It's raining new cameras at CES 2013 from Panasonic, Fuji, Samsung, Nikon, Pentax

Fujifilm FinePix HS50

Nikon introduced two, Panasonic introduced ten, Fuji introduced eight, Pentax introduced a brass Pentax retro point-and-shoot and Sony will be making Alpha series announcements.
     One of the best values is Fuji's new $549 FinePix HS50 EXR bridge camera, with a 42x zoom lens (35mm equivalent: 24-1000 mm.)
     There are two key things to note here.
The HS50 has a 16-Megapixel  1/2" sensor (smallish), a mechanical zoom control ring around the lens, as seen in SLRs, and an electronic focus control ring. The RAW mode is still there too. Fujifilm is promising improved responsiveness with the HS50 EXR, and video has been upped to 1080p HD at 60 frames per second. You can also hook up an external mic for improved-quality audio in videos. All in all, the HS50 looks like it should be something of a reference among high-end bridges (on paper, at least).

Fujifilm X100S

     Left: the pricey X100S, a refresh of the large sensor (APS-C) fixed-lens, stunningly modern but retro-styled Fuji X100 high-end point and shoot.
     First unveiled at Photokina 2010 and named camera of the year by ephotozine, this is everybody's favorite cult camera with the following improvements: 16.3megapixels, up from 12, Full HD video at 60fps, up from 720p at 24fps, random array of RGB receptors reducing moiré and false colour effects allowing elimination of bayer filter. Result: even sharper images due to a 30% higher signal to noise ratio than the X100.