One birthday, six kids, and five gadgets

We were celebrating my daughter Lizzie's 13th birthday all right. But this party was all about me and my gear. (She got the real party a few weeks later.) I wanted to use an SLR, a point-and-shoot, a camcorder, and two smart-phone cameras to capture the experience of snapping a flaming cake in low ambient light and shooting video of the candles being blown out. All of the devices had a recommended designation in our Ratings.

I made the kids go through the motions once for each device. Each time, I used auto mode, turned off the flash, and allowed myself 2 minutes for the photos and video. Then I set the self-timer (if available) to get into the picture myself.

The Nikon D3100 SLR produced the best stills, with the least graininess and most vibrant colors. The videos showed plenty of detail, and audio was OK. One flash shot produced a wonderful image. I loved the large, clearly labeled buttons on the body, and I could zoom quickly. It's the one device that let me capture wide-angle shots.

I had trouble finding the self-timer button on the Canon SD4500 Powershot Elph subcompact camera. Some shots were a bit blurry, and photos and video had some graininess. That's common for even very good subcompacts when shooting in dim light. But I did capture one very good photo, although the candlelight washed out the writing on the cake. I liked the optical zoom for stills and video. I could also capture a very good shot in self-timer mode and another nice flash group portrait. But I missed not having a wide-angle lens.

The video and audio from the Canon Vixia HF M41 camcorder wowed me with its vivid colors and details in shadowy and bright areas; for example, the candlelight didn't wash out the writing on the cake. I found the zoom to be quick and smooth. But the low-resolution (2 megapixel) photos were a bit of a letdown to me. There was no physical shutter button or flash, but there was a touch-screen control.

Though I found my smart-phone shots better than those from most phone cameras, the output from the Apple iPhone 4 and T-Mobile G2x was at best OK—no surprise given the dim light and phones' tiny sensors. The phones' touch screens looked beautiful, though, and I could switch quickly between shooting stills and video. But I missed having optical zoom, a self-timer, and wide-angle capability. The devices felt a bit awkward to hold and use as cameras, perhaps because they've been designed more as phones than cameras.

Bottom line

This was a tough shoot, given the lighting conditions. As I expected, the SLR came through with the stills I liked best, along with decent video. The camcorder had the video and audio that most pleased me, as I expected from a full-sized HD model. Though the others' images were less satisfying, and they lacked features the full-sized devices had, they were fun to try. I wouldn't hesitate to use them, especially for flash shots, if they were all I had on hand.