $90 50mm lens. Holiday prints that I made from my Canon EOS D30 are noticeably inferior to those I made with an analog EOS 5 using the same lens.
And of course, true photo buffs have a collection of analog cameras that includes a medium-format or large-format camera that produces amazingly sharp enlargements. Ansel Adams used a traditional view camera that used 8-by-10-inch sheets of film -- approximately 115 times larger than the exposure area of the expensive digital cameras.
Here are some of this year's most popular compact digital cameras.
Kodak DX3215 EasyShare: ($245 street price) 1.3-megapixel sensor, USB port, rechargeable batteries.
Hewlett-Packard 318 Digital Camera: ($190 street price) 2-megapixel sensor, USB port, 4 AA batteries.
Nikon Coolpix 775: ($379.99 street price) 2.14-megapixel sensor, USB port, built-in flash, rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Olympus Camedia C-4040 Zoom: ($750 street price) 4.1-megapixel sensor, USB port, 2 CR-3V batteries (included), or 4 AA batteries.
Nikon Coolpix 995: ($800 street price) 3.34-megapixel sensor, pop-up flash for red-eye reduction, USB port, ability to choose settings manually.
Minolta Dimage 7: ($950 street price) 5.24-megapixel sensor, USB port, 12-bit A/D conversion for better tonal range.
