Top 5 Digital Cameras Under $300

The Samsung NV10 digital camera provides a compact, 3/4-inch-thick slim camera with a big camera personality, featuring 10.1 megapixels, a small hand grip and a large 2.5-inch touch screen LCD. All this comes with a reasonable under-$300 pricetag.

This is a powerful camera for the under-$300 price range. It features 8 megapixels and a 10x optical zoom, as well as a face selector auto focus that lets shooters lock onto and follow one person. There are also 18 shooting modes, including stitch assist for panoramic images, kids and pets, foliage, snow and beach. You can also take manual control of aperture and shutter speed.

This 7.1-megapixel digital camera is built to take a beating, and it's a great choice for the adventurous photographer, socialite or traveler. This camera is waterproof, shockproof and freezeproof. It also features face detection and image stabilization, as well as a cool design in a range of colors.

With 8.2 megapixels and a powerful 12x optical zoom (36-432 mm equivalent), this camera makes it easy to shoot high-quality pictures. It features an ISO range from 64 to 3,200, and MPEG4 video capture with HD quality. There are five different levels of LCD brightness to help in hard-to-view situations.

This 8.1-megapixel camera features the ability to capture high-definition images. Better yet, you can view those images in HD by connecting directly (with a connector that you buy separately) to your HDTV to view as a slideshow with background music. It also features 9-point autofocus and in-camera retouching.