Top 10 Point and Shoot Digital Cameras – DPS Reader Favorites

In this post I will share the top 10 Point and Shoot Digital Cameras – as voted by the readers of this site.

When I recently asked readers of DPS what digital cameras they use the array of cameras being used was quite amazing and yet there were some definite themes that I thought I’d summarize in 2 posts (this one looking at Point and Shoot Digital Cameras and tomorrow looking at DSLRs – update: check out the Top DSLRs post here).

Also at the bottom of this post I want to look at two other aspects of the results:

1. The breakdown between DSLRs and Point and Shoot Cameras
2. Brands of Point and Shoot Cameras

What Point and Shoot Models are Most Popular?

Before revealing the list let me make a couple of observations:

I was surprised on two fronts:

1. Despite there being 75 point and shoot cameras mentioned one camera completely dominated the list

2. The top of this 10 list was dominated fairly heavily by super zoom cameras (the top four all had 12x optical zooms with image stabilization). Only 4 of the top 10 were compact digital cameras.

Top 10 Point and Shoot Digital Cameras as Used by DPS Readers

I’m not going to list each camera mentioned but here are the top 10 (listed in order of popularity):

1. Canon PowerShot S3 IS – a 6 megapixel camera with a 12x optical zoom and image stabilization – pictured right
2. Canon Powershot S2 IS – a 5 megapixel camera with a 12x optcial zoom and image stabilization
3. Panasonic DMC-FZ50 – 10.1 megapixels with 12x optical zoom lens and image stabilization
4. Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 – 7.2 megapixles with 12x optical zoom and image stabilization
5. Canon PowerShot SD800 IS – a 7.1 megapixel compact camera with a 3.8x wide angled optical zoom and image stabilization – pictured right



6. Canon Powershot A620 – 7.1 megapixels and a 4x optical zoom (more of an entry level than others in the list)
7. Canon PowerShot S5 IS – 8 megapixels, 12x Optical Zoom and Image Stabilization
8. Fujifilm Finepix S5200 – 5.1 megapixels, 10x optical zoom and image stabilization
9. Canon Powershot SD550 – 7.1 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom
10. Nikon Coolpix 5400 – 5.1 megapixels with a 4x optical zoom

It is worth noting that the number 1 ranking point and shoot camera (the Canon PowerShot S3 IS ) outranked all of the others significantly. In fact as many people owned it as all of the other 9 cameras in the above list put together! Obviously Canon are onto a winner with that model – it’ll be interesting to see if the newer Canon PowerShot S5 IS gets as popular. (more…)