Spot Cool Stuff is a big fan of the Canon PowerShot line of point-and-shoot digital cameras. Some PowerShot models are better and some are worse, but in general they offer features and photo quality far exceeding their low price and small size.

Recently, Canon announced new PowerShot models for 2012. Here’s a preview of the three we feel are especially worth considering for purchase:

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You’ve heard of point-and-shoot cameras, single reflex lens (SLR) cameras, micro four-thrids cameras and perhaps even light field cameras. But what about a throwable ball camera? That’s what Jonas Pfeil, student extraordinary at the Technical University of Berlin, developed for a class project (for which we presume he earned high grades).

Using this new type of camera requires more hand-eye coordination than it does photography skills. The “photographer” merely turns on the camera, throws it straight up in the air and catches the ball when it comes down. The camera does the rest.

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Spot Cool Stuff was amongst the first blogs to report on the Lytro, an entirely new sort of camera that allows photographers to focus their shots after they snap their pictures. The “light field cameras,” which were a concept then, are reality now. Lytro is accepting pre-orders on their website as we type.

But just because you can place a pre-order for a Lytro, does that mean you should? Spot Cool Stuff’s takes a look:

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Major electronics companies like Sony, Canon, Nikon and Olympus currently dominate the world’s $40 billion consumer camera market. Now a new company—and by “new” we mean it was literally launched yesterday—aims to change that. The goal of this company, Lytro, is no less to revolutionize photography.

Their camera’s most revolutionary feature: Photographers can focus their shots after they take them!

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Recently one of our resident Cool Spotters gave his father a digital picture frame as a gift. The father responded with the requisite oohs and ahhs and dutifully put his gift up on a shelf. And there it sat, turned off, unused, collecting dust.

The problem was that said father didn’t have the motivation to manage the picture frame settings and to go through the process of loading and unloading photos.

In hindsight, a far better digital picture frame gift would have been the Kodak Pulse.

The cool thing about the Pulse: It can be remotely managed!

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Professional and semi-professional camera equipment can be expensive. Really expensive. Potentially the-equivalent-of-buying-a-car expensive. For photography enthusiasts who can’t afford high-end camera gear—or are leery about making the financial plunge for it—there’s a cool website that will let you rent cameras, lenses, lighting another photography accessories: Borrow Lenses.

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For much of the early and mid 20th century Leica was the world’s most stylish and sophisticated camera manufacturer.

The father of modern photojournalism, Henri Cartier-Bresson, used a Leica camera for his work. While covering World War II he was found himself on the verge of being captured by the enemy. Not only did Cartier-Bresson bury his Leica to prevent it from falling into Nazi hands but made the dangerous mid-war journey to retrieve it after escaping from a POW camp!

In 1954 Leica introduced the M series, which almost single-handedly gave birth to the class of “professional amateur” photographer. Leica’s M cameras allowed for serious photographers (including the grandfather of Spot Cool Stuff) to purchase equipment very much like what high-end photographers were using but at a fraction of the price.

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People who love photography tend to really love photography. They also tend to already have all the cameras, lenses and bags they need (or can afford). So here are 8 relatively inexpensive gifts that the photographer on your gift list is likely to appreciate and not already have. Of course, you should feel free to give any (or all?) these to yourself too.

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