These shortlisted cameras excel in a variety of settings, from candid shots to carefully composed images of natural beauty.
| Olympus E-P3 | Samsung NX11 | |
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| The Olympus PEN E-P3 delivers professional image quality, the world’s fastest auto-focus speed, a huge selection of built-in creative features and an easy-to-use interface, all packaged in an all-metal body with full-advanced controls. | The NX11 reproduces clearer images with richer, more natural colours. It also allows the use of high ISO in low-light settings, with less noise. A large sensor makes it easy to achieve shallow depth of field for more dramatic results. | |
| Olympus XZ1 | Nikon D5100 | |
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| The XZ1 features a F1.8 lens and is the first compact camera to feature the same quality lens as an Olympus DSLR for low-light and portrait photography. It also features a variety of automatic shooting functions, and six Art filters. | The Nikon D5100 is a 16.2 megapixel DSLR that features a swivel LCD monitor, full HD movie capabilities. It also has a special effects mode that enables various creative effects in still images and movies. | |
| Canon 600D | Canon Ixus 310HS | |
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| This 18-megapixel DSLR features many of the new technologies used in Canon's professional cameras. Besides a number of recording size and frame rate modes, there is also aneasy manual control of exposure, focus and Live View features. It even allows for in-camera editing. | The Canon IXUS 310 HS is a digital compact camera from Canon with a fast lens for low light photography and full HD video recording. It is suited for those who like the compact size but are keen to explore some of the features of a DSLR. | |
| Sony NEX-C3 | ||
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| The NEX-C3 is the first of Sony's second generation of mirrorless cameras. It offer a blend of compact camera convenience with large sensor image quality. It is the world’s smallest, lightest interchangeable lens digital camera. | ||
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