One week ago, we reported that Canon had sent out spy-style projector pens that teased an upcoming PowerShot announcement. Well, that announcement came yesterday alongside the two new entry-level DSLRs that were unveiled (the SL1 and the T5i).
It’s the new PowerShot SX280 HS, a camera that may not look too special on the outside, but packs something quite interesting on the inside: Canon’s next generation DIGIC 6 processor.
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In addition to announcing a long-overdue lens update and the company’s very first APS-C compact, Nikon has also chosen today to update one of the members of its Coolpix performance series. The new P330 replaces the P310 and, in one fell swoop, manages to almost overtake the more expensive P7700 announced in August of last year.
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Nikon had quite a surprise for the camera world today, as it announced the new Coolpix A — the company’s first compact camera to sport a massive DX-format sensor.
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Moscow, Russia-based photographer Alexey Kljatov shoots incredibly beautiful photographs of snowflakes on the open balcony of his home… using a custom compact camera kit. That’s right: rather than use fancy (and pricey) camera gear, Kljatov simply uses a 12.1MP Canon PowerShot A650 and some DIY macro gear that he put together.
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Tired of capturing the world as 2D photographs? What if you could just as easily capture things as 3D models? That’s what Lynx A does. It’s the world’s first point-and-shoot 3D camera that produces 3D models with the push of a button. The company claims that “you can use a point-and-shoot Nikon, you’ll find the Lynx A even easier to use.”
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Pentax has announced its latest line of uber-durable “adventureproof” compact cameras. There are three distinct cameras in the lineup: the WG-3, the WG-3 GPS, and the WG-10. All three are designed to take a beating and survive in locations that would be hazardous to other cameras’ health.
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Nikon just overhauled its entire compact/superzoom lineup, so we thought we’d give it a go at a broad overview. New camera models are the Coolpix P520, L820, AW110, S9500, S9400, S5200, and S31; and all of them are trying to compete with your smartphone by offering a mix and match of great zoom, Wi-Fi connectivity and GPS. Read more…
We’ve seen a lot of gimmicks when it comes to selling cameras. Especially where point-and-shoots are concerned, gimmicky features have become standard over the past few years as part of the war on smartphones. But this has to be one of most interesting: a special edition camera with the sole purpose of inserting Japanese anime characters into your pictures.
The camera is a modified Casio Exilim, and the second in a series of cameras by electronics magazine Digimono Station made especially for fans of the show “Puella Magi Madoka Magica.” Read more…
Canon’s attention grabber at this year’s CES 2013 is a new compact camera designed to fight against the encroachment of smartphones: the PowerShot N.
The little guy is unlike most point-and-shoots you’ll find on the market. It’s extremely small, square, and simple. The design may seem gimmicky at first, but pick it up in your hands and your opinion might change.
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Hiroshi Hiyama over at Phys.Org reports that smartphones are crushing the point-and-shoot industry, putting compact cameras in the same group as video game consoles and portable music players — devices that are having a hard time competing against all-in-one phones. The numbers are crazy:
Just as digital cameras all but destroyed the market for photographic film, the rapid shift to picture-taking smartphones has torn into a camera sector dominated by Japanese firms including Canon, Olympus, Sony and Nikon. “We may be seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market,” said [analyst] Nobuo Kurahashi. Figures from Japan’s Camera and Imaging Products Association echo the analyst’s grim prediction. Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42 percent in September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling 48 percent, according to the Association. Higher-end cameras with detachable lenses fell a more modest 7.4 percent in that time, it said.
As the compact camera market shrinks, the war over mirrorless camera dominance is growing. All the major camera makers now have a horse in that race, which will only be heating up as consumers discover that they no longer have a need for small-sensor cameras.
Smartphones crushing point-and-shoot camera market [Phys.Org]
Image credit: Photo illustration based on still from Inception by Warner Bros. Pictures
