Some more experienced photographers will want an ultra-compact model too, usually as a complement to a high-end camera.
This system is employed primarily in high-end "professional" cameras in the West.
Should you bring a high-end digital camera on your vacation?
"I can't bring my high-end camera everywhere, but I would never walk into a shoot with a palmcorder."
Automatic settings have made high-end professional cameras as easy to use as a point and shoot or a camera phone.
Analysts said the issue was whether the market for consumer devices beyond high-end digital cameras would emerge quickly enough to justify the new small disk.
Right now that feature is available only in a fixed-lens high-end digital camera.
"They're just concentrating on sales of high-end digital cameras and other products on which they make the most money."
They can also bring down the price of those high-end cameras so they are available to more people.
However, it takes time to reach this thermal equilibrium: up to hours in high-end scientific cameras cooled at low temperature.