It's no secret that smartphones have seriously hurt the demand for entry-level point-and-shoot cameras. The latest from Apple, the iPhone 15, is a better camera than any low-cost compact, and Android fans can get excellent snapshots with handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S23 or the Google Pixel 7. High-end phones are expensive, but if you're already buying a fancy handset, there's no reason to buy a low-end camera, too. If you've embraced smartphone photography, peruse our top camera phone picks to help find your next phone and check out our tips for taking the best smartphone photos. If you aren't a smartphone user or have opted to go for a basic model without a high-end camera, you can buy any number of sub-$100 no-name cameras at online retailers, but I'd avoid them like the plague. If you can spend more than $100, we recommend you stick with Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and Sony. Most sub-$200 cameras stand apart from smartphones because they pack decent zoom power, though they largely rely on older CCD sensor technology. The 20MP CCD sensors common across the current generation offer plenty of resolution, but suffer in dim light and top out at 720p video quality. If you stretch your budget up to $400, you can find cameras with more modern CMOS image sensors and longer zoom lenses—30x is the standard at this point. 1080p video is common, and you often get small electronic viewfinders, Raw shooting options, and quick autofocus. Pure image quality isn't any better than a midrange smartphone though; the zoom lens is the main advantage.