Vivitar ViviCam 8625

For a camera that markets towards a casual demographic, this product will prove extremely frustrating in the hands of anyone who does not have experience with photography. The automatic mode is almost completely incapable of producing a sharp picture, relying on altering the ISO speed at low light rather than the shutter speed, keeping that at a constant 1/2 of a second. The camera also has a slight tendency to overexpose.

On top of that, the camera is especially bulky for a point and shoot: slip this hunk of junk into your pocket you won't.

The manual mode allows you to set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO speed, but this would prove to be intimidating to a beginner, since it can prove to be very difficult to come up with a decent exposure value. In the hands of somebody who knows what they are doing, however, this would prove to be a very useful tool, since not many point and shoot cameras seem to have it.

Manual mode allows a good deal of control over the camera

Produces reasonably sharp pictures in good lighting

Inexpensive

Non-intuitive for beginners

Automatic mode produces extremely blurry photos in low light

Tendency to over-expose

Better cameras can be obtained for the same price

Canon PowerShot SD870
Pentax Optio V20