With no particular goal or plan in mind, I’ve decided this week to take a look at four digital camera products, each offering a different approach to capturing our attention with novel features. From a compact shooter designed to appeal to our most narcissistic and base needs to a DSLR that tries to do everything under the sun, including shooting movies in High Definition. I have a spy lens for shooting others unaware, and perhaps the most astonishing, a simple camera that actually takes an excellent photo, every time regardless of who’s using it.

The Beauty Shot

Samsung PL60

$200

In recent years camera manufacturers have gone overboard in their efforts to invent new ways to correct our looks by using innovations in face recognition. Smile detection prevents the camera from snapping a photo until the subject smiles, Blink Detection will only allow the photo to snap when the subject’s eyes are open. Blemish removal takes out pimples and birthmarks after the photo is taken while digital slimming narrows the image to give the illusion of weight loss. I thought Sony’s “Smile Correction” mode had topped them all in silliness, actually warping the corners of a person’s mouth into a smile, creating surreal visages that look anything but happy, however this week Samsung now holds the crown for the silliest of vanity modes with a feature they call “Beauty Shot”.

“Maybe she’s born with it….Maybe it’s Samsung”

This is the utterly ridiculous marketing tag line for the Samsung Beauty Shot, a camera mode that is capable of identifying imperfections in your face and automatically applying digital touch-up techniques to correct them. Sony’s Smile Correction merely morphs the corners of your mouth, here Samsung attacks the entirety of your face.

Designed for those who like to take pictures of themselves at parties and social events, the camera also includes a self-shooting mode where you can turn the camera on yourself and it will beep when it detects that your face is lined up in the middle of the screen. It also includes a High Sensitivity ISO 3200 to improves its performance for low lighting conditions.

The 10.2 Megapixel camera also includes Smile and Blink detection, Face Detection for autofocus and exposure, plus dual image stabilization to country shaky hands and tipsiness from late night partying.

EXR - The Only Camera Mode You’ll Ever Need

Fujifilm Finepix F200 EXR

$400

We use the term “Point And Shoot” to describe digital cameras that are designed around an automatic experience. Cameras for vacation, family pictures, get togethers and social events with friends. The truth is that even the most consumer-friendly cameras fail to make it as easy as “point and shoot”. They all require you to learn about ISO levels, scene modes. Do you know what the icon with the little flower means? How about the mountains? Many people simply don’t want to know.

Fujifilm’s EXR mode solves all of that. It’s one setting that will deliver an excellent photo under any condition, daylight or night, close or far.

All cameras today come with the ability to automatically correct some camera settings for you. They analyze the image coming through the lens and apply an adjustment to match. Some of the latest cameras even have the ability to detect what “scene mode” you should be using and activate it for you.

But in each case these cameras apply a blanket correction. If the image has a portion that is under-exposed, it adjusts the brightness for the entire image. If a portion of the image suffers from some low-light “noise”, again it corrects the entire image.

FujiFilm’s EXR sensor is sophisticated enough to apply fixes only to the pixels that need it. So if only a portion of a photo is under-exposed, only those pixels get corrected. The sensor can also apply two different types of corrections to the same photo, adjusting the under-exposed pixels of one part while correcting the over-exposed pixels of another.

It takes awhile to get used to, the changes can be dramatic enough that what you see on the LCD screen isn’t always what appears in the final shot, but the results are always satisfying.

Yes, it still has the manual settings and scene modes of other cameras, in case you do want to learn how to apply corrections yourself, but for those moments when you don’t have the time to change settings or you need to hand the camera off to someone else to take the photo, you have the comfort of knowing that just setting it to EXR will take care of everything for you.

High Definition Movies

Nikon D5000

With 18-55mm VR Lens $1,059

Not content with merely creating one of the fastest cameras in the entry-level DSLR market (four fps continuous shooting) and arming it with an array of professional settings for still photography, Nikon decided to expand the capabilities of its latest 12.3 Megapixel camera to include High Definition video. That’s right, this DSLR also doubles as a camcorder. Hey if a Flip camcorder can do it, why not a DSLR?

The D5000 can record at 720p resolution at 24 frames per second. Movies are stored on the SD memory card and can be played to an HDTV through HDMI.

Yes, it is a feature that feels shoe-horned into a system designed around sensors and optics for still photography. Autofocus for example isn’t available in video recording, but you still get the benefit of high-end optics and how many camcorders have an interchangeable lens system?

PhotoJoJo Super Secret Spy Lens

Bower Mirror Angle Scope 

$50 - $55

Photojojo.com

At first glance this spy lens attachment looks like a gag item out of the back page of an old comic book where ads claimed to offer X-ray glasses, but the Bower Mirror Angle Scope works exactly as advertised, allowing you to take pictures out of the side of your lens instead of through the front. It does this using a periscope system. An angled mirror inside the extension reflects light coming in through a hole in the side to the real lens on the camera. 

The intent isn't for spying, but instead to give street photographers and nature photographers the ability to capture their subjects without spooking them by pointing a long lens in their direction. Both humans and animals tend to freeze instinctively when someone's pointing a scope at us. On today's streets and public places we're even more sensitive as thanks to cellphones and compact cameras, everyone and anyone can be snapping a picture of you. 

To be clear, the Mirror Scope itself doesn't effect image quality, just the direction with which you shoot. Its an attachment that goes onto the end of the lens of your DSLR camera and can work with a wide range of interchangeable lens. When you order the mirror scope you'll need to also order a lens adaptor to work with your specific model of DSLR.