pointandshoot

Canon took the photography world by surprise this week when the imaging giant announced that it would try to fund one of its upcoming cameras through the crowdfunding website Indiegogo. The mysterious IVY REC will be a "clippable, go anywhere camera" that Canon has deemed interesting enough to try, but not necessarily promising enough to pay for ahead of time.

When street photographer Robin Schimko made the leap and purchased a Leica Q in 2015, he was hesitant. The price was steep, and the fixed lens made it a "glorified point-and-shoot." And yet, it has become his unequivocal favorite. Here are the 5 reasons why.

Want an unusual digital camera that you can put together yourself? Check out CROZ, a do-it-yourself camera that features a transparent case that allows you to see all the internal components.

Compact camera lovers got a nod from Canon today at CES. The Japanese camera giant unveiled their latest compact camera, the PowerShot G9 X Mark II, packing a powerful processor and some serious speed into the most portable 1-inch sensor camera on the market.

Capturing beautiful macro photos on the cheap isn't tough if you're willing to experiment a little bit. Amateur photographer Benjamin Weir was able to do it with just a smartphone and a lens element he tore out of a dead point-and-shoot camera.

A new Canon lens patent hints at an interesting future for Canon's high-end point-and-shoot cameras like the G1 X line. Specifically, it seems Canon is considering packing an APS-C sensor into a future PowerShot.

On a May evening in 2005, a group of us were spending time in my parents’ garage. We’d just graduated from high school days earlier and didn’t know what to do with ourselves. One of many boring nights spent pissing the time away, high on the excitement of graduation and fear of the future; I’m quite sure I’d have forgotten all about that night if it wasn’t for the noise we heard in the driveway.

The stealthy camera startup Light today announced a revolutionary new point-and-shoot camera that aims to transform the way we think about cameras. Called the L16, it packs 16 separate cameras across its surface that simultaneously expose photos at different focal lengths. The resulting images are combined into high-resolution, 52-megapixel photos.

The Sony RX100 III is a fantastic little camera and when I had the chance to play with its successor earlier in the year I was very excited to see if the RX100 IV would build upon the already high standards Sony has helped set. While Sony has been making some impressive advances in the high-end camera market, in the pro-compact area things are a lot tighter with Canon just edging ahead of the RX100 III with the G7X.

Bigger things may be coming to Sony's popular RX compact camera line, sensor-wise. A new report says that Sony is field testing a new RX camera that packs a significantly larger sensor -- possibly a Four Thirds format one -- that would put it in direct competition with cameras like the Panasonic LX100.

Olympus is getting more serious with its S series of compact cameras. Today the company announced the SH-2, a successor to the SH-1 that is mostly the same camera except for one very important difference: it can capture RAW photos.

Nikon today unveiled the new Coolpix P900, a superzoom compact camera with a crazy 83x of optical zoom, allowing photographers to "take creativity to extreme distances."

Canon perceived premium compact users to want a bright powerful zoom lens with relatively large sensor and a viewfinder in the PowerShot G1X Mk II and G16, but Sony proved astutely there was a huge demand for a quality compact that could slip into a pocket.

When Canon was busy building old-school destroyers, Sony designed a sleek modern frigate in the form of the RX100 with a 1” sensor. It took Canon two years to respond, but they finally launched a compact with but one purpose – to regain the throne of best compact from Sony.

Today has been all Leica at Photokina, and we're not even done yet. Beyond the new big guns in the S-series, the LCD-less digital rangefinder and the all-mechanical M-A film rangefinder, Leica also improved its compact camera lineup with a number of new additions.

Specifically, they announced the Leica X, Leica X-E, Leica D-LUX and Leica V-LUX.

The 7D Mark II might have been the big fat headliner of Canon's Photokina announcements, but it certainly wasn't the only newsworthy camera the company debuted. Joining the Mark II is the GX 7: Canon's very first compact with a 1-inch sensor.

Let’s start with a little quiz. What one thing makes a pro camera a pro camera? Build quality? Weather sealing? Fast autofocus? Fast motor drive? Dual SD card slots?

Don’t think too long over the answer because it’s none of the above. A pro camera is a camera that a pro uses. Period.

When it comes to high-end compact cameras, Sony doesn't exactly have a monopoly on the genre, but the RX100M3 is probably the most talked about of the offerings. With its nifty pop-up viewfinder, a 1-inch sensor and a bright 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8 lens, it is quite the point-and-shoot.

But it soon might have some stiff competition, if news out of the Panasonic rumor mill is to be trusted.

One of the most sought after lighting accessories is a ring light. Meant to create a unique aesthetic, a ring light is a great way to add a sharp, but direct light source to any image. The problem is, ring lights don't come cheap, and are rarely meant for smaller cameras.

Thankfully, there's now a DIY solution for you hands-on types. Thanks to Instructables user alpacalypse, you now have a step-by-step guide to creating a ring light for your typical point-and-shoot camera.

Sprinkled in-between the more advanced lighting, photography and post-processing tutorials that we feature on the site, we've been trying to add in the occasional basic tutorial or walkthrough for the beginning photographer. Not everybody who reads PetaPixel is a pro- or even an intermediate-level photographer, and we all have to start somewhere.

The video above falls squarely into the "for beginners" category (in case the title didn't clue you in), and even though it was uploaded all the way back in 2010, it will still come in very useful if you're just starting out.

There’s no such thing as too many resources when it comes to learning how to take a good photograph. And here to prove this statement is a neat little pseudo-interactive web guide put together by Shutterfly for those among us who are just starting out.

While there isn't much information available on it yet, Olympus seems to be playing with the idea of what would be the worlds fastest compact camera, according to Patent No. 2014-48359.

Last week, Nikon executives said in an interview that they see smartphones as an opportunity in the compact camera game. By integrating more connectivity features, they seem to believe they'll make the point-and-shoot relevant again.

Canon wasn't the only one to food our inbox last night, and not even the announcements we were most anxious for. Sony also made some exciting announcements, including a refresh to its Cybershot line that includes three new superzooms and two new point-and-shoots.

Oh, and we should probably mention that one of those superzooms is the world's first bridge camera to feature a 63x optical zoom lens.

Samsung was the first to announce some of its new offerings pre-CES, but the company didn't let all of its cats out of the bag right away. In addition to the NX30, Galaxy Camera 2 and 16-50mm f/2-2.8 premium lens already announced, Samsung yesterday also refreshed its SMART camera lineup with a few point-and-shoots and two superzooms, one of which packs dual grips and monstrous 60x zoom.

We've said it before, but it bears mentioning again: smartphones might be bludgeoning the compact camera market, but that doesn't mean camera companies aren't putting up a fight. Fuji's new superzoom lineup is kind of a case in point, but a better example are the three new point-and-shoots just released by Canon.

This one is just too silly not to share. While browsing through Walmart's website looking for deals to share with their readers, the folks over at 1001 Noisy Cameras ran across a strange warning.

There are advantages to shooting time-lapses using a cheap point-and-shoot camera -- for example, if it gets stolen, you're not out thousands of dollars -- but there is one particular challenge that is difficult to overcome: battery life. If you want your creation to cover any significant period of time, you need a way to keep the camera running.

The video above shows you one way to get around this problem if you're using a AA-powered camera: just build your own DIY battery pack.

You'd think companies would be shying away from creating new compact cameras -- or maybe going the way of Sony with its lens cameras -- but that doesn't seem to be the case. Earlier today, another big player released a new line of compact cameras: Leica.

It wasn't long ago that Canon revamped its compact line-up, adding a new flagship compact G16 and a few minor other updates. Now, just a few weeks behind, Nikon is doing something similar by announcing a new flagship prosumer point-and-shoot, an ultra-portable compact and a movie light for the Nikon 1-series mirrorless cameras.

Last night was packed full of announcements from Canon, as the Japanese company saw fit to announce four new point-and-shoots (including a new flagship), update the PowerShot N and release a new lens in one fell swoop.

3D printing has made inroads into photography in many ways. From 3D-printed photos, to DIY flash diffusers, to a camera made entirely out of 3D printed parts, there's a lot of photographic applications to the third dimension.

But even as 3D printer costs are dropping, there's still the problem of capturing a proper, high-quality 3D scan of whatever it is you would like to print. The Fuel3D handheld bridges that gap.

According to a report in today's Wall Street Journal, the market is not looking great for digital cameras. The report states that as the popularity of smartphones has increased, sales of digital cameras have decreased.

The downside to being the photographer in any given group is that you inevitably wind up being left out of the majority of the photos. One simple little student concept camera seeks to change that by splitting in two and allowing both subject and photographer to take a picture at the exact same time.

Olympus isn't the only camera manufacturer finding ways to cut costs by getting rid of their low-end camera offerings. Tokyo-based Fujifilm is expected to dramatically slim down their compact camera line by fifty percent in the near future.

The recent announcement from Olympus that it's dropping out of the compact camera market started us thinking: Why is anyone bothering to make those things anymore?

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.