Cameras
Canon PowerShot G12 (499 MSRP)Canon’s newest offering boasts a new control dial in front and an Exposure Compensation dial on top. HDMI and USB terminals are secured on the side. The foldout LCD screen has a 461,000-pixel display, which doesn’t compare with the Nikon D90′s 920,000 pixels, but is more than adequate for beginning students or more experienced photographers looking for an easily-portable and high-quality device. The latter will probably make more use of the many different modes, which can be intimidating to newcomers but still fun to mess around with. New to the G12 are HDR, Nostalgic, Posterize, and Super Vivid modes.Kodak EasyShare M580 (199.95 MSRP)If you’re willing to sacrifice modes for a couple hundred dollars, the EasyShare M580 makes a worthy beginner’s camera. While larger than most simple point-and-shoots, it is ingeniously designed so that the body narrows as it approaches the lens, making the camera easy to hold and avoiding any chance of obstruction. The automatic SmartCapture mode modifies settings on the fly, but there is no middle ground. You can either have all of the control (by turning SmartCapture off) or none of it. This may dissuade more advanced photographers. Blurriness creeps into the image quite often, but otherwise the image quality is fairly good for the price.Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10 (599 MSRP)The Lumix DMC-G10 is smaller than earlier entries in the series, eliminating the mirror box and optical viewfinder which are common to interchangeable lens cameras. The Micro Four Thirds System allows lenses to be swapped with other Panasonic and Olympus cameras using the standard. Also missing are a touch-sensitive LCD screen, an AVCHD movie recording option, and a plug for a microphone. However, its lighter size and cheaper price may win it fans among novice photographers before they move on to a model that requires more commitment.