Pretty as A Picture

By Lev Grossman

Digital cameras used to be strictly for the AV Club crowd. Now supermodels are bling-blinging them on the red carpet as if they were platinum tongue studs. How did digital cameras go from geeky to superfreaky? Gadgetmakers made them smaller, cheaper, simpler and sexier. Case in point: Sony's new Cybershot U DSC-U10 ($200) is just 4 in. long and weighs a mere 4 oz., and it's finished in a delicious pearlescent white--you want to pop it like a Tic Tac. It's great for taking snapshots and pix for the Web, but if you want some-thing more high powered, try Casio's Exilim EX-S2 ($300), available later this month. It's the size of a credit card and almost as thin, but it has digital zoom and 2-megapixel resolution. And if you're looking for the total Alex Trebek looks-and-brains package, splurge on Canon's PowerShot S230 ($499), also out in October. It's a full-featured, 3.2-megapixel camera with adjustable shutter speed and both optical and digital zoom. Plus, it's so easy to use, even a supermodel can figure it out. --By Lev Grossman