Cameras today, Do they have too many functions.

[John Doyle2]

What next!. Nikon announces a new Coolpix with built - in Projector. Sound system maybe
What is wrong with just a camera for taking photos only!

[Chris P]

I know what you mean but surely this is just a logical progression from video?!

Seriously though, its just marketing.  Nikon can claim another world first and hopefully more people will buy their cameras!  It'll definitely sell to those people who have to have the lastest gadgets.  How useful it is will really be dependant on the power and quality of the projector which I can't imagine will be that good considering the size of the camera it's been squeezed into!

[greypoint]

But why buy a camera at all when you can get a phone that takes photos at ever growing numbers of mp,plays music,shows TV and films,stores every possible bit of info you'll ever need and you can even use to make the odd phone call?! 

[Chris P]

Actually you make a good point.

I think the other reason Nikon have done this (and Fuji just releasing their new 3D camera) is to try and keep compacts one step ahead of mobile phones.  People are less and less likely to spend money on a compact camera if their mobile does everything their compact does and more besides?  No-one will buy a compact if things keep going that way.

By sticking more and more gubbins on compact cameras the manufacturers are keeping them a level above the mobile phone.  Even the "tough" or "rugged" compacts stand out from the crowd a little.  We used to get "ruggedised" mobile phones but they seem to have fallen along the way now and most people have forgotten about them.

That projector, twin lens 3D system, rugged/waterproof casing, touch screen or whatever else is a marketing ploy to keep the companies in business.  And in my opinion it's not all bad.

[John Doyle2]

Inevitable progression in today's world, I guess. Cameras trying to keep up with mobile phones, phew. Personally, I would have preferred to see Nikon produce a Coolpix with a larger Sensor! and thereby resulting in less noise. So that I could have a decent pocket camera. 

[Chris P]

Inevitable progression in today's world, I guess. Cameras trying to keep up with mobile phones, phew. Personally, I would have preferred to see Nikon produce a Coolpix with a larger Sensor! and thereby resulting in less noise. So that I could have a decent pocket camera. 

That would be nice but it's expensive.  Sticking an APS-C sized sensor in a compact would cost more than a dodgy little projector.  Ultimately it's about getting something novel into your new compact that's not going to cost the earth 

[oRGie]

canon or nikon or whoever should stick a sim slot and mobile phone gubbins into a compact to take the pish out of the phones

[Chris P]

They haven't done it cos it's too expensive.

People don't realise how heavily subsidised mobile phones are.  If you consider the amount of technology in a modern mobile (I'm listening to music through mine as we speak) it's quite amazing.  Have a look at somewhere like the carphone warehouse at handset only prices and you'll see what I mean.  Even PAYG handsets are heavily subsidised.  For example, the new Nokia N97 is £530 for the handset alone.
When you think it's got good cellular phone technology, large hi(ish) res touch screen, 8MP camera, radio, wi-fi and everything else in it you suddenly realise that it's not as expensive as it first seems.

We think of mobiles as phones but they are so much more than that.  It's for that reason that Canon/Nikon/Pentax/Sony/Olympus/Bronica/Minolta/Kodak/Leaf or whoever haven't stuck a sim card in their cameras.  If you thought your camera was expensive try bolting a sim card onto it and then see how much it costs!

[Hinfrance]

Hmmm, you know for all the technology bolted on to modern 'phones I have yet to find one that you can actually see the screen of in bright sunlight (sorry UK guys, we get quite a lot of that here). It is for that reason primarily that I still have an antique Nokia with a mono LCD screen. Not being a vampire and sometimes having the need to use the 'phone in daylight the clear high contrast mono screen suits me perfectly. My wife lent me her phone recently and I managed to turn it off because I couldn't actually see where I was in the menu system and by the time I found somewhere dark enough to see the screen I realised that I didn't know the code to switch it back on. Dang!

And touch screens are worse than useless for me - I can't use the touch pad on a laptop because even as I bring my finger near to it the mouse pointer starts zooming around the screen and clicking at random. Yep, don't even have to touch it.

[Jonathan]

Nearly 3 years ago I was shown a prototype sensor for a camera phone.  It had 10 MP.  There was no plan to use it at 10MP but they had come up with a clever zoom system involving a higher density sensor.  So you get optical zoom without the optical bit.  AFAIK it has never made it to market.

The same company also showed me a sensor capable of shooting as something stupid like 10,000 frames per second.  They had a film of a water balloon bursting shot in bright sunshine and played back in slow mo.  It was staggering.

BTW I think one of the Nikons allows you to add music to a slideshow.  But of course has no way of playing it.  And they already have wi-fi in some cameras so Skype can't be far behind.  I can play Doom on my G9.  Apparently.  It's not the only press launch I've been to where people were sniggering at the "features" in cameras.

[Chris P]

I can play Doom on my G9.

Quite frankly AWESOME!

[Trickee]

all these extra gadgets are trying to give the buying public extra value for their money. i have recently selected a new tv for my parents as they found it a minefield to choose one, it arrived ,i unpacked it and it has a slot to put a usb memory stick in to show slide shows, so instead of taking my laptop round to show them my photos i just wack in a memory stick wicked
As far as cameras go an SLR with hd video will never be on my shopping list.

[Chris P]

As far as cameras go an SLR with hd video will never be on my shopping list.

But what if it's a really good SLR that just happens to have video?  Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it! 

Personally I don't care how much extra rubbish they put in camera bodies so long as they continue to make the cameras better.

[John Doyle2]

When I started out, cameras didn,t have exposure meters built in, auto focus was something unheard of and the early SLRs blocked out the view finder when you pressed the shutter. So, some improvements were really worthwhile! I feel that the cameras today, have so much built in, huge menu systems, editing in situ, GPS and video on some models and so on,  that I feel any further gadgetry would be distracting to the prime purpose of a Camera!
Regards

[greypoint]

But if they did'nt keep adding those 'must have' features you would'nt need to keep upgrading and they would'nt make any profits