CES 2009: Are the digital camera megapixel wars over?

Camera companies generally wait for the Photo Marketing Association trade show, held in late winter, to introduce new digital cameras. Yet, some are choosing CES, taking place now, to do this, with about two dozen models having been announced thus far.

Trends. With many point-and-shoots now offering 10 to 14 megapixels, there seems to be a ceasefire in the megapixel wars. Instead, camera makers are differentiating their products by focusing on unusual features, such as an extreme zoom or Wi-Fi connectivity. Don't expect to see any new SLRs at CES. For that, you'll have to check back for my postings on the Electronics Blog during the February runup to PMA '09, which opens on March 3.

CES superzoom smackdown. Two companies debuted superzooms (cameras with an optical zoom lens of 10x or more) with very long zoom ranges. The longest superzoom comes from Olympus: the 12-megapixel SP-590UZ (Click on image at right for a closer look), $450, which sports a whopping 26x optical zoom and a focal length of 26-676mm (35mm equivalent). As you can see, the focal lengths include wide-angle capability (26mm). The 590UZ also features two types of image stabilization, mechanical and simulated, to minimize hand shake. It can also store photos on xD or micro SD memory cards and has a 2.7-inch LCD. The SP-590UZ will be available in March.

Kodak's superzoom is just a tad shorter, but a bit cheaper: The 12-megapixel Z980 (Click on image at right for a closer look), $400, has a 24x optical zoom lens and a focal length of 26-624mm (35mm equivalent). Like the SP-590UZ, the Kodak has wide-angle capability. Its image stabilization is in the lens (optical) and it has a 3-inch LCD. It also has some features generally found only on SLRs: a vertical shutter release and a hot shoe for an external flash. The Z980 will be available this spring.

Our testers have found previous superzooms with such extreme zoom ranges to have performance limitations. It'll be interesting to see how these new ones compare to those models.

The wonders of Wi-Fi. Sony was slow in developing a Wi-Fi digital camera, only announcing their first last year: the pricey Cyber-shot G1.

But this year they've retooled this model in a very clever way. The new 10-megapixel, 4x optical zoom Cyber-shot DSC-G3 (Click on image at right for a closer look), $500, is the first Wi-Fi camera with a built-in web browser that can upload both still images and video files. According to Sony, this means you will be able to upload photos and video directly to photo-sharing sites, like Shutterfly, video-sharing sites, like YouTube, and others via Wi-Fi hot spots. Plus, you can use the camera itself to access photos you previously uploaded to these sites and display those on the camera's LCD. That LCD, which is both very large (3.5 inches) and has a very high pixel count (more than 900,000 dots), should be very sharp. The DSC-G3 also has a lot of internal memory (4GB), very unusual for a point-and-shoot. It's available now.

Subcompacts bursting with speed. Casio has announced two 9-megapixel subcompacts (or smallish compacts), Exilim EX-FS10, $350, and Exilim EX-FC100, $400, that include features taken from one of last years most provocative point-and-shoots, the Exilim Pro EX-F1.

What these two new cameras have in common with the EX-F1 is that they have the same incredibly speedy burst mode. According to Casio, both new models let you to fire off 30 shots in a second. And like the F1, they also have special, slow-motion video modes that allow you to capture clips at 1000 frames per second. Both will be available in March.

—Terry Sullivan