Norcent 7.0 Megapixel digital camera, $60, TigerDirect.com

The daily deal for Sunday, February 10, 2008

is this great little digital camera presented by TigerDirect.com. The Norcent DCC-725 Digital Camera sports all of the needed features for a budget digital camera and it's brought to you for just $59.97 while supplies last. I shopped around for the sake of comparison and this is what I determined: For the selling price offered by TigerDirect on this camera, it blows most of the competition completely away.

Of all the digital cameras on TigerDirect which have megapixel ratings of 6.0 or better, the Norcent model is priced lower than all of them by at least $30. When compared to 6.0 megapixel or better digital cameras being sold at Newegg.com, the Norcent model at TigerDirect beat them all in price, starting with a difference of $20. Shipping cost from each of these web retailers will be about $6.50 for cameras of this type and size, depending on the delivery service you select.

The Norcent DCC-725 is a full 7.0 megapixel camera, boasting picture resolution as high as 3072 x 2304 pixels. This is about half the resolution you'd get from higher priced cameras but is absolutely great for general picture taking and printing. The camera also provides a video function with a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. Not a resolution you'd like for making family video memory treasures, but just fine for YouTube and such.

The camera has 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom for 12x total zoom potential combined. It has 15 different picture taking settings, built in flash, and a 2.5 inch LED viewing screen. The camera offers a focusing range from macro to infinity, meaning that you can photograph a coin on your desk or a mountain range on the horizon. The 16MB internal storage will hold 3 to 5 images, depending on the resolution setting, but adding a 1GB SD memory card for about $10 will give you storage for well over 200 images. You'll absolutely need a memory card if you'll be shooting video clips.

This would be a great starter camera for people who want to experiment with digital photography but are still skittish about trying it. It's probably not a device you'd want to give to a youngster, unless they've already had experience with cameras. A good first digital camera at a great camera price, that's what I would call this sharp little model. If I was in the market for a new digital camera with all the basics, I'd probably snap one of these up for myself!