Slideshow Studio

About Cameras

Recently, we conducted a quick experiment to examine the quality of slideshows made from inexpensive digital cameras versus their more expensive counterparts.

On May 25, 2008 we visited a local department store to buy the least expensive digital camera available. On this day, the Canon Powershot A470 was selling for $109. This is a small, palm size 7.1 megapixel camera that records on SD media.

It has a 3.4X optical zoom, 2.5 inch LCD screen, movie mode and several scene modes for capturing various picture taking situations.

* Please note that this article is not meant to endorse the Canon PowerShot A470 or any other brand camera. Instead, we are trying to emphasize that anyone can make great quality slideshows from the photos captured with very reasonably priced digital cameras.

All of the photos in our " A Walk To the Lake" slideshow were taken with the Canon A470*. We found that slideshows made from A470 photos and those made from more expensive digital SLRs costing 15 times as expensive are quite similar in quality unless viewed at high DVD resolution. In short, we were impressed with the photo quality of this low-cost point-and-shoot camera.

click to see original size photos taken with low-cost Canon PowerA470

To see the quality of the original photos used in "A Walk To the Lake" , please click above on any of the thumbnails.

Our conclusion is that you don't need an expensive camera to enjoy high quality slideshows. We'll continue to experiment with other brands of low-cost cameras.