Stuff Geeks Want

This handy pistol-like NightVision digital video camera lets you record 640×480 VGA video or shoot 1.3 megapixel still images in complete darkness and store it on the built-in 32 megabyte memory or a 2 gigabyte SD card.

You’ll get about two minutes of recorded video on the built-in flash RAM and about 75 minutes with the SD card. The camera works in regular light and automatically switches to night mode with the sun goes down. A ring of infra-red LEDs around the lens will illuminate your subject no matter the level of darkness.

It’s got a 2-inch LCD display on its back side and is powered by four double-A batteries. You hook it up via its USB connection. It’s got a trigger-type record button and a full set of display control buttons at the rear. Downside: a fixed focus lens.

Buy for $80 from Amazon

The trouble with digital cameras today is that they want to throw everything and the kitchen sink. We want a camera that just shoots awesome pictures.

May we point your viewfinders in the direction of the Olympus Pen E-P1. Sporting the same sleek style first created in the same film camera introduced in 1959, it feels like a camera should: weighty (3.2 pounds) but not heavy, and small enough to fit in a coat pocket. The attain the smaller size, Olympus had to ditch the optical viewfinder for a 3-inch LCD display (a separate lens comes with a clip-on viewfinder).

The camera’s SLR-quality sensor produces good low-light shots, and the camera comes loaded with useful features, including image stabilization and a digital leveler.

Boasting a 12.3 megapixel sensor of SLR-quality, the E-P1 comes fully compatible with a vast range of Olympus’s lenses, but comes standard with a 17mm f2.8 lens. It also shoots HD video (1280×720 pixels) and a rate of 30 frames per second.

Buy Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 for $900 from Amazon

Like sticking a pencil in your eye, nothing is more excruciating than having to watch other people’s holiday photos. But if you’re forced into doing it, it might as well be fun and easy. That’s where the Nikon S1000pj comes in. It’s the first compact camera to come with a built-in pico projector.

Hit the button and it’ll beam the pics and hi-definition video held within onto a wall at a size as small as five inches and as large as 40 inches, and it will project from about six feet away with 10 lumens brightness. Nikon says the camera’s projector will work for an hour before its battery runs out. I can think of hundreds of situations where something like this could come in real handy like a bar where there’s a bunch of people and you’ve got a blank wall or on the back of an airplane seat to show a small crowd.

As for its basic digital camera capabilities, it can capture photos with over 12-megapixel resolution, it’s got a 5x wide-angle zoom lens, a 2.7-inch LCD screen, accepts SecureDigital (SD) memory cards, has built-in automatic scene-detecting capability, and it lets you edit images directly on the camera like brightening an image or rotating a photo.

You’re going to see a lot more of these type of cameras with built-in projection in 2010. For now, it’s the first.

Buy for $429 from Amazon

How many holidays pics do you have that you’ve commented “I’m not in this one because I was taking the photo”? Not any more with the IPT-DS1 Party-shot Automatic Photographer from Sony. It’s a newfangled camera dock that takes photos for you.

It pans 360 degrees and tilts 24 degrees, automatically detects faces and adjusts composition. Compatible with the DSC-WX1 and DSC-TX1 Cyber-shot digital cameras only, the Party-shot is mountable on nearly any tripod, so you can set it up in a convenient location in your home, especially when you are entertaining. With two AA batteries, it captures photos for up to 11 hours and is portable, so you can enjoy taking pictures outdoors.

Buy the Sony IPT-DS1 Party-shot for $150 from Amazon

Buy the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 for $306 from Amazon

Buy the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 for $327 from Amazon

No room in your carryon for a fancy and bulky SLR? This is the sexy sliver of a packet camera that has state-of-the-art features.

The Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Digital Elph is Canon’s first touchscreen pocket camera that boasts 12.1 megapixels and shoots HD video. At less than an inch thick, it’ll slip into a tiny gap in a briefcase or purse.

It has a 3-inch touchscreen (new for ELPHs) and an ultra-wide 24mm lens with a 5x optical and 4x digital zoom, shoots 720p HD video with an HDMI output connector for easy playback of video and photos on HDTV’s and Optical Image Stabilization.

It’s also known as the Digital IXUS 200 IS in Europe and as the IXY DIGITAL 930 IS in Japan. It comes in silver, blue, purple and gold.

Buy the silver model for $328 from Amazon

Buy the purple model for $330 from Amazon

Buy the blue model for $330 from Amazon

Buy the gold model for $323 from Amazon

Taking photos on land = boring.
Taking photos in the water = fun.

It’s that simple.

And just like computer makers have learned they can’t market GHz forever, so to have camera makers realized that megapixels are already meaningless.

Which is great news, because it means camera makers are actually being forced to invent creative offerings and not just inflate a meaningful statistic to convince buyers to upgrade.

Case in point: the Fujistu Finepix Z33WP.

Waterproof digital cameras are nothing new, they’ve just generally been a cut below a regular camera: bulky, no zoom, sub-par sensors.

But not the Z33WP! With a 3x optical zoom, a 10 megapixel sensor, and a package not much larger than other portable point-and-shoots on the market today, the FinePix Z33WP is the obvious choice for any shooter looking to expand their reach from land to sea.

Buy for $141.94 from Amazon, in Green, Pink, or Black

The PowerShot G-series has long been the flagship of Canon’s PowerShot line. The new Canon PowerShot G11 digital camera further adds to that legacy. Just think of it as a pocket-sized camera with SLR functionality.

The G11s resolution is 10.0 megapixels, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a sub-standard camera compared to last year’s model at 14.7MP. Its CMOS sensor – something Canon pioneered way back in 2000 – compensates by performing better in low light conditions, meaning better overall photo quality, less noise and less blur. (You’re going to start seeing a lot more CMOS-based, low-end consumer cameras now that manufacturing costs have come down and their capability has gone up.)

But what turns me on the most about this camera is the addition of its pull-out, swivel 2.8-inch LCD display, which has been a signature of Canon’s PowerShot A series for years. Translation: While you get shots at different angles in perfect composition, the guy next to you is straining his neck like a giraffe to get the shot of Madonna over the heads of her screaming fans in front of you. Get the picture?

Other features include a 5x lens, optical image stabilization, a 28mm (equivalent to 28-140 mm) wide-angle lens, optical image stabilization, VGA video capture, SD/SDHC card slot and full manual controls with RAW support and a hotshoe.

Buy for $500 from Amazon

It’s been part of a number of cell phones for years…a front-facing LCD display. Now, Samsung has added it to its TL225 point-and-shoot camera, so self-portraits are a snap. You’ve got a 3.5-inch display on the back and a 1.5-inch screen on the front with a 12.2 megapixel image sensor in its guts.

Its lens has actual focal lengths of 4.9 to 22.5mm, and 35mm-equivalent focal lengths of 27mm to 124mm and includes optical image stabilization for when you’re taking that shot of you and your girlfriend in a drunken stooper.

It’s got face detection capability and records standard or high definition movies with sound at 30 frames per second in H.264 format, with a maximum resolution of 720p. It stores images on a MicroSD/MicroSDHC card format, or in 55MB of built-in memory.

It hasn’t got an optical viewfinder, but it almost negates having one with its “Smart Gesture” feature. Want to delete a pic? Trace an X on the 3.5-inch display. Rotate it? Draw a circle. You’ll start seeing features like this in other cameras soon.

Buy for $350 from Amazon

There are a lot of digital cameras out there (too many, really), but it’s tough to find one that you can take everywhere and offers features that aren’t found on some cameras and missing on others. Well, my next-door neighbor whipped out this camera on Sunday and sang its praises left and right.

Small, rugged, waterproof, shockproof, dustproof (kidproof), 12.1 megapixels, Leica lenses, blah, blah, blah. But then he said, “Aside from being a still camera, it also shoots high definition video.” Then I got interested.

It’s the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1S. It uses the AVCHD (MPEG-4/H.264) Lite format which records video in 1280 x 720 resolution at 60fps. He then showed me on his PC some video he had recorded and I was honestly impressed. It nicely fits a middle ground between compression/space and video quality using SD-SDHC cards. One of its best features is that in HD movie mode you’ve got the ability to zoom while recording. Oh, and some video he shot underwater off the Caribbean was incredible looking…sharp, vibrant, good quality.

It’s got a 28mm wide angle lens that fits nicely for most consumers and a 4.6x optical zoom. An intelligent auto mode automatically detects scenarios and loads presets so that you don’t have to sift through its collection of 27 modes.

Finally, he dared me to drop it (hard) on its dining room tiled floor. I took him up on it FOUR TIMES and this camera suffered nothing but a small scratch. I’m sold.

So, bottom line…this camera is versatile, especially if you’re an outdoorsy person and your rough on your gadgets. Great still pics and fantastic video. This is a great camera that can stand up to anything and stand up to the competition too.

Buy for $339 from Amazon

When it comes to rechargeable batteries, there are two types of people: the first buys into the idea, doesn’t mind paying extra for the benefit of reusing the same battery, and probably has an eco-warrior edge to them.

Everyone else takes a “whatever” approach, buys traditional disposable batteries, and is pleased with their low cost and plentiful power.

Seeking to bridge that divide is a new generation of rechargeable battery with super-low discharge (SLD) technology, like the Sanyo Eneloop batteries.

Traditional rechargeable batteries only hold their charge for a short period of time, meaning when you need the battery most it probably doesn’t have the charge you’re looking for.

But batteries with SLD only lose about 10 percent of their charge every 6-12 months, meaning you can store them away and not worry that they’ll be dead when you need them.

Sanyo Eneloop AAA 4-pack for less than $10

Sanyo Eneloop AA 2-pack with USB Charger for $15

Sanyo Eneloop AA 4-pack for $13

or if you want a charger than can switch-hit and more, pick up the La Crosse BC700 for around $25, which can charge AA and AAA sizes at the same time and gives you real-time charge info, too.