pointandshoot

Snowflake Macro Photos Captured Using a Canon PowerShot Compact Camera

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.

Lynx A: The World’s First Point-and-Shoot 3D Camera

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."

Nikon Unleashes Seven New Compacts, Sets Sights on Wi-Fi and GPS

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.

Special Edition Point-and-Shoot Made for Taking Pictures With Anime Characters

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."

Hands-On With the Portable and Flexible Canon PowerShot N

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.

Okay, Let’s Call Internet-Connected, App-Equipped Cameras “Smartcameras”

One major trend in the camera industry this year is the introduction of mobile operating systems such as Android into digital cameras. By opening the door to things like Wi-Fi, data plans, and apps, camera makers are going in the same direction that phone makers went some years ago, turning their devices into what can best be described as portable computers with specialized functions (e.g. voice-calling, photography).

While covering the trend, we've been at a loss for what to call the new cameras. After calling the Samsung Galaxy Camera a "voiceless phonecamera" in our hands-on first-look yesterday, commenters suggested that we call the device a "smartcamera". Bingo... that's the term we were looking for.

Sony RX1 Brings Full-Frame Sensors to the Point-and-Shoot World… for a Price

Sony shook up the digital camera world today by announcing the RX1, a game-changing camera that was somehow kept under wraps until news about it leaked a few days ago. Regardless of whether or not ordinary consumers will readily adopt it, it's a bold camera that sets the bar for what the world can expect in a point-and-shoot. Why is it so revolutionary? It's the first time a full frame sensor has been put inside a compact camera body.

Sigma DP1 Merrill is a Wide-Eyed DP2 Merrill, to Hit Stores Next Month for $999

As far as camera naming conventions go, Sigma's is pretty wacky. First off, we'll start with the news: the company announced today that its new DP1 Merrill compact camera will be available starting mid-September for a street price of $999.

Good, now that that's out of the way, lets talk about the name and the camera. Basically, it's a clone baby of the DP2 Merrill announced back in July, except the DP1 Merrill features a 19mm (28mm in 35mm terms) lens instead of a 30mm (45mm in 35mm terms) one. That's it.

Samsung Said to be Working on a Camera Based on the Galaxy S Phone

There's a fascinating rumor floating around in the gadget world today. Apparently Samsung is planning to introduce a point-and-shoot camera that's powered by Android OS and based on the popular Galaxy S smartphone. GSMArena, which first published the rumor and created the mockup seen above, reports that the camera will be named the "Samsung Galaxy S camera" (creative, I know). It's said to feature a giant 4.8-inch screen and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

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.

Sony Announces the RX100, Touted as “Best Pocket Camera of All Time”

Sony's new Cybershot -- specs and pictures of which were leaked just a couple of days ago -- was just made official this morning, accompanied by quite a few nods of approval from tech and photo nerds everywhere. PC World are even calling it the "Best Pocket Camera of All Time," and they may not be far off. That's because the new Cybershot DSC-RX100 is a fixed lens point-and-shoot compact that packs a wallop.

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.

Nikon Unleashes Eight New Coolpix Cameras, “Pro” Model Still in Hiding

Nikon did launch a new Coolpix camera today -- eight of them, in fact -- but the rumored "Coolpix Pro" mirrorless camera was nowhere to be found. The bevy of compact cameras hits store shelves next month, and includes the P7100 -- a more polished successor to the P7000 announced around this time last year, and Nikon's answer to Canon's G-series line of prosumer compact cameras. The 10.1MP camera features a tilting 3-inch LCD screen on the back, manual controls, 720p video, and RAW capabilities. It'll be priced at $500.

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.

Samsung Might Give Compact Cameras Shallower DoF with Second Lens

A compact camera probably isn't the first thing someone would grab when looking to make a photo with an extremely shallow depth-of-field, since the small aperture and small sensor limit it in this regard. That might soon be different: a recently published patent application by Samsung shows that the company is looking into producing achieving shallow depth of fields with compact cameras by using a second lens to create a depth map for each photo.

CNBC: Point-and-Shoot Cameras Are an Endangered Species

Update on 12/18/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

CNBC ran this short segment a couple days ago in which they invited CNET's Dan Ackerman to explain the changing landscape in the digital camera industry. He thinks point-and-shoot cameras may soon become extinct due to the rise of camera-equipped phones, but also that DSLRs are the cameras here to stay.