A touchscreen was something only limited to high-end electronics at one point, but now they’re available on just about anything mobile, such as Nintendo DS, all automotive GPS devices, smartphones and so on.

Something that has been very slow to adopt the touchscreen are digital cameras. Canon in particular seemingly refused to do it, however that’s no longer the case as six new PowerShot line cameras will have touchscreens in them; you’ll see these on store shelves very soon.

Part of the reason why touchscreens have been slow to show up on digital cameras is for the fact they wash out easily in bright sunlight. And if your primary menu system can’t be seen while adjusting a camera to take photos, that’s no good to the user.

Camcorders with a touchscreen (Sony has had them for years) get around this by having a screen that flips out and tilts. The tilt eliminates glare instantly so you can get down to business and see what you need to see to make adjustments. This is more or less the exact same thing that will happen on digital cameras. Being that more and more of them have HD video recording capability, this is seen as a natural progression that they act more like camcorders do.

However the question remains as to whether this is actually a good idea or not. The answer is actually yes.

Canon in particular has not always had the friendliest of menu systems in their digital camera line. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but when compared to other makes you can see the differences. Certain features require the pressing of more buttons to get to depending on model, the icon legend is a bit confusing at times, and so on.

If the touchscreen menu Canon uses is on par with how other camera/camcorders are (which is a tabbed/paged layout), this will make for a far easier camera to use overall. You will be able to get to functions faster, easier, and moreover understand your camera better as to what it can actually do.

For those wondering if the PowerShot G11 will have an optical viewfinder in addition to the touchscreen, don’t worry, it does. For many this is an absolute must-have requirement. A camera of this caliber should have no less.

It’s an ever-increasing mobile world, and with it comes all the tech stuff we need to get things done. Being mobile means your tech will run off a battery or two. However there are certain items when you should care and other times when you don’t have to.

Point-And-Shoot Digital Cameras

Should you care? Yes.

I won’t buy a point-and-shoot digital camera unless it runs off AA batteries. It is the best and cheapest way to keep taking pictures. Yes, it does add bulk to the camera for the battery compartment, but that small inconvenience is more than worth it.

Camcorders

Should you care? Yes.

It’s always smart to purchase a secondary battery for your camcorder. If possible, buy the secondary with the camcorder at the same time.

Automotive GPS

Should you care? No.

Battery life for automotive GPS devices such as from Garmin, TomTom, Magellan or any other have always been terrible, and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon. With the screen at full brightness (required for daytime driving use) and the speaker volume at 70% or higher, you’ll get at most 2 hours out of the battery no matter who made the GPS. Furthermore it’s always used in the car, so when the battery dies you just plug in the charger and keep on going.

Battery life on GPS matters for units other than for automotive use, such as for trail or maritime. The Garmin Oregon 550t for example runs off 2 AA batteries, and that matters a lot for a GPS of that type given its particular purpose (it does both trail and maritime).

Cell Phone

Should you care? No.

I know no one that carries around a spare cell phone battery with them. All wireless phones today have a relatively decent talk time concerning battery life. And yes, if you talk for three hours straight, of course the battery will die on you. But for shorter calls and texting, the battery should last for days so it’s not a huge consideration.

What’s more important with a wireless phone purchase is the rated talk talk time and standby time. This doesn’t necessarily depend on battery type, because two phones by two different manufacturers that use the same type of battery will have different talk/standby times.

General rule of thumb: The less features a wireless phone has, the longer the battery will last due to the fact the phone doesn’t have to "think" as much. This is why 10-dollar TracFones have unbelievably good standby times, since the phone has only the most basic of features. It’s also the reason older less-featured cell phones with a new battery in them seem to "last forever".

Laptop Computers

Should you care? Depends on type.

With laptops there are basically three flavors: The netbook, standard and the gamer.

With the netbook (9 to 12-inch screen), yes, battery options definitely count because it’s meant to be ultra-mobile. You should stuff a netbook with longest-lasting battery possible.

With the standard (13 to 15-inch screens), yes it counts. You should stuff that one with a 9-cell. Yes it will cost a pretty penny but it’s more than worth it.

With the gamer laptop (17-inch or higher with a powerful graphics card), no. Gamer laptops are well known to have inferior battery life because of the horsepower required to run them. And even if you stuff in the best battery available, you’d be lucky to get more than 2.5 hours of life before it needs a charge.

Digital cameras by and large are marketed in three flavors, that being point-and-shoot, prosumer and professional.

Point-and-shoot: Basic. Most functions are automatic and cannot be adjusted manually. Entry level, least expensive.

Prosumer: Similar to point-and-shoot but with extra added features such as manual focus. Mid-grade, middle-of-the-road expensive.

Professional: Full-bodied cameras with a detachable lens. High-grade, most expensive.

I’m finding that the more I look at low-end digital cameras, the point-and-shoots really are coming a long way with features and options. It makes one wonder whether there actually is a prosumer category any longer.

Example: The Canon PowerShot A470.

This is a point-and-shoot and under $100 new. It has features that were never available for its price point as little as two years ago, such as fixed focus point, 3.4x optical zoom (doesn’t sound like much but for a small body this is darn good), 7.1 megapixel, and even has continuous shooting at 1.9fps. Not bad at all.

For all intents and purposes, this is a prosumer camera. I honestly could not classify this as a point-and-shoot, even though it is.

What do you think?

Does the prosumer category even exist anymore with digital cameras, or have they all advanced so much that point-and-shoots are all prosumer-grade across the board?

Pictured: The very recently introduced Nikon D3X. Compared to other high-end DSLR cameras, this one is all photo and no video (something I personally agree with – pro photo cameras should just do photos).

So how many megapixels do you get with this one? 24.5 to be exact. And it’s big, as in literally big – and it does the full frame FX format. Camera fans know what that means (and yes it’s important).

And yes, this beast is 8000 US dollars. It is the flagship model, after all.

For that kind of cash, it should not only take the best photos possible but also do my laundry and feed my fish.

And you thought Macs were expensive…

[Source: DVICE]

The increasing availability of small form factor video recorders is, in a word, cool. You no longer need a large camcorder unless you want the flexibility of disc-based media or higher lens quality. The need for standard camcorders will never go away, but for quick on-the-fly video recording, nothing beats the small form factor, flash based video recorder.

The Flip Video Mino is one such camera. Let’s take a look at it.

Continued

You can be the worst photographer armed with the cheapest digital camera and still get great shots if you’re willing to seek out subjects that look interesting.

Here’s a few examples of what I’m talking about.

(click any image for larger size)

This is the prop car from Back to the Future, taken at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida in March 2007. This shot was an absolute no-brainer. Center the car in the shot, point, shoot, done. There is absolutely no thinking necessary (other than centering the subject) when taking a photo like this. Not only is the subject interesting but the background is also complementary as well.

This is a shot of some sunrays breaking thru a cloud. For all intents and purposes, this is a bad shot. There’s a big ugly phone pole and an ugly sign to the right, but for some reason this shot actually works. I couldn’t tell you why. To get a shot like this, it’s real simple. Wait for dusk. You can get a shot like this just driving home from work. (This is why I tell anyone to always have a digital camera in your car whenever you go anywhere – you never know when a shot will present itself.)

I took this shot while out on a date. It’s a theater that’s built-in to a mall. There was enough light blasted out by the neon and signs to “get away” with taking a shot like this. To be honest I didn’t even know if it would come out correctly, but it did. I took a risk and it worked. Luck? Yes.

Location doesn’t necessarily mean exotic (like Universal Studios); it means anything that looks particularly interesting.

The best advice I can give anyone is to always carry a digital camera wherever you go. If your camera is too bulky to do that, buy a thinner one. Then you won’t be kicking yourself every time you see something and think Oh wow, what a shot I could get.. ah rats.. my camera is at home… Locations will present themselves to you if you have your camera at-the-ready.