General Electric X500

General Electric X500

We've reviewed a number of superzoom digital camera in the last few months, all with two things in common: They have long zoom lenses, and they're all at least $300. General Electric takes a different tack with the 16-megapixel General Electric X500, packing a 15x zoom lens into a $149.99 (direct) package. Of course, any $150 camera comes with trade-offs, and with the X500 you'll have to make sacrifices in performance and quality. If you're more focused on quality, our Editors' Choice superzoom, the 18x Nikon Coolpix S9100 ($329.95, 4 stars) is a world above the X500 in both cost and performance, but if the combination of small price and big zoom appeals, the X500 is a solid value as long as you keep your expectations in check. Design The X500 feels like the little brother of a D-SLR, with its grip, large, protruding lens, and viewfinder. At its largest point, the X500 measures 2.9 by 4.1 by 2.7 inches (HWD), and weighs 15.7 ounces. (Some of that weight, no doubt, is due to the fact that the camera uses 4 AA batteries instead of a single rechargeable cell.) The Nikon D5100 ($899.99, 4.5 stars), a true D-SLR, weighs 1.8 pounds, and is much larger in every dimension.