Retro Rigs

Canon PowerShot G7 ($499, street) -- Canon, another long-time favorite for professionals and amateurs alike, has stepped up to the Retro line with the PowerShot G7. Though not as purely retro as the rest of the bunch, the G7 still sports those telltale features that bring back a sense of yesteryear. The ridged, metal focus ring is both an accent and a functional detail. And in the words of Canon, it has a "matte black, retro-hip design." The over-all look and feel of the camera is reminiscent of those solid, compact 35-mm rigs like the Konica Hexar that you might have seen in the role of "backup camera" in any photographer's bag 20 or 30 years ago.

At 10.0 megapixels and sporting a 6x Optical Zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer Technology, this is one camera for which function keeps pace with form. Long shots are made steadier, allowing budding nature photographers to grab great shots from a distance. And with the ability to shoot in ISO 1600, low light and blurry images may become a retro problem from a bygone era. (And Canon's just-announced PowerShot G9 /photonews4489 keeps the cool styling, but packs two more megapixels and RAW capture -- making the G line more retro-functional than ever!)

Leica Digilux 3 ($2500 Street) -- Not to be left out of the party, Leica has had numerous entries under the "retro" banner. Perhaps the most talked about, though, is the Digilux 3. Packing 7.5 megapixels, this jewel's real power punch is the fact that it is a true SLR with interchangeable lenses in Four Thirds mount. It even comes with a decent Leica D Vario Elmarit 14-50mm/f2.8-3.5 lens.

But the feature that makes this DSLR special, above and beyond that groovy retro style, is the fact that it uses Live View. With Live View you can actually use the 2.5" LCD to frame and shoot, just like with digital point and shoot cameras! Until this product cycle, it was the rare SLR-style camera with a live preview, making the Digilux 3 a real competitor no matter how you frame it.

As camera technology continues to improve and prices continue to fall we can only hope that a variety of styles will emerge. For those who remember the days of load-and-wind, having a retro camera is the next best thing to being able to step back in time. For the new photographer, these retro rigs can be a chance at role-playing and fantasy fulfillment, without the hassle of dealing with developing film. Regardless, nostalgic design is fun and eye catching. If only every modern technology had a tradition to draw upon.