Gone are the days when a camera is just a camera. The moment that compact cams changed focus, from being a device built to take images to something that resembles a child's toy, was when mobile phone manufacturers got bored of making phones and decided that a phone-cum-camera was a great idea.

When this happened compact camera manufacturers had one too many 'thought showers' and came up with some 'ingenious' features that would elevate the humble compact above the latest cameraphone.

Size doesn't matter

The first was increasing megapixel size. Samsung's recent announcement of a 15MP compact camera, the NV100H, is a case in point.

This whole 'my sensor is bigger than your sensor' bragging is getting ridiculous. You don't need 15MP unless you are thinking about printing photographs the size of billboards, and even then you wouldn't want to take images of this size on a compact cam.

There's a reason Samsung has created this sort of cam and that is because it is a headliner grabber… and nothing else.

Next up is something that phone cameras have never been very good at, and that is zooming. Camera manufacturers must have been rubbing their hands in glee when they found out that cameraphones weakness is in their zoom.

But in another case of oneupmanship, compact camera manufacturers concentrated on upping digital zooms, making their ranges bigger and bigger - and subsequently images more pixelated.

As we all know, the digital zoom is a complete no-no in photography circles as it doesn't utilise the lens at all, but crops the image, replacing missing pixels along the way until you have an image more pockmarked than your regular teenager. In short, digital zooming may be big, but it certainly isn't clever.

Saving face

Lately, tinkering has got more technologically impressive. Face Recognition, though not new, is still a bit of an oddity. As the name of the feature suggests, it can tell you whether you are pointing your camera at a face or not, scanning Terminator-like any oval shape that enters your vision.

Thanks for clearing that one up Mr compact maker. Because we obviously didn't know if what we were filming before was a face or not!

And not only are there features for face-illiterates, there are also ones that can tell if your model is smiling and even blinking. Great for the short sighted out there, completely useless to the rest of us.

Lucky, then, the good ol' DSLR has always been there to bring a moment of clarity and sanity.

DSLR makers knew what features are needed and what are gimmicks. Things like Dust Reduction Systems and Scene Recognition Systems are there because they are needed and do a decent job of helping to create better pictures. While Live View may teeter on the brink of gimmick-ery, it is also a much-needed extra.

Video drone

Alas, the DSLR's role as a haven for gimmick-haters everywhere came to an end today.

The announcement that Nikon's new D90 is to include a movie mode brings with it a wave of disappointment.

Why would a prosumer camera-person want a video option on a DSLR? Surely the whole point of a DSLR is to take professional still images. Ergonomically a DSLR is geared up for photography and not videomaking.

Trying to shoot decent video on a camera is a hard but not impossible job. Those that have tried it will know that it's definitely not much fun though.

Even though this option has been on compact cameras for many years, the videos taken are usually of YouTube standard and nothing else.

Whether this mooted video mode is a turning point for DSLRs to go down the 'useless' features route is still unknown.

But you better cross your fingers that it's not, as I'm sure that none of us in the future want to hear their DSLR 'ringing' when we are trying to take that all-important shot.