Good Macro pics means better digital point and shoot?

[travis6555]

Hello All,

While shopping at the electronics store (BB), the salesperson told me that the way to judge a good digital camera was to take a very close picture of something using the macro function and then view its quality on the lcd screen. He went on to demonstrate this with two equally priced cameras ($200), one being a Samsung and the other a Canon (Powershot SD790). I was so impressed by the quality of the image taken by the Canon over the image taken by the Samsung that i immediatley sprung for it. Is this an accurate way to judge the overall picture taking quality of a digital point and shoot camera? Or was i duped and it just means that the camera takes better close up pics or has a better lcd screen? Thanks in advance.

 

[bdavis]

Lol...sadly no. I think they got you, thats why I hate BB for buying photo stuff, the people never know anything.

Whether the camera takes good pictures in macro mode should only matter if thats all you want to shoot with it. Some cameras might be great at macro, but suck when it comes to shooting people. Besides all images look good on the LCD screen. There are many times I think the image I took is awesome but then I open it up on the computer and its underexposed or out of focus so the best way to tell is shoot with them and then look at the images on the computer.

When judging those point and shoots you should think about what you want to use it for to see if it meets the criteria, look at its settings to see if its got what you need, and read some reviews and what people say about it so you can get actual un-biased opinions. I picked out a Canon P&S that takes great for my girlfriend that has full manual settings, built in IS, flash compensation, and everything else my SLR can do, but I knew what she wanted, knew what to look for, and had to read a lot and do my homework.