Small, light digicam with optical zoom

My parents used to own an old Espon digital camera. A few years ago it started acting up, but since my sister and I had both gotten digital cameras of our own, my parents had stopped taking as many photos. So it wasn’t really a problem. Since my sister is off at college, and I’ve graduated & have my own place, they’re taking photos again!

So they asked for my help to pick out a digital camera. Their main requirements were that it be small, but still have some optical zoom. Quality was important, and everything else was fairly unimportant. They eventually went with a Casio EX-S500 (which they love), but here are some of the other cameras I researched.

Casio EX-S500 Olympus Stylus 600 Nikon Coolpix P2 Pentax Optio S6 Sony DSC-T7
notes past movie mode weatherproof body built in wifi zeise lens
price $300 $230 $260 $250 $300
zoom 3 3 3.6 2.9 3
speed shooting no 1.3fps, 5 shots 2.5fps 1.2fps 1.5fps, 9 shots
movie 640, audio 640, 30fps 640, 30fps 640, 30fps 640, 30fps
tripod mnt yes yes yes yes w adapter
manual focus yes no no yes stepped
megapixel 5 6 5 6 5
weight (oz) 4.4 6.9 6.5 4.2 4.7
size 3.5×2.3×0.6 3.8×2.2×1.1 3.6×2.4×1.5 3.4×2.1×0.7 3.6×2.4×0.6
battery li ion li ion li ion li ion infolithium
screen size 2.2 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5
startup time 2-Jan 2 2.5 – 3 4.9 1.5
btwn shots 2 – 3 1.4, 4 w flash described as “slow” 5.2 1.2 – 1.6
media SD xD SD SD mem stick
usb 2? yes yes yes yes yes
cradle? yes no no no yes
DPreview – overall score 4.48 4.5 4.2 4.13 3.57
DPreview – image score 4.2 4.17 4 3.17 3.36
PCMag – Editors Score 4 3.5 n/a n/a 4
Misc notes picture looks a bit mushy so-so boot-up time slow, lens artifacts Images described as “flat”

The Sony and Pentax are definitely the last of the lot with poor quality and in the case of the Pentax, glacial performance. The Nikon‘s built in wifi is a cool gimmick, but unless you have a use for it, it remains a gimmick. The weatherproof (not waterproof!) body on the Olympus could be useful in the right circumstances (say, if you often sit in the Splash Zone at SeaWorld). Last, was the Casio. Not the best quality, but for the requirements, quite good.