Where have Creative Compact Cameras Gone?
While these cameras aren’t much bigger than the compact digital cameras they typically offer the user a lot more control. You will find that the lenses may be bigger, heavier, and are typically of a higher optical quality. Almost all creative compact cameras offer the option of storing images in RAW format and some may offer the Adobe’s standard DNG format.
The standard format, JPEG, is suitable for uploading your images to the Web, sharing them with friends, or getting prints. Unfortunately when using JPEG you might find there is a lot of shadow and highlight detail that was captured by the sensor which can be lost with a standard JPEG format.
With the RAW format, the photographer has the option of bringing out that shadow or highlight detail in an image editing program on a personal computer (or letting a professional lab do it and make a really great print).
Unless you are prepared to spend an evening reading the manual and learning the settings don’t buy one of these cameras. If you don’t do your homework first the results will be the same as if you had used a simpler compact camera.
Panasonic LX2 (28-110mm F2.8-4.9 image-stabilized Leica lens; good for wide angle). Canon G7. 35-210mm F2.8-4.8 lens; no RAW capability; very bad noise at high ISO Ricoh GR Digital. This has a fixed focal-length 28mm equivalent lens that will be superb for wide-angle scenic photos. It is not clear if this camera is going to be sold in the United States.
The bad news is that this product category seems to have gone out of favor and therefore there are not too many to choose from. These days camera companies are focusing their energies on the “SLR-like” category (below) and SLR category
