Best blogging cameras

Round-up by: Rich Trenholm

Last updated: 28 Sep 2007

Ah, the blogosphere. A mystical realm of ill-informed opinions, trivial obsessions and anonymous abuse. Fortunately, cameras don't lie, even if bloggers do. We've had a look at the best cameras out there for the purposes of adding images to your blog.

A blog -- in case you have been living in a hole -- is an online diary or 'Web log'. You may have read about them in the Sunday supplements. They're all the rage, apparently. The beauty of blogs is that they bypass the hidden agendas and insidious bias of the mainstream media to present the truth as seen by the blogger on the street.

Citizen journalists need their camera on them at all times, and the Kodak EasyShare Z885 offers a great balance of compact size with picture quality. The big draw is the 5x zoom and fast burst mode for capturing that all-important shot of errant C-listers shuffling out of the offie.

If you're planning to add images to your blog but never print them out then a low resolution camera will do the job admirably. The Nikon Coolpix L11 may be left behind in the megapixel stakes by today's 10- or 12-megapixel snappers, but what's the point in having a camera that packs 12 million pixels into an image when computer monitors display images at a fraction of the size? If you're pointing the L11 at yourself in the mirror, then 6 megapixels will be plenty for your pout. The L11 is super-cheap and gives pleasing picture quality for a camera of this size and price point.

If moving pictures are your thing, you might want to start a video blog, or 'vlog'. Almost all cameras are now capable of capturing video. The Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z77 may not be the best snapper around, but it is one of the first cameras embroiled in YouTube's plot to take over the world one video of people falling down stairs at a time. The EX-Z77 includes YouTube capture mode, which records your footage in the optimal resolution and frame rate for exhibiting on YouTube. As bloggers are a notoriously lazy bunch, Casio has also included dedicated YouTube uploader software, so adding your response to Miss Carolina's education policy is only one click away.

If even that's too much effort, you need Wi-Fi. It's the future. It won't be long before direct upload to the Internet is possible, as on the forthcoming Nikon S51c, but in the meantime there's always the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1. This allows you to take pictures and beam them to another Wi-Fi enabled device, and listen to MP3s while you're doing it.

Happy blogging!