Compact Camera News

Meet Rambo, an octopus at a New Zealand aquarium that's trained to take photos of tourists with a Sony camera. It’s an amazing stunt, which you can see in the below video, but not all that surprising if you know a thing or two about octopuses, which are some of the cleverest undersea creatures out there.

Photokina 2014 in Germany has been covered widely on the Internet already—including our own extensive reporting on the show on Shutterbug.com—so there’s no need for me to rehash the major announcements from the event, such as the latest full-frame cameras from Canon and Nikon and the like. My photo report here is aimed at sharing some wider ranging thoughts and perspectives on this important biennial show and what it told us about photography today and where it might be heading tomorrow.

For a compact camera, the Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II has a large image sensor; in fact, it is slightly larger than the sensor found in Micro Four Thirds cameras. The G1 X II offers a moderate resolution of 13 megapixels, with maximum resolution in images with an aspect ratio of 4:3. By default, however, the camera is set to an aspect ratio of 3:2 that delivers slightly less image resolution.

Nikon has introduced the tough Coolpix AW130 and the family-friendly Coolpix S33, two durable compact cameras capable of capturing images and Full HD videos (even under extreme conditions).

Olympus launched its new rugged Stylus Tough TG-860 camera this morning, which features a wide 21mm lens, 5x optical zoom and a 180-degree flip up reader LCD screen to make it easier to shoot “selfie” self portrait photos, even in rough shooting conditions.

Yesterday we told you about Polaroid's new Zip mobile printer and now here's another new  product from the venerable imaging brand. Polaroid’s new Socialmatic camera combines the nostalgic look of a vintage Polaroid instant camera with the ability to share your images via the camera’s built-in WiFi and Android interface.

Ready for the holidays, Lomography just announced the official release of their Lomo’Instant Camera. It is available at the Lomography online shop, Gallery and Embassy Stores around the world. If you order a Lomo’Instant Black or White model now it will arrive within a few days. The Sanremo model is currently sold out but it can be pre-order with an estimated delivery date of early December. (The Sanremo Edition comes with a free Lomo’Instant camera strap and online orders also get special discounted bundles.)