Slowly, though, the truth us getting out. Recently (at long last), camera companies have begun diverting their research efforts from “how to get better photos.” They’re working on things that really do matter in a consumer camera, like sensor size, stabilization- fixing low-light photography.

In that last category, please welcome the Fujifilm Finepix F200EXR and the Sony DSC-WX1. Each comes accompanied by breathless marketing hype (“a breakthrough in low-light photography: stunning detail and low noise in scenes with no more than candlelight” says Sony) but each, in its way, truly is an important step forward.

That’s because, in the world of pocket cameras like these, “low light” basically means “nightmare.” Once the sun goes down, the compromises begin.

You can put the camera on a tripod. That way, even though the shutter stays open a long time (to soak up more light), the camera doesn’t move, so blur isn’t a problem

O.K, so you’re now supposed to lug around a tripod to go with your microscopic camera? Surrrrrre you are.

Alternatively, on most cameras, you can crank up the ISO (light-sensitivity) setting. Now the camera soaks in more light, but at a terrible price: the teeming multicolored random grainy speckles known as “noise.” Or, worse, hopelessly “soft” smeared images that result from a camera’s overzealous anti noise circuitry.