Alive and clicking: there's still a place for film in a digital world.(cameras)(Buyers Guide)(Industry Overview)

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of film cameras have been greatly exaggerated. The new digital cameras may be intriguing and growing in popularity, but film-camera use has been growing, too. You can buy a good compact point-and-shoot camera for less than $200. The simplest ones sell for $50 or less. More-versatile cameras, with a zoom lens and other useful features, start at around $100. Such cameras do just about everything but click the shutter release. When you're done clicking, the roll of film can be dropped off for processing, with finished prints in about an hour.

For this report, we tested a majority of the compact point-and-shoot 35mm and APS (Advanced Photo System) cameras from the leading manufacturers--41 models in all. These cameras all come with autofocus, autoexposure, and automatic film-handling. All but two have a zoom lens.

We contracted with Consumers Association, the British counterpart to Consumers Union, to put the cameras through their photographic paces. The engineers checked focusing, lens sharpness and freedom from various optical defects, the flash, and handling factors that can make a difference in a camera's ease of use. Here are the details.

HOW GOOD ARE THE PRINTS?

You can assume that a camera like those we tested will make decent snapshots: sharp, well focused, properly exposed, and free from noticeable distortion and other flaws.

Among the features that contribute to good snapshots are these:

Viewfinder. Most are bright, clear, and reasonably accurate in showing how much of your subject will appear in the photo. Some viewfinders work better than others for people who wear glasses. And some can be adjusted to let you frame a shot without wearing glasses, if you prefer.