If you’re in the market to purchase a compact digital camera this holiday season, then all the options may be a bit overwhelming. There are a slew of new compact digital cameras on the market this year ranging from the absurdly cheap to the absurdly expensive. It can be difficult to determine from just looking at the cameras on display which camera will give you the best bang for your buck.

In general, the quality of your digital camera is in many ways going to be directly related to how much you pay for it. For instance those $20 keychain digital cameras (while they will take pictures) are probably not going to give you the same picture quality of an entry-level $50 or $100 camera option.

Digital Photography review just did a review of nine camera models ranging in price from $90 to $150. In the review they compared each camera based on their image sensor, ISO range, zoom range, image stabilization, screen size, storage ability, exposure modes, movie shooting ability, and the cameras regular retail price.

After testing each camera they ultimately rated the cameras on Image quality in daylight, image quality in low light, and image quality with a flash. The big winner across the board ended up giving the award for “Best pocket Point and Shoot camera” to the Sony Cyber-Shot W120, and named the Panasonic Lumix LZ8 as the overall winner.

The Sony took excellent pictures under all the lighting conditions and has a 4x optical zoom, image stabilization, and a metal body (which I can attest is a must with any compact camera you’re going to be toting around with you in a pocket or purse).

The overall winner had the same good image quality but also gives users full photographic control, has a 32-160mm zoom lens, and lens-based image stabilization.

Digital Photography Review took a pretty comprehensive look at all nine cameras they tested. If you’re in the market to purchase one, I highly recommend giving their review a read. You can check it out here.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 12:07 pm under Compact cameras, Digital Camera.

Read more entries by Emily Price.