Compact Camera News

Instant photography is enjoying a resurgence among both young snapshooters and even some pros, with several makers — from established brands to startups — offering cameras and films to scratch that instant itch. Most photo buffs know the Polaroid story; how the company went bankrupt and is now operating as essentially a brand licensing company putting the Polaroid name on everything from TVs to Blu-Ray players to tablets to, yes, cameras and film. 

Leica turned some heads today with the unveiling of their new Sofort instant camera—a compact, stylish model with an array of both automatic and manual features and a choice of color and black-and-white instant film.

Remember when Paul Simon crooned, “Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away”? That classic film may have given you nice bright colors, but only on sunny days. In its early incarnations, Kodachrome’s film speed—its sensitivity—was 10, or slower than Homer Simpson.

The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) member magazines recently convened for their General Assembly to vote for the best photo and imaging products launched by the industry in the last 12 months. The voting took place during the General Assembly that was held in spring 2016 in San Francisco, California.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III has an impressive 25x built-in lens that’s equivalent to 24–600mm lens in the 35mm format. The Zeiss Vario-Sonnar super zoom lens in the Sony RX10 III also features a surprisingly fast aperture range of f/2.4 to f/4. (Offering an f/4 aperture at the 600mm telephoto end in a “bridge” camera has definitely turned quite a few photographers’ heads toward this “serious” superzoom model.)

When Light first debuted the revolutionary L16 “computational camera” last October they created quite a buzz. Now the company has issued a progress report and announced some important upgrades to the original specs.

Olympus introduced an unusual new durable compact camera this morning: the Stylus Tough TG-Tracker. Olympus is billing the Stylus Tough TG-Tracker as the company’s “first rugged experiential camera,” which combines a 204-degree ultra-wide-angle f/2.0 lens with Ultra HD 4K 30p video capture and an “advanced Field Sensor System” to shoot action video while recording related activity data.