compactcamera

Nikon Coolpix L610: A Compact That Turns AA Batteries Into a Feature

Remember the days when portable electronic devices were mostly all powered by AA and AAA batteries? Consumers had to regularly purchase new batteries to keep their gadgets juiced -- a big sink for your hard earned money. When rechargeable batteries started becoming ubiquitous, they were touted as a feature for saving both time and money. All you had to do was plug your camera into the wall (or your battery into a charger) and a few hours later you were recharged.

Now things are moving back in the other direction. It's more difficult to find a quality AA-powered camera on the market, and it can be difficult for travelers to find a suitable power outlet while overseas. That's why Nikon's new CoolPix L610, freshly announced today, boasts about the fact that it supports AA batteries.

Samsung Unveils MV900F Compact with Gesture Controlled Self Portraits

It may not have been the best day to release a new compact camera, given that Panasonic announced five of them (if you count superzooms), but Samsung powered through anyway, unveiling its new addition to the compact world: the stylish looking MV900F. Unlike most of the compacts we've seen coming our way in the past month, this isn't a technical powerhouse with a superfast lens or a huge sensor. What the MV900F offers is a bunch of cool, if not a little bit random, features that try to entice the everyday user away from their smartphone.

Samsung EX2F: A Premium Compact Camera with a f/1.4 Lens

As more and more consumers are opting to use their smartphones as their primary camera, manufacturers are moving away from cheapo point-and-shoots and towards beefier compact cameras that offer quality that phones can't match (yet). Samsung's new EX2F definitely falls into that category. It's a high-end compact camera that packs a 12.4MP 1/1.7-inch sensor (the size used by many high-end P&S cameras, but smaller than Sony's new RX100), a 24-79mm (3.3x) f/1.4 lens, a 3-inch swiveling LCD, ISO of up to 12,800, dual stabilization, a hotshoe mount, RAW and full manual shooting, 1080/30p HD video, and WiFi features.

Sigma’s DP2 Merrill APS-C Compact Hitting US Shelves July 12th for $999

The point-and-shoot may be on its way out, but it certainly isn't going out without a fight. A few weeks ago we saw Sony release the RX100, which has been called "the best pocket camera of all time," and now Sigma is following that up with its own high-end compact to hit shelves on July 12th: the DP2 Merrill.

Canon Unveils the G1X: A Large Sensor Compact Answer to the Mirrorless Craze

Unlike Nikon, which jumped headfirst into the interchangeable lens mirrorless game last year, Canon appears to be content with simply upping the sensor size in its existing compact cameras. Today the company announces the G1X, a new camera into the G-series line that offers a sensor large enough to compete with existing mirrorless camera systems.

Forget DualView, Samsung MV800 Has a Back that Flips 180-Degrees

Samsung's DualView feature adds a small LCD screen to the front of compact cameras for self-portraits, but why use a small screen when you can use the screen on the back? Announced today, the company's new MultiView MV800 camera has a large 3-inch touchscreen on the back that can flip up 180-degrees, letting narcissists users view it from the front (or above, or below). No word on when it will be released, but the 16MP camera will be priced at $280 when it is.

Fujifilm X10 Announced: A Retro X100-style Compact for Serious Photogs

After countless (and perhaps intentional?) leaks, the not-so-secret Fujifilm FinePix X10 has finally become official. Like the X100, the X10 boasts a sleek retro design and a 12-megapixel sensor -- though the X10 uses a much smaller 2/3-inch sensor rather than APS-C. Instead of a fixed 35mm equivalent lens, the X10 packs a versatile 28-112mm equivalent f/2-2.8 manual lens. Other features include RAW capture, an optical viewfinder, a 2.8-inch LCD screen, a pop-up flash, ISO that goes up to 12800, 1080p HD video, a blazing 10fps burst mode (7fps on max res), and a hot shoe.

How to Take Better Pictures with Your Point-and-Shoot Camera

There are several things you can and should do to get the most out of the images from your point-and-shoot camera. If you use it correctly, people won't know with what camera the shot was taken.Check out the photograph above and guess which camera it was taken with. I'll reveal the answer at the end of the post.

Pentax Q is the World’s First “Point-and-Shoot” with Interchangeable Lenses

Pentax has just announced the Q, the world's smallest interchangeable lens camera (ILC). Unlike existing ILC cameras, which have large sensors despite their tiny bodies, the Q has a tiny 1/2.3-inch sensor that's more comparable to the sensors in point-and-shoot cameras. Thus, the Pentax Q can be considered the world's first interchangeable lens point-and-shoot camera, though it is packed with the features and manual controls found on ILCs and DSLRs.

The camera shoots 12.4MP JPEG or raw stills at up to 5fps, records 1080p video at 30fps, and offers the traditional shooting modes found on DSLRs (i.e. P, Av, Tv, M). ISO goes up to 6400, there's a 3-inch LCD on the back, and a funky onboard flash pops up in a strange way to help illuminate your photos.

Night Vision Compact Camera Lets You Shoot in Absolute Darkness

The Midnight Shot NV-1 Night Vision camera by ThinkGeek is a compact camera specially designed for infrared photography. Instead of permanently removing the IR filter from a traditional digital camera, the Midnight Shot allows the filter to be retracted when you want to use it as an IR camera. It shoots 5 megapixel stills, VGA video, and has built-in IR illumination that lets you shoot and film in complete darkness.