Pentax are today launching the Optio RZ18, a pocketable compact digital camera boasting an 18x optical zoom.

Shooting 16MP pics with a 3-inch preview LCD screen, the RZ18 covers focal lengths from 25mm wide angle to 450mm super-telephoto in 35mm formats.

Macro shooting and panorama modes are supported by plenty of auto-scene selection offerings for all shooting scenarios, while a CCD-shift-type shake reduction mechanism helps compensate for shakey hand wobblings when you're snapping away.

Other features include a burst shooting mode of 9 images a second, Face and Pet detection and 1280 x 720 pixels HD-ready video capture.

Available in black, pearl or orange, catch the RZ18 in stores from mid October for a penny shy of £200.

The annual IFA tech show in Berlin has come to a close for yet another year, after bringing plenty brand new gadgets and gizmos to the table to start saving for. It's a massive show, packed with everything from AV gear to mobile phones and home appliances, but we've sifted the wheat from the chaff to give you our highlights from Europe largest electronics expo. Here's Tech Digest's IFA Best in Show for 2011.

BEST TV: Sharp 8K4K Super High-Def TV

The TV that Tech Digest shall set as the high-watermark all others must aim for for the forseeable future, Sharp's 8K4K prototype was by far the most stunning screen we've ever seen, and our favourite item overall at this year's show. Though it's not going to be commercially available for at least the best part of a decade, we were treated to a jaw-dropping presentation of footage 16-times the pixel density of full HD 1080p. We felt sorry for all the TVs we had to check out at the show after seeing this one so early on, as none of the others stood a chance in comparison.

BEST SMARTPHONE/TABLET: Samsung Galaxy Note

Not a great show for tablets or smartphones, with Sony's offerings a little underwhelming and few other manufacturers making a splash. Samsung's Galaxy Note, while not everyone's cup of tea, at least attempted something slightly different, with its massive screen and stylus input. Jobs may have delcared the stylus dead with Apple's touchscreen devices, but Samsung quite rightly still see a place for digital note taking with an input pen.

BEST PROJECTOR: Epson EH-T9000W

If you've got a few grand to spare, Epson proved that having your very own 3D cinema experience in your living room is a relatively affordable reality this year. Showing off their first line of 3D projectors, the stunning visuals were made all the sweeter thanks to the inclusion of Wi-Fi smarts in the EH-T9000W top-end model.

BEST LAPTOP: Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook

Who said Windows machines couldn't be as good-looking as Apple devices? Acer's Aspire S3 Ultrabook paired great looks and portability with supercharged power in a laptop that offered both i7 and SSD high-end configurations.

MADDEST GADGET: Jean-Michel Jarre's AeroDream One 11ft iPad dock

Jean-Michel Jarre; a man known equally for his pioneering electronic music and dazzling live light shows. He'll now also be known as the man behind the world's most ridiculous iPad dock, the 11ft tall AeroDream One. Tech Digest had the pleasure of talking to the French musical legend at IFA 2011 in the video above, where Jarre explains the inspiration behind his designs.

For more coverage from IFA 2011, click here.

Plenty of cameras on show at IFA 2011, but the quirkiest of the bunch was Samsung's MV800 compact.

Featuring a fold up touchscreen, your photo's subjects are able to quickly fix their hair in the front-facing screen before each shot, while you can then flip it back into a more traditional position for scrolling through menus and adding after-effects.

And what a great supply of after-effects Samsung have popped in here. Our favourite was the Magic Frame, letting you pop parts of your photo into pre-made frames, some of which will just make for Facebook profile shot gold. Fancy popping your features onto a full moon above an ocean with a sombre saling ship heading towards your folorn features from the foreground? It's done with the MV800.

You can also use the touchscreen to rub out specific sections of photos, and then re-shoot the areas that you've made available for tweaking. Look for the hilarious results as I tried to squeeze my own head back into a shot from which I had earlier deleted it in the video above. Pet owners will rejoice as they use the MV800 to make "Cat-Man" finally live!

Looking at more standard snapper features, it's a 16.1MP resolution camera, with 5x optical zoom and 26mm wide angle lens. Panaroma shots can be taken, and in 3D too, but will need a 3D television with which to view them in all their three-dimensional glory.

Expect to see the MV800 in shops later this month, priced around the £250 mark.

Along with its new mobile phone and tablet offerings, Samsung has just unveiled the new MV800 Multiview camera at IFA 2011 in Berlin.

The is tailored to make sure you get shots from all kinds of angles with its unique 3 inch flip out display, a good quality image with 16.1 megapixels, detailed close ups with its 5x optical zoom and wide angle shots with its 26mm lens.

Its USP is the flip-out screen, which is apparently a first for a compact camera, but there are plenty of other features to shout about including advanced touchscreen in the screen and a range of panorama settings.

Samsung also seems to be ticking all of the boxes when it comes to photo editing, with a funny face setting (which doesn't really seem necessary), as well as a range of filters and a comprehensive photo editor.

There's also interestingly a Beauty Shot feature which promises to blur out imperfections on your face, which I'm pretty undecided about at the moment...

There's no official word about when the MV800 will be available, but Tech Radar has guessed it'll be around mid-September at retail at around £249.

Though many are predicting the death of the compact camera thanks to the quality of built-in snappers in smartphones these days, Panasonic at least think the two gadgets can get together and get along as they launch their Lumix FX90 compact.

With 802.11.n Wi-Fi, you can pair the camera with the Lumix Link iPhone and Android apps allowing you to quickly share your snaps to social networks like Facebook and photo hosting sites like Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube for videos. You'll need to be signed up to Panasonic's Lumix Club cloud storage service to access the apps though.

Looking at the FX90's more standard specs, you're getting a 12MP CCD sensor with a f2.5 ultrawide-angle 24mm lens and 5x zoom.

Video capture comes in at 1080i resolution at 60fps, while a 3 inch touchscreen lets you navigate the camera's options and features.

No word on pricing or release dates yet, but with the Lumix Club launching on September 5th, we'd imagine a similar launch window for the camera itself too.

Nikon may be a little late to the party when it comes to rugged, tough cameras, but at least their first offering (the Coolpix AW100, revealed today) is packed to the rafters with nifty features.

Shockproof from heights of 1.5 metres, waterproof to 10 metres and withstanding cold temperatures as low as -10 degrees, it'll handle pretty much any extreme situation that the average person could possibly find themselves in. It may not be one for Bear Grylls, but it'll certainly do for Joe Bloggs.

A 16 MP snapper, its more tech-y features include GPS mapping (including built-in maps) and geo-tagging, a back-illuminated CMOS sensor and Easy Panorama modes for 180/360degree shots.

One handed shots are made easy with an "Action Control" button, allowing you to change settings with it pressed down by swinging the camera around, while the camera canbe set to automatically adjust brightness and white balance settings amonst others based on lighting conditions.

Available in orange, black and camouflage, Nikon's Coolpix AW100 is out on the 8th September, costing £329.99.

Superslim cameras are the order of the day with Canon today, who have just revealed the IXUS 1100 HS compact, the world's slimmest to squeeze in a 12x optical zoom.

A new Intelligent IS system, which automatically identifies the shooting environment and adapts appropriately into one of seven preset shooting modes, is backed by a 4-stop optical image stabilizer.

A 12.1MP CMOS sensor uses Canon's proprietary DIGIC 4 image processing engine "to capture the natural ambiance of a scene, producing crisp, low-noise images without having to use the flash or a tripod." The camera is also capable of 1080p video capture.

Scrolling through the many menus is a cinch thanks to a 3.2-inch PureColor II Touch LCD, letting you quickly access features like high-speed burst and Super Slow Motion Movie modes, and "creative modes" including miniature, fish-eye, super vivid and poster effects, toy camera and monochrome.

Due in October, it's yours for £369.

Sony have announced the launch of the world's first pairs of digital binoculars to feature HD video recording. Two models will be available, the DEV-5 and the less expensive DEV-3.

Tech heavy binoculars for bird watchers and peeping Toms alike, the binoculars can record full 1080p video with stereo sound, and even features a 3D recording mode.

G Lens optics with Exmor R CMOS is the sensor of choice, with a 10x Optical Zoom on both models and 10x digital zoom on the DEV-5. 7MP still photos can be captured too.

HDMI-out to a big screen TV is supported, as well as an optional 5-inch LCD screen add-on. 3 hours of 2D recording will be possible from a single battery charge.

Available from November, the DEV-5 will set you back £2,300.

The cheaper DEV-3 ditches features like GPS, geo-tagging and the 10x digital zoom for a more affordable price of £1,700.

As soon as we saw them though, all we could think of was Luke Skywalker's sci-fi binoculars from the original Star Wars film. Click here to see what we mean.

Olympus have just revealed the SP-810UZ Ultra Zoom camera. As it's name suggests, it's got a mighty 36x wide-angle zoom, probably letting you snap an ant from atop a tower block if our unscientific calculations are correct. Which they probably aren't.

But that's still some crazy zoom tech going on, and with Dual Image Stabilisation and enhanced ISO sensitivity, you're going to be able to take pin-sharp pictures from miles away.

Auto-focus tracking for fast moving scenes is accompanied by Advanced Face Detection and a "Beauty Mode", which should help you look your best even on the roughest of Monday mornings. 10 art filters to adjust the image can be applied, while there's also room for super-wide panaroma stitched shots too.

Eye-Fi card compatibility and optional 3D still shooting modes round off a feature rich snapper.

Available in black or silver, you can grab the Olympus SP-810UZ Ultra Zoom from September for £229.99.

Yesterday we brought you news of fresh rumours concerning the Nikon mirrorless compact camera, and now it looks as though Sony are preparing a new bit of mirrorless camera kit too. Up top is the latest leaked image of what seems to be Sony's mirrorless NEX-5N camera.

Said to feature a 16.1 MP Exmor CMOS Sensor, it's also packing an OLED viewfinder with eye proximity sensor close to that found in the Fuji X100. ISO range is 100-25600, while 1080p video recording is in AVCHD 2.0 format.

Shutter speeds of 1/4000 shutter (with 0.02 seconds lag) are touted, along with 10 frames per second burst shooting, a 430 shot battery and a 3 inch 921k dots touch screen LCD.

The shot may look official, but neither it nor the specs have come from Sony's own hand as of yet. We're going to have to wait a little bit longer for official details on the NEX-5N, but you know where to look for it once it arrives.

Via: Photo Rumours

Nikon's mirrorless compact camera has been rumoured for quite some time, but this image released by Nikon Rumours is the closest we've come to seeing what such a device will actually appear like. Whether the shot above is a spy shot of the real deal, or simply a concept mock-up we don't yet know, but it still gives an indication of what to expect.

With a design similar to the Nikon Coolpix P300, the mirrorless camera looks as though it would feature a lens release button, and a dedicated video recrding butotn too, with two mics for audio.

A viewfinder would be of the electronic kind, while a flash would integrated alongside a small grip, according to the site. There would be no control dial on top, and an electronic rather than hardware zoom controls.

The camera has also previously been rumoured to feature the same sensor as the Pentax Q, Pentax's own first mirrorless compact. Canon too are rumoured to be working on a mirrorless compact system.

Official word on the Nikon mirrorless compact camera is expected next month, so check back to Tech Digest for all the latest details.

Via: Nikon Rumours

It's not just the high-end F600 EXR compact that Fujifilm are touting today; those on a tighter budget are being offered the new FinePix JX370 too, which considering its sub-£90 price tag is very impressive indeed.

A 14MP snapper with a 5X optical zoom, it can record 720p HD movies, with an easy upload option to pump the films onto YouTube or Facebook quickly. A 2.7 inch LCD is used to preview snaps and vids.

Panoramic shooting modes and face, blink and smile detection , alongside digital image stabilisation, all feature. Not necessarily groundbreaking stuff, but you're going to have to do some searching to find them in a brand new camera this cheap.

Available in silver, black or pink, the Fujifilm FinePix JX370 will touch down in October, priced at £89.

Fujifilm's latest super compact, the FinePix F600EX, will not only take a mean picture, but will direct you to cool locations that would make prime subjects for snapping too.

Featuring an innovative Augmented Reailty mode, the F600EX comes pre-loaded with around 1 million editable landmarks which can be displayed on the camera's 3-inch 460k LCD screen, helping you to locate tourist hotspots and the like while you focus on taking the best pictures possible.

Even it's more regular features are pretty damn impressive; a 15x optical zoom is backed up with a 30x digital zoom, with the sensor a tasty 0.5-inch 16-megapixel EXR CMOS.

Motion detection software kicks in automatically when higher ISO settings are needed, eliminating shot-ruining blur. The F600EX is also capable of 1080p HD video recording.

Looking very impressive indeed then for a compact. Due out in October with an RRP of £269, you'll be able to pick it up in red, black and white colours.

Photographers professional and casual alike have another tool they can add to their arsenal of picture snapping gadgets today in the shape of Triggertrap.

Designed by writer and photographer Haje Jan Kamps, Triggertrap is a brand new concept that allows photos to be taken automatically by any number of triggers, and is compatible with many camera systems, DSLR or compact.

A device that comes with a light sensor, Triggertrap can be programmed to be activated by a laser pointer, or when a laser light beam is broken by something passing through it.

Based on an open-source Arduino platform, Triggertrap is flexible enough to be programmed to activate your shutter by a multitude of external means, be that a loud sound like a clap, or even the opening of cookie jar if you're wondering which member of the family is dipping their hand in for a secret midnight feast. An auaxiliary port allows for any number of hardware triggers to be added too.

Triggertrap also allows for non-linear time lapses to be shot, configured to increase or decrease the interval between the shot and giving the impression that a photographed scene is speeding up or slowing down.

Having already crowd-sourced $60,000 worth of investment, Triggertrap's Jan Kamps is now pushing for $100,000 to take the product to the masses.

You can pre-order the Triggertrap now however to ensure you're among those to bag one of the first production batch. Shipping in October, pre-ordered now for $75 + $5 shipping via Kickstarter until 31 July 2011. After that, the price increases to $125.

For more info, visit the Triggertrap website here.

Sony have revealed the world's thinnest compact camera this morning. With a chassis measuring just 92.9mm x 54.4mm x 13.2mm, and at 12.2mm at its thinnest point, it'll slip as comfortably into your pocket as a silky smartphone.

And that's without losing all the great features you'd expect from a dedicated compact. You'll get 5x optical zoom, which can be boosted to 10x through Sony's Clear Image digital zoom, which they claim "boosts zoom range to 10x without any loss of quality at the image sensor's maximum resolution" (though we'd be a little skeptical about the quality of digital zooms in general).

A 3.3 inch OLED touchscreen on the back more or less does away with buttons, with all menu options and image tweaks such as Intelligent Sweep Panorama HR mode, 3D Sweep Panorama, 3D Still Image, and in-camera artistic treatments with Picture Effect all accessible through touch.

Continuing the diminuitve trend is storage. You'll need a microSD card rather than a standard SD for the DSC-TX55. Image resolution maxes out at 16.2 MP, with Full-HD AVCHD video capture too. In a nice touch, you can still snap 12-MP pictures whilst recording HD video.

Find this snapper in shops by September, with pricing yet to be revealed. Scroll down for some more pictures.

Panasonic's 2011 camera push continues today as they reveal the latest addition to their Lumix range, the DMC-FZ48. Set to be a stonking little shooter, it's packed full of features to make casual snappers and the paparazzi alike take note.

Top of the features list is a 24x optical zoom, enough to get a close up shot of a paperclip from miles away. This is paired with 12.1MP stills and 1080p video capture, making the DMC-FZ48 the peeping Tom's new best friend.

Elsewhere you get the usual array of filters and pro-level imaging controls, as well as Intelligent Auto settings for those less well versed in camera wizadry, while the DMC-FZ48 also has the ability to shoot 3D photos providing you've got a 3D TV to display them on.

Release date and pricing have yet to be confirmed, but we'll pass any info on as we recieve it.

Name: Finepix X100 (Fujifilm)

Type: Compact digital camera

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £999 from Amazon

Image Gallery: Click here

It may look like an analogue relic from a bygone age, but this latest snapper from Fujifilm is full to the brim with ground-breaking, class-leading digital tech that puts other compacts to shame. Is it enough to justify the Finepix X100's whopping price tag though?

The Finepix X100 has obviously been a labour of love for Fujifilm. Every single aspect of its build seems finely detailed, recalling the same retro-chic that only Lecia seem to have been able to successfully conjure of late. Mixing a powder-finished magnesium alloy body with a textured leather wrap, its as though the camera's just jumped out of the Tardis after a trip to 1960s, and it all feels nice and sturdy. Likewise, the metal control dials found on the top are solidly put together too, and even the potentially flimsy plastic control wheel on the rear feels secure to the touch. It's satisfyingly weighty at 445 grams, though it also means the X100 could hardly be considered pocket-friendly.

For all its old-skool looks however, the Finepix X100 is a decidedly modern camera under its chassis. Despite its somewhat-misleading compact categorisation, you're actually getting a ton of pro-level features and genuine innovations that a regular point-and-shoot compact could only dream of. If the £1,000 price tag wasn't enough of a clue, the fixed-lens X100 is aimed squarely at enthusiasts.

An unusual 12.3-megapixel image sensor sits inside, with an APS-C size format. It's a fair sight larger than the sensor you'd find in the majority of compacts, and sits closer to the DSLR end of the digital camera scale, allowing for great results at high ISO levels by drawing in substantially more light. To illustrate, you'll be able to hit ISO 6,400 when capturing RAW files and ISO 12,800 when snapping JPEG images.

The fixed-lens set-up here is just as strange too. Wide angle with a fixed focal length of 23mm with aperture values of f2-f16, it also allows plenty of light to reach the image, and lowers the levels of edge distortion to your pictures. It does however detract from the camera's flexibility however, as it means the camera doesn't pack any optical zoom features, which will definitely frustrate casual users.

Rounding off a trio of unusual features is the Finepix X100's hybrid viewfinder, which is in many respects the camera's crown jewel. A switch on the front of the camera allows the user to swap on the fly between an optical viewfinder as found on the analogue cameras from which the X100 takes its retro inspiration, and a 1,440,000-pixel electronic viewfinder. It's a "best of both worlds" scenario; on one hand you get the clarity of the optical viewfinder which is great for establishing a scene, but it offers less coverage than the electronic option which also allows you to overlay shot and settings data across the image, as well as getting the 100% coverage necessary for accurate framing. Used in conjunction with the rear-mounted 2.8 inch LCD panel and it's a highly efficient system.

Offering a far more detailed level of control than your average compact, it's a crime to leave the Finepix X100 in auto-mode, though doing so will throw up finely detailed snaps nonetheless. No, delving into the wizardry behind each dial is the order of the day, but as a result this is not a camera for the casual photography fan.

Aperture settings can be tweaked using a front lens ring, which while responsive, was a little too small to comfortably tweak on the fly. Top mounted dials for exposure compensation and shutter speed sit on the top. Beyond these hardware controls, most other settings can be tweaked with a scroll wheel/control pad set up within deep menus.

Once played about with, the camera offers delightful shots in most every scenario. Colours are rich and without being overly-saturated, accurate without being washed out. Digital artefacting is incredibly low for what is still "technically" a compact, while a welcome bokeh effect (putting sharp objects into relief of their softer surroundings) looks astounding. As mentioned earlier, low light shooting is great thanks to excellent response at high ISO settings, remaining noise-free. Those who like to shoot high-speed action scenarios will be frustrated by the camera's relatively slow boot time of a few seconds, though will likely find its burst shooting settings of 10 JPEGs or 8 RAW shots at up to 5 frames a second fair compensation.

Though we fell in love with the X100's quirks and charms, it did have a handful of problems that left us a little wanting. Though the addition of 720p HD video recording is a welcome one, we found its clarity here to be a little lacking in detail, and at times out-and-out choppy. Though options for single and continuous autofocus are available, we found the later of the two options in 720p recording mode a little sluggish. We were also a little disappointed with the afore-mentioned 2.8 inch LCD. Though perfectly serviceable, the 460K res screen could easily have been bumped up to an OLED for this price, and given the size of the camera as a whole, a few simply accommodated tweaks to the rear button layout could have allowed for a considerably larger display. Macro mode left a little to be desired too, with 10cm being roughly the closest that the camera could satisfyingly focus from.

Verdict:

Not quite as flexible as a DSLR, nor as user friendly as a standard compact, the Finepix X100 is a bit of an anomaly in the digital camera market. It's lovingly designed, and its hybrid viewfinder may well prove to be a sneak-peek at the future of high-end snappers, not to mention the sheer quality of the images it produces. Though it remains a niche product, those looking for a unique compact offering lots of technical control will find a lot to love here.

Beautiful camera makers Lecia have announced to Magnum photographers gathered in Paris that they are soon to luanch the Lecia M9-P camera, the world's smallest full-frame digital camera system.

Part of Lecia's rangefinder portfolio aimed at photography pros, it has more or less the same specs as the aready-available Lecia M9, in a substantially reduced size. In other words you're still getting the top-notch 18MP, 24x36mm sensor (35mm format), but in a more compact design.

There are a handful of new features though. A new anti-reflective coating on the LCD screen will make using the display in conditions with hgh brightness more viable, while a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal covering will make the display pretty much unbreakable. A vulcanite leathertte finish completes the luscious design.

Due out this month, the Lecia M9-P will be available in silver chrome and black shades, with a £5,395 price tag.

Significantly smaller than its GF2 predecessor, Panasonic have today revealed their smallest Micro Four Thirds camera yet; the Panasonic Lumix GF3.

Replacing the retro stylings of the GF2 with a more modern aluminuim casing, the camera is 16% smaller than previous models thanks to a rejigged lens and repositioned pop-up flash.

You still get all the top features that made the GF2 so great though. A 12.MP snapper, it has an ISO range of 160-6400, a 4fps burst mode and 1080i HD video capture at 25fps, easily played back on big screens thanks to HDMI and digital AV connections.

A 3 inch touchscreen sits on the back, which allows for touch focus (auto-focussing in just 0.18 seconds) as well as letting you customise menus with a drag-and-drop icon interface.

Compatible with both Panasonic and Olympus lenses, the GF3 will ship with a zoom lens for £499. £549 wil get you the body and a pancake lens, while £629 will get you a 4-42mm F/3.5-5.6 standard zoom lens and 14mm F/2.5 pancake lens along with the body.

The Panasonic Lumix GF3 Micro Four Thirds will be available from next month.

We're no newcomers to the "Megapixel Wars" but this is a bit ridiculous - Sigma are planning on launching a new DSLR camera with a 46MP sensor in Japan on June 10th. Called the Sigma DS1, it's price will be just as high as its megapixel count.

But first, the specs; using classic 35mm stylings, that impressive megapixel stat is thanks to a Foveon 23.5×15.7mm APS-C X3 direct image sensor. Compatible with a range of interchangeable lenses, it uses Type 1 Compact Flash Cards and is UDMA-compatible in order to quickly process the masses of data a 46MP image contains. ISO sensitivity ranges from100 to 6400, while a 3-inch LCD TFT color monitor with 460,000 pixel resolution sits on the rear.

It's a high end bit of kit aimed at pro photographers, so if you we're expecting to get much change from a couple of month's salary after buying this, think again. It's expected to retail for around $9700, or £5978.