All Cameras Feeds

Editor's choice: 8 best compact cameras for your summer break

James Rivington — 1210855076

If you're planning on going abroad this summer, you'll be needing a solid compact camera to take with you. Camera phones just aren't good enough, and DSLRs are both bulky and too expensive.

The great thing about the compact market at the moment is that there is something to be found for absolutely everybody.

There’s a multitude of good products at every price point. Whether you're looking for cheap and cheerful or pricey and performance-led, you'll always be able to find something that suits your needs.

Here are eight great compact cameras, with all budgets, tastes and needs catered for amply. Be sure to check out the following reviews if you need a new digital compact camera this summer.

Panasonic Lumix LZ8 - £140

At £140 the Panasonic Lumix LZ8 is an absolute bargain.

It's fairly basic as far as compact cameras go, but what it does do is cover all the bases. It's got an 8-megapixel lens and a standard 2.5-inch LCD screen.

But the LZ8 defies its budget price and the modest feature list by producing some absolutely fantastic pictures.

And when it comes down to it, if you want to take a compact camera on your holidays this summer.

That's all you really need, isn’t it? Read our full review

Fujifilm FinePix F50fd - £140

This 12-megapixel compact camera from Fuji is possibly even more of a bargain than the Panasonic one above.

When it launched it cost around about the £300 mark.

But now it’s priced online at less than half that amount. The big bonus with this one is that Fuji engineers spent a lot of time trying to improve its low-light performance.

And wow, it certainly works. It's also a very solid all-round camera, a steal at £140. Read our full review

Nikon CoolPix P5100 - £175

The dream of most amateur photographers is to own a stonkingly good DSLR.

But sometimes it's just not practical to take one of those away on holiday. What if it breaks? What if you lose it?

Aside from that, the sheer size and weight of them make them a but unsuitable for taking away with you.

So how about taking a digital compact which thinks it’s a DSLR, yet has the size and weight of a standard compact?

The 12-megapixel Nikon CoolPix P5100 is just one of those.

It weighs just 200g and yet packs some awesome features. Read our full review

Casio Exilim Card EX-S10 - £180

The Exilim Card EX-S10 was born to be taken abroad.

It's very compact and weighs just 140g – ideal for making sure your suitcase isn't overweight when you get to the airport.

When it came out, it was the world's smallest 10-megapixel camera – it's just 15mm thick. And despite being impossibly thin, it manages top pack some seriously good features.

The LCD screen measures 2.7-inches across.

But the controls can be a bit fiddly so if you've got clumsy fingers like us, you may find it a bit frustrating at times. Read our full review

Canon IXUS 90 IS - £200

The IXUS 90 slots comfortably into the midrange of Canon's line-up. It’s a pretty good choice too.

It looks great, and produces some really fantastic images.

There's a new button layout style on this camera which some people might not like though.

It can be a bit fiddly until you get used to it.

But at £200 it's good value and has that perfect balance between features and price. Read our full review

Canon Powershot A650 IS - £210

For a measly £10 more than the IXUS 90, you could get your hands on a Canon Powershot A650 IS.

This compact camera is very good at capturing high-detail photographs in variable lighting conditions.

A It performs just as well indoors as it does outside too. It's slightly larger and more heavy than the IXUS, but still this camera is absolutely fantastic.

A bit like the CoolPix at the top of the page, this compact offers a lot of the features you'd only normally find on a DSLR.

And for that reason alone it's a must-by for anyone lusting after DSLR-like quality from a compact. Read our full review

Ricoh Caplio R8 - £230

Ricoh hasn't exactly always been known for being a maker of brilliant cameras.

But with every new generation of Caplio R-series cameras, it gets better and better.

The R7 was a revelation after a rather poor predecessor, and the R8 has taken things once again to the next level.

It's a very powerful compact camera and produces some incredibly fine images.

There's something special about this camera – it puts the magic back into digital photography. Read our full review

Sigma DP1 - £610

The Sigma DP1 is currently the Rolls Royce of the digital compact world.

It's more of a concept camera than anything else, because it has an enormous image sensor which you would never normally find in a compact.

The image processing technology is also vastly different to other cameras – and it works very well.

Image quality is unbelievable, and you'd hope so too because this camera is very expensive. Read our full review

Sony's financial year: our verdict

Marc Chacksfield — 1210778460

Sony’s financial results for the last 12 months are in and TechRadar's had a look at what the company has got up to in the last year. And we must admit that it’s had a pretty good run of things.

Electronics

Sony saw an increase in sales in its electronics range thanks largely to Bravia LCD TVs.

An 8.9 per cent increase was shown in the sales of Bravia LCD TVs, VAIO PCs and CyberShot digital cameras, equating to 6,613.80 billion Yen (£32.3 billion). A slight decrease was seen in the sale of LCD rear projection TVs.

Operating income for the year was more than double FY06 for electronics, up from 160.5 billion Yen (£0.8 billion) in 2006 to 356 billion Yen (£1.7 billion) in 2007.

However, mobile phones were among the worst performers in Sony’s electronics portfolio, the only decreasing factor in Japan and Europe.

Music and film

Sony BMG, the music strand of Sony, saw a small decrease in sales (down four per cent) but a massive increase in income before taxes, up a whopping 90 per cent to $257 million (£132 million).

The company cites a $67 million restructuring process and lower marketing costs as a reason for the increase.

Girl power was the order of the day when it comes to Sony BMG’s best-selling albums of the year. Music from Alicia Keys, Leona Lewis and Avril Lavigne all helped to bring in the cash.

Film-wise the company saw an 11 per cent drop in sales, down from 966 billion Yen (£4.2 billion) FY06 to 858 billion Yen (£4.2 billion) FY07. The company has cited a decrease in films being released in the year as a reason for the drop.

As with the Electronics sector, Sony did see a big increase in operating income, this time of 26.5 per cent.

Games

Although the PS2 is still outselling the PS3, sales of the console have dropped 7 per cent, while both the PSP and the PS3 have seen increases of 46 per cent - something the company is looking to increase next year - and 156 per cent accordingly. PS3 software sales have increased a massive 335 per cent.

And while there’s been a 26 per cent increase of sales – from 1,016 billion Yen (£4.9 billion) to 1,284 billion Yen (6.3 billion) the company is still operating a loss of around £0.6 billion in its gaming sector.

Olympus E-520 revealed

Marc Chacksfield — 1210676940

Launched last year the E-510 was a 10-megapixel delight that came with a pack of features, including an anti-shake facility, anti-dust mechanism and Live View instead of a traditional viewfinder.

Its successor was announced by Olympus today, the E-520, which may not a radical overhaul of the E-500 range, but it is a worthy update.

Feature focus

Even though the chassis is unchanged, under the bonnet sees some significant tweaks. First up is an improvement with Live View. This feature has been given autofocus capabilities, making it easier to take picture-perfect images - this was first seen on the E-420. Olympus has also added face detection to Live View.

The E-520 now houses a 2.7in LCD screen, up 0.2in on the E-510, and the camera’s continuous shooting speed has been upped 0.5fps to 3.5fps.

Lastly, there’s been an update to the processor which brings the ISO rang up from 100 to 160, cutting visual noise to an absolute minimum.

The E-520 is out in June and will cost £479.99 (body only). You can also buy the camera with a ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens for £529.99.

Hands on: Casio Exilim EX-F1

James Rivington — 1210346338

We were visited by a well-known highstreet Camera retailer today, which came down to show off all the brand new cameras it’ll be selling this summer.

Among the cameras they brought with them were compact models including the Canon 82 IS, the Panasonic DMC-TZ5, the Sony Cyber-shot W170 and the Olympus Mju 850.

But what we were most pleased to see was the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1.

While not a DSLR, it’s still one of the most astounding digital cameras we’ve ever laid our hands on.

High res shooting

Because while this aims to be a top-notch 6MP (that’s a max resolution of 2,816 x 2,112) digital camera, it’s also masquerading as a semi-professional video camera – and doing a damn good job of it, too.

It can shoot video at up to 1,200 frames per second, which frankly, is astonishing. At that speed though, the images produced are severely compromised in terms of resolution, but even at 300fps (still very quick) the videos look fantastic.

The Exilim EX-F1’s high speed CMOS sensor is capable of snapping full-resolution photos at a rate of 60 every second. That means it’s almost impossible to not get a perfect snap of your baby’s first smile or your kitten jumping in the air.

Never miss a shot

The pre-record setting is handy for this also. We tried it out and when this feature is turned on, it will capture a burst of still photos before you’ve even pressed the shutter button. And that means that even if you’re slightly late hitting the button, you’ll still get that perfect pic.

We did a few test shots and found these two modes absolutely idiot proof. It’s very hard to not get the shot you want, which is both reassuring and immensely satisfying at the same time.

The EX-F1 also has a 12x optical zoom which is great for getting in nice and tight. Plus it’s got all the latest must-have camera features like face recognition, and a 2.8-inch LCD view screen.

Everyone on the TechRadar team thought it was a fantastic camera. But it’s not without its drawbacks.

Very heavy and bulky

For a start, it’s one of the biggest, most chunky digital cameras we’ve seen in recent years. It weighs nearly 700g and we measured it at 128x80x130mm. Anyone with particularly small hands will struggle to weird this shooter with any real skill.

So while we’d all love a brilliant digital camera like this one, that can also record video at full HD resolution, its back-breaking weight and awkward dimensions make it a bit of a dilemma. The price of over £500 only makes it an even tougher call.

Stay tuned for a full review soon.

How Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975

Audley Jarvis — 1210343688

A Kodak engineer credited with inventing the digital camera has revealed how bewildered company executives couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to look at images on a TV screen when he first proposed the idea of a ‘filmless camera’ to them in 1975.

The hefty device was the brainchild of Kodak engineer Steve Sasson and his team from the Kodak Apparatus Division Research Laboratory. According to Sasson the finished article resembled “a rather odd-looking collection of digital circuits that we desperately tried to convince ourselves was a portable camera.”

Both hands required...

Although Sasson’s account of how his invention came into being was originally written late last year, it’s only now that the usual suspects from the online tech and gadget worlds are picking up on his revelations, helped no doubt by the rather striking pictures of the original camera that accompany it.

This so-called ‘portable’ digital device apparently borrowed its lens from a Super 8 movie camera, while a portable digital cassette recorder served as the equivalent of a modern-day memory card.

Rudimentary processor...

The device also sported a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, and an analogue-to-digital converter that was effectively “stolen from a digital voltmeter application”. To operate on the go, the device required no fewer than 16 nickel cadmium batteries.

According to Sasson, the camera used the CCD to capture a digital image and then stored this on the attached digital tape cassette recorder. The transfer process reportedly took 23 seconds to complete.

World’s first digital photo frame?

Once the image had been stored the cassette could be removed and transferred to a custom playback device – itself the size of a small suitcase – incorporating a custom frame store able to interpolate the 100 captured lines to 400 lines, thereby generating a standard NTSC video signal which was then sent to a TV set.

To call all of this ‘portable’ was indeed a creatively generous use of the term, however there’s no denying that Sasson and his team were well ahead of their time.

Indeed, when company executives at the ill-fated presentation asked Sasson how long it would be before his invention had a consumer potential, the inventor applied Moores Law and said 15-20 years.

Nikon steals the show at TIPA awards

Audley Jarvis — 1209139049

Nikon executives will no doubt be feeling jolly pleased with themselves after Nikon came top in two of the most prestigious categories at the annual Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) awards.

Topping the ‘Best DSLR – Expert’ category was Nikon’s flagship, full-frame D3 model. The judges deemed that the camera was a “milestone” for Nikon that offers “incredible” low-light performance – even at when used at ISO 6400. The judges also praised its nine-frames-per second.

Nikon also scooped top prize in the ‘Best DSLR – Professional’ category, with its D300 model. Noting its “solid design, excellent handing and robust build quality” the judges went on to praise the “fast, responsive autofocus system” and “stunning results” it is capable of producing.

Best advanced DSLR

Despite seeing their nearest rival take top honours it wasn’t all bad news for Canon as their recently launched EOS 450D (known as the ‘Rebel XSi’ in some markets) claimed top honours in the lucrative ‘Best DSLR – Advanced’ category, no doubt at the expense of Nikon’s recently released D60 model.

Sony can also be pleased with the good showing by their Alpha range with their Alpha 200 winning ‘Best DSLR – Entry-level’.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Samsung, Panasonic and Fuji in the ‘Ultra-compact’, ‘Compact’ and ‘Superzoom’ categories respectively.

For more details on this year's big winners have a look at TechRadar's in-depth reviews by clicking on the links above.

Ricoh launches tough new 10 megapixel camera

Adam Hartley — 1208862959

Ricoh’s new, tough little G600 camera is a no-nonsense looking water and dust-resistant 10-megapixel point-and-shoot, featuring a wide-angle lens and 5x zoom.

The G600 passes Ricoh's shock resistance test for a 1.5 m fall, "a test that conforms to US Department of Defense standards".

Ricoh’s tough-man camera also boasts a 1cm macro function and a ﬂash range of 10 metres.

Outdoorsy types

If you are an outdoorsy type into extreme sports, watersports, biking, mountain climbing, ﬁshing and the rest, and in the market for a new camera, then Ricoh’s G600 could well be for you.

Additionally, the G600 features a 2.7-inch picture display. It's perfect for shooting in low light conditions as it offers ISO 3200 sensitivity and a light sensor which automatically adjust the display's brightness depending on the surrounding ambient light.

Ricoh claims that the G600’s lithium ion battery is able to deliver 360 shots on one charge. And should you run that down, you can also use standard AAA batteries.

The G600 will be available in the UK from May priced £349.99.

Digital camera sensor loves low lighting

J Mark Lytle — 1208762149

If, like most users of compact digital cameras, you're sick of their shabby performance in anything other than bright sunlight, then please stand and applaud a new kind of sensor that will make low-light woes a thing of the past.

Fed up with old CCD and CMOS sensors, Japan's Rohm and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology got together to build a better image sensor. The result is 100 times more sensitive than what has gone before.

Low-lux performance

As the illustration shows, the CIGS sensor produces images in what appears like total darkness to a CMOS device. The combination of Copper, Indium, Gallium and Selenium remains functional as low as 0.001 lux. By way of comparison, moonlight is rated at around 1 lux.

The next steps for the two organisations are to miniaturise the sensor and to stabilise production standards to prepare for commercialisation.

Is Nikon preparing to launch a 25MP D3 successor?

Audley Jarvis — 1208342462

Following on from rumours earlier in the week that Samsung is working on a full-frame DSLR, come whisperings that Nikon could be preparing the way to launch a more powerful version of its flagship D3 model.

According to Engadget, the rumours began circulating after hackers levered open Nikon’s latest D3 firmware update and discovered a number of references to a new D3x model within the update code.

Naming convention

According to Nikon naming convention, each new model is usually superseded by an ‘X’ model (D40-D40X, D2-D2X and so on), so the rumour certainly has plausibility.

What seems much more like pure conjecture at this point, however, is speculation that the D3X could employ a 24.4MP sensor – the very same full-frame sensor that Sony will be fitting in its A900 semi-pro model when it’s launched later in the year

Pixel

Given that Sony supplies Nikon with DSLR sensors, it’s entirely possible that a D3X could extend to 24.4MP. However, with the 12.5MP D3 still at an early stage in its lifecycle, Nikon would almost certainly want to dampen down any talk of a camera with twice the pixel count – even though it’s now well established that pixels aren’t everything.

What seems most likely is that a D3X with an increased pixel count would be made to ‘suffer’ in other areas of performance, for example a slower frame-rate or increased noise. This would then allow Nikon to market the two models as very different beasts.

It’s either that, or the D3X will come in at nearly double the price of the (£3,000) D3 to compete pound for pound with Canon’s (£5,000) EOS-1Ds MkIII behemoth…

Is Samsung about to join the full-frame DSLR club?

Audley Jarvis — 1208170288

Rumours abound that Samsung is working on the development of a full-frame CMOS sensor that would enable the Korean electronics giant to launch a 'professional standard’ DSLR camera.

According to Amateur Photographer, the rumour originated at a trade event in Korea where a "high-ranking Samsung official" suggested that the company was "actively pursuing development of a full-frame CMOS sensor intended for use in a professional camera".

Perfect sense

Although Samsung has refused to confirm or deny the rumour, it would make perfect sense for the company to manufacture a high-end professional model.

As Mark Sparrow from Digital Camera magazine explains, the battle for hearts and minds between Sony and Samsung appears to be gathering pace, especially in key Asian markets.

"Samsung’s partnership with Pentax has already borne fruit with the excellent K20D/GX20 models, which are the first Pentax models to feature a Samsung designed and fabricated SLR image sensor," he said.

Serious player

"Obviously Samsung is now a serious player in the market and will be looking to challenge Sony, who are looking to supplement their Alpha range with a full-frame camera by the end of the year," he added.

While Nikon and Canon hold far more prestige within enthusiast and professional circles in European and North America, the same degree of photographic snobbery doesn’t necessary apply to Asian markets, where both Samsung or Sony are afforded more loyalty and recognition.

In other words, if the two companies can get a good product to market, consumers will happily buy into it.