Do you think that with so much information available choosing the right digital camera for your needs will be easier than before ? It is actually more demanding now.

When I started shopping for a digital camera almost everyone in the friends circle voted for Canon. So that was settled. But there were too many options in Canon : Five series to be exact (A , SD, S, G, DSLRs). DSLRs at $500 was quite tempting. But when the lens costs were factored in I bailed out. G series was never seriously considered as the price point was close to DSLRs. That left three models. Now I started searching for the reviews. Cnet Reviews, Dpreview, Consumer Reports all had good things to say about the SD series and S series. But all the reviews brought Panasonic DMC-TZ3 into the picture too. The sample pictures at the end of the DPReview helped to decide. I liked the Canon's output. But it was one photographer's take. Flickr helped me there. Check the pictures from Panasonic DMC-TZ3 and Canon's S5. The pictures from variety of settings confirmed the recommendation. It will be Canon. The reviews and photos from Amazon.com helped too.

So I had to short list one out of the 3 series. One visit to BestBuy the A series was out. It was too toy like. The choice was between SD and S series. Both had good reviews. The SD series was cheaper by 50$ - 100 $. But the actual decision was between ultra compact low zoom camera and high zoom, manual options, heavy S series. I went with the S5 for the zoom and the easy access to manual features.

So here is a Test shot of a Beer ad.