Compact Camera News

Phew, what a busy month it’s been for new photo gear! While the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas has not, traditionally, been a major event to debut high-end photography equipment, CES 2016 was definitely an exception with dozens of interesting imaging releases. (And hopefully this is a trend that continues at future CES events, which, in recent years have been rather ho-hum for photography gear.)

Leica Camera just introduced its first underwater camera: the Leica X-U (Typ 113). Designed to be durable, rugged and easy to use, the Leica X-U is waterproof, shock-resistant, winterized and dust-sealed. The camera is designed for outdoor and underwater photo adventures, travel and landscape photography (even in full HD video)..

Less than a month after Acme marketed what they unofficially considered their finest camera ever, I was having lunch with a particularly accomplished professional photographer. “I just got the camera,” he said. “I love it! It’s amazing! I can’t wait to see what Acme’ll do next!”

In something of a surprise, Nikon announced at the CES 2016 show today in Las Vegas that it’s entering the competitive action camera market with several forthcoming products. The first in Nikon’s new action camera lineup will be the oddly named Nikon KeyMission 360, a rugged camera capable of “recording true 360-degree video in 4K UHD allowing users to share new perspectives and explore imagery like never before,” Nikon said in a press statement.

Designed to capture high-quality images and HD video with built-in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity for wireless sharing, Canon just annouced two new cameras to its super-zoom PowerShot SX lineup: the PowerShot SX540 HS and PowerShot SX420 IS digital cameras. Canon also introduced three new compact additions to the PowerShot ELPH series: the ELPH 360 HS, ELPH 190 IS digital cameras and the ELPH 180.

When I first heard about the Canon PowerShot G3 X ($999), I fully expected that I was going to hate it. Could there really be a good reason for someone to buy a compact camera stuffed with a 25x (24-600mm equivalent) zoom lens? After all, how often does the average photographer go from wide angle to superzoom to warrant the size and weight that a lens like that requires?

After 140 years of photography, camera design has reached something of a pinnacle with today’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. But along the way to our digital era there were lots of false starts and dead ends. These were unusual cameras that had their brief moment and then simply disappeared.