Adding the DSC-HX100V and DSC-HX9V models to its Cyber-Shot line, Sony has created two new compact cameras with 16.2-megapixel resolution, full HD 1080p recording and increased zoom functions.

The lenses (and resulting zoom range) differ between the two cameras. The HX100V houses a 27mm Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonar T lens with a 30x optical zoom, while the HX9V offers a 24mm Sony G lens with nearly half (16x) the optical zoom. Both lenses have been outfitted with optical steady shot technology, which uses a three-way shake cancellation for crisper images...

Ricoh has unveiled the latest in its compact camera line, the CX5, which comes equipped with a hybrid autofocusing system, a wide-angle, 10.7x optical zoom and a 10-megapixel resolution CMOS sensor.

By using a new combination of sensors, Ricoh has been able to reduce its autofocusing time to...

Canon has added four new cameras to their compact PowerShot line: the SX230 HS, ELPH 500 HS, ELPH 300 HS and ELPH 100 HS. With these new introductions, Canon has created the thinnest 24mm wide-angle camera on the market today (ELPH 300 HS) and their first GPS-equipped compact camera (SX230).

All four cameras come equipped with Canon's HS SYSTEM for improved low-light settings, full 1080p HD video, new Movie Digest Mode and 32 Smart auto scenes...

Samsung has announced the WB700, an ultra-slim (only 3.9 x 2.3 x 0.85 inches) point-and-shoot camera with a 24x zoom function (18x optical zoom combined with 1.3x smart zoom).

The camera utilizes a 24mm ultra-wide Schneider Kreuznach lens and has a 14-megapixel CCD sensor.

With this model, Samsung has introduced a new noise reduction technology to cancel out zoom noise when shooting long-distance images...

Boasting up to 22x zoom capabilities, Olympus's SP-610UZ lightweight, wide-angle ultrazoom camera comes with 720p HD video capability. Mimicking SLR camera lenses, the compact 610UZ offers users 14-megapixel resolution, f/2.8 aperture in wide-angle settings and f/5.6 in zoom settings.

The 610UZ also offers a variety of new filters to simulate other interchangeable lens features. These "magic" filters include pop art, pinhole, fish-eye, soft focus...

With 18x optical zoom and 14-megapixel resolution, Fujifilm's FinePix S2950 offers a relatively affordable compact camera option with a wide-zoom range.

This particular FinePix camera has a 28mm–504mm high precision Fujinon optical zoom lens. To further enhance images, the S2950 uses "smile and shoot" mode to ensure that the camera doesn't release the shutter until it recognizes...

Version four of the Olympus PEN camera line, the E-PL2, came out in January with a couple of notable improvements including in-camera advancements, alternate lens options and 720p HD video.

In-camera features include "live guide" playback for reviewing and editing video and stills in real time, the ability to overlay multiple creative filters, a higher ISO sensitivity (6400) for lower-light shooting. New "eye detect" autofocusing reduces blur by tracking up to eight sets of eyes before releasing the shutter...

Replacing the 10-megapixel FinePix HS10, Fujifilm has added the HS20 EXR to the large array of compact cameras with pro-level features available on the market today. The most notable feature of this particular camera is its 16-megapixel backside illumination EXR CMOS sensor.

The design of conventional CMOS sensors is such that the light has to pass through a layer of wiring before hitting the photo sensor diodes. By moving the front wiring behind the diodes, Fujifilm has been able to...

HindSight has announced the arrival of a new software product called METAmachine. The simplified browsing utility program streamlines the process of adding keywords, licenses and other metadata to individual or packaged images. The program reads and writes XMP-formatted metadata in TIFF, JPEG, PSD and DNG images.

METAmachine can be used to write a complete set of the IPTC standard metadata into images or to add copyright and contact information or licensing terms, leaving unaltered all other metadata already present in the images. The software is compatible with XPM-compliant DAM software. To write metadata, users can drag images from the Desktop or from a compatible program...

New UDMA-enabled CompactFlash PRO cards by Delkin Devices have recently been released to the photography market. The memory cards have a minimum sustained transfer speed of 305X (45MB per second) in capacities of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB. The new line of memory cards does not require UDMA-enabled digital camera backs and digital SLR cameras to receive the technology's benefits. Instead, the transfer is able to take place from the memory card...