Sony cameras have often offered a wide variety of quality entries–some significantly more so than others.  Today we’re going to take a look at a value that’s hard to pass up, even though you may want to–the Sony S2100.

The Sony S2100 is a twelve megapixel camera that offers a 3x optical zoom with augmenting 2x digital zoom, three inch LCD monitor, SteadyShot digital image stabilization, face detection technology, a variety of scene and white balance modes, intelligent auto and intelligent scene recognition modes to get the best possible shot for conditions, a nine point autofocus, burst shooting mode, six megs of onboard memory, compatibility with Memory Stick and Secure Digital memory cards, editing software, and direct printing.

You can see there’s a lot to like here, including several features that were previously only available on higher end cameras, like burst shooting and a three inch monitor.

But there are troubles here, too: the zoom is really short even for a compact digital camera–it doesn’t get a whole lot lower than that–and the camera itself is EXTREMELY small, making handling the buttons a bit of a pain.

Now here’s the part that’ll REALLY put you on the fence over this one: the price tag on this little fella is just a hundred and twenty bucks at Best Buy.  That is going to leave a LOT of camera shoppers thoroughly conflicted.

But that’s why I’m here, folks–to help you break through that conflict to move you toward making a decision.  Clearly, this is a good camera based on certain conditions.  Are you all right with a smaller camera?  Do you plan to take most of your pictures at arm’s length?  Then you’ll be terribly happy with this great value.  But those of you with bigger hands and longer reaches may well want to shy away.

The Sony S2100 is a great value that you just might wish you didn’t want to take advantage of.

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3. Sony W350 Digital Camera Review–Not At All Disappointing
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5. Sony W370 Camera Review–Getting A Bit More Than You Pay For