Today I tried to do a selfie using an older digital zoom compact. Let's just say it didn't work. A friend wanted a photo of this pudgy little white guy. The camera used to be good until it went wrong and Canon repaired it - it was a known warranty fault. After the repair during which the sensor was changed, image quality was never as good. Focusing certainly wasn't as good. It used to focus when it was doing a selfie. Now it just won't. As a result it gets used solely for video now. Bizarrely, it focuses well for video.
I have been on a quest to seek out a better camera that takes sharper images and does better quality video. Sadly, this quest thus far has been fruitless. The digital video cameras are generally very good but way over what I'd be prepared to pay for the amount I'd be using it. The digital compacts have either vanished totally or are gigantic behemoths that aren't deserving of the word compact. Nevertheless, I looked at one of the Nikons. I looked at the video and was not greatly impressed. Nikon scored an own goal. The photographs looked blurry. I put my glasses on and looked more closely and yes they were blurry. Definitely not what should have been promoted in a promotional video. It was like screaming "Hey, we're Nikon and we just slapped out this camera". Clearly riding on their reputation without giving any thought to the quality that their reputation is built on.
It seems, sadly, that thus far the only suitable camera for selfies is a hulking big digital SLR. The compact won't focus worth a hoot and the only other option is a cellphone image which will, of course, have my arms outstretched in the image. It's really not very conducive to doing selfies.
The major problem is that none of the cameras I have bar my elderly zoom compact actually have articulated viewing screens. This means that there's just no way to see what the camera is seeing. It's a case of stand in front, use a really wide lens and pray.
Cellphones have certainly killed all the innovation in digital compacts.
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