Digital Trends

I've covered digital cameras for too long. It seems every conversation starts out—“remember when...” As in remember when a three-megapixel camera like the Minolta RD-3000 cost $3,000 back in the day (circa 1999)? Three MP cameras are landfill today or objects of curiosity on eBay, with 6-megapixels the current entry level. Now there's a wave of 10MP point-and-shoot cameras coming, with the Casio EX-Z1000 the first of many. Unfortunately I can't tell you about the others since I've been sworn to secrecy by major camera makers. Take my word for it though—10MP compact digicams will be the rage this holiday season. And this doesn't count D-SLRs like the Sony DSLR-A100, the Nikon D200 and Sony's all-in-one DSC-R1.

A price of 400 clams is pretty amazing for a 10MP camera especially when the others mentioned start at $900. Are you giving something up with the Casio? Of course since there are no free lunches in this world. Now how much are you giving up--and does it pay to invest $399 in the Exilim Zoom EX-Z1000? That's what we'll tell you over the next few pages.