Skip to main content

Best of CES 2013: Photography

Camera announcements at this year’s CES were on the lighter side, possibly due to the fact that Photokina – the big daddy of photo trade shows – took place just a few months prior. Nonetheless, there were a few highlights worth noting. The traditional camera makers are well aware that smartphones are a force to be reckoned with in the digital photography space, and are fighting back with features that phones can’t touch: bigger and better sensors, long optical zooms, and stronger image processors, not to mention that Wi-Fi is finally showing up in more cameras. Here are five models that demonstrate why when you want to take great photos, you still need the real thing.

Check out more top picks in our best of CES 2013 rundown.

Samsung NX300

Samsung has become a major force in the digicam industry in a short period of time. The NX300 demonstrates why Samsung seems to understand better than the competition on what consumers want in a digital camera: a fully connected shooter that’s feature rich, easy to use, and takes great photos. But the buzz about this mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera is its ability to shoot beautiful high-definition videos in 3D, and 3D that actually doesn’t suck!

Check out our first look on the Samsung NX300.

Fujifilm X20

Between its sibling the X100S and the Pentax MX-1, the X20 from Fujifilm is hands-down the most beautiful camera announced at CES. But it’s not just about good looks. Fujifilm stuff this camera with their new X-Trans CMOS II sensor and EXR Processor II that promise to deliver image quality that can keep up with DSLRs with larger sensor. With its high-quality construction, the X20 looks great strapped around any neck.

Read our coverage on the X20 unveil.

Olympus TG-2

If there’s one thing Olympus knows best, it’s how to make a tough camera. Their new TG-2 can take a beating: it can go underwater, all the way down to 50 feet. It’s shock proof and freeze proof, naturally. Besides its rugged features, there’s a serious camera in here. Olympus is using a higher quality back-illuminated CMOS sensor designed for better image quality, plus it has added a fast lens.

Read our preview on this camera here.

Nikon D5200

Although it was first seen in Europe last November, its CES 2013 unveiling marks its official release in the U.S. As the only DSLR announced at this year’s show, the D5200 features the same 39-point autofocusing system and 2,016-pixel RGB metering of the higher-end D7000. We can’t wait to try out this camera because we loved using its predecessor, the D3200. And yes, you can get it in three colors.

Find out more about this APS-C-equipped shooter.

Canon PowerShot N

Like many consumer electronics companies, Canon tends to be more conservative, which is why the PowerShot N is such a departure from anything we’ve seen from Canon. Designed for a younger, more connected generation, Canon’s response to the rise of smartphone photography is designed with photo sharing in mind. Whether the PowerShot N is successful remains to be seen, but Canon deserves to be commended for stepping outside the box and taking a risk.

Watch our video about this unique shooter.

Canon PowerShot N

Editors' Recommendations

Les Shu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I am formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends. I bring with me more than a decade of tech and lifestyle journalism…
I tested the Pixel 6 Pro’s camera against the iPhone 13 Pro to see which is best
Pixel 6 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro in hand.

The iPhone 13 Pro may be Apple’s latest smartphone, but its camera isn’t a big upgrade over the iPhone 12 Pro. So where does that leave Apple when it competes with the newly released Google Pixel 6 Pro? The iPhone and the Pixel have long fought for camera supremacy, and if the 13 Pro can’t always best its predecessor, can it at least beat Google’s latest model? To find out, I took both phones out for a couple of days to take a selection of photos, and the outcome may come as a surprise to some.
Camera specs and testing procedure
Before we look at the photos, let’s check the specs of each camera. The Google Pixel 6 Pro has a 50-megapixel main camera joined by a 48MP telephoto camera with 4x optical zoom, plus a 12MP wide-angle camera. The Apple iPhone 13 Pro has three 12MP cameras, with the telephoto providing a 3x zoom, and the wide-angle camera a 120-degree field of view.

The iPhone 13 Pro has iOS 15.1 installed, and the Google Pixel 6 Pro has Android 12. All photos were taken back-to-back, and all I did was press the shutter button. Once the shots had been taken, I compared them all on a color-calibrated monitor. You’re seeing the original photos below, just slightly resized to make them more suitable for online use.

Read more
Autel’s EVO Lite and Nano drones are primed to compete with DJI’s best
Autel Evo Nano.

Autel has launched its new EVO Nano and EVO Light drones, which are aimed at competing with DJI’s line of compact, lightweight drones. Autel is perhaps the most direct rival DJI has in the consumer drone space, and that rivalry just got a bit more intense.

First up is the EVO Nano, with its notable 249-gram weight, which falls below the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) 250-gram threshold. Drones above that weight must be registered with the FAA in the U.S. This is the same lightweight category currently dominated by the DJI Mavic Mini 2, against which the EVO Nano possesses a few notable advantages. For one, it features three-way obstacle avoidance, which is a unique innovation in a drone weighing less than 250 grams.

Read more
XPan Mode on the OnePlus 9 Pro isn’t the best use of Hasselblad’s expertise
oneplus 9 pro hasselblad camera deep dive

OnePlus and Hasselblad’s partnership centers around software at the moment, with the famous camera manufacturer tweaking the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro’s camera app, rather than working on the hardware. An update on its way to these two phones at the moment adds a new Hasselblad camera mode called XPan, based on a famous camera made by the company, and we’ve tried it out.

While I appreciate what the pair are doing, there is a big difference between panoramic photos taken with a specialist camera, and the same thing replicated using software on a mainstream smartphone. Unfortunately, XPan Mode strays into gimmicky territory, and it makes me a little concerned about the future of the partnership.
What is XPan?
Unless you’re a very keen photographer or a Hasselblad devotee, you’ve probably never heard of XPan, so what is it? XPan is quite geeky, so bear with me. First launched in 1998 in partnership with Fuji, the XPan camera could take photos in the normal 24 x 36 mm format, plus a 24 x 65mm format, all on the same film. This resulted in it being able to take startling panoramic photos with a very distinctive look, and in a slightly simpler way than before.

Read more