Best Buy Digital Camera

There is no question that Best Buy ranks high among the electronic superstores. The question is: Is a Best Buy digital camera really your best buy? Let's find out.

A quick look at their web site shows that they carry 83 point-and-shoot digital cameras and 5 of the high-end SLR (single lens reflex) models (when this article was written). They are well represented with all of the major brands including Fuji, Sony, Casio, Kodak, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung, Canon, Pentax, Concord, and Minolta.

Their web site is very flexible. I personally know the people that developed it and they've done a fine job. For example, you can sort all of the Best Buy digital cameras by brand or price, and their "compare" option lets you select several cameras and view their features side by side.

Speaking of price, their lowest price digital camera, as of the date of this writing, is $79.99 for the Concord Eye-Q 2.0-Megapixel Digital Camera. It has a good basic feature set plus it does double duty as a Windows PC/Web camera. With a 7mb memory card, expandable to 38mb, this is a great entry-level digital camera. A quick check at several price comparison sites revealed that Best Buy was, in fact, the best buy with the nearest competitor ringing up 95 of your bucks! That pattern repeated itself through most all of the cameras in the point-and-shoot category.

When it comes to SLR digital cameras, Best Buy starts off with the $999.99 Canon EOS Digital Rebel. For nearly 1000 bucks, you'd expect to get a great feature list and Canon does not disappoint you there.

• 6.3-megapixel effective image resolution (6.5MP total) for outstanding photo detail; high-sensitivity, single-plate CMOS sensor with RGB primary color filter
  
  
• 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-S zoom lens with optimized coating for digital imaging, reducing ghost images and flare; Canon EF lens mount accommodates a wide range of Canon EOS EF lenses for a versatile shooting system that adapts to any circumstances
  
  
• AE lock, FE lock and 3-image auto exposure bracketing; 3 exposure metering modes, including 35-zone evaluative (linked to AF points), partial center and centerweighted average
  
  
• White balance settings for auto, daylight, shade, overcast, tungsten bulb, fluorescent light, flash, manual and custom; white balance bracketing captures 3 images with 1 shot (+/- 3 steps)
  
  
• CompactFlash Type I/II media slot (memory card not included); playback modes include single (with and without image info), 9-image index, magnification (1.5x to 10x with left/right and up/down scrolling), auto play and auto image rotation
  
  
• USB interface and video out (cables included); direct print capability with compatible Canon Card Photo, Bubble Jet Photo and PictBridge-enabled printers (no computer required); meets Exif Print 2.2 standards

Plus a whole slew of additional features too numerous to list here. Best Buy missed the price mark here however. With just a little bit of work I was able to find the same model for $879.00 without rebate.

Even though a Best Buy digital camera may not always be the best buy when it comes to price, money isn't everything. They have unparalleled customer service, a great repair service, knowledgeable sales people, and a huge assortment of digital cameras, in stock, that you can touch and feel to your heart's content!

Another thing to keep in mind is that you usually can buy a Best Buy digital camera from their web site and get free shipping. That's a great deal if there is no Best Buy near you.