Samsung’s camera designers obviously had a flash of inspiration while they were out for a drive, because the firm’s launched a camera with miniature analogue gauges that display the snapper’s remaining memory and battery life.

Samsung's TL9: gagues showing memory and battery levels

The TL9 compact camera’s twin gauges are small, but sit beside the power button to create a simple way of finding out how much snapping power’s left or the amount of storage capacity available.

The 10.2-megapixel snapper has two forms of image stabilisation

A 10.2-megapixel CMOS sensor is built into the camera and combined with a 5x optical zoom. The added benefit of Dual Image Stabilisation – which simultaneously combines both optical and digital image stabilisation – should eradicate blurred pictures, unless you’ve really had a lot to drink.

The TL9 has a maximum ISO sensitivity of 1600, which is about average for a compact camera, while images stored on the SD memory card can be displayed on the snapper’s 2.7in LCD screen. A USB 2.0 port also enables photographers to connect the camera into a PC.

Blink detection stops the camera snapping when a subject's eyes are closed

Pre-defined image settings come as standard on all cameras now, and the TL9 has 13 such modes. Face, smile and blink detection are all included too.

An internal speaker is a nice extra that lets you to use the camera as a portable media player for a range of audio formats, including MP3 and WAV. Video can also be shot with the TL9 and MPEG 4 files viewed, with accompanying sound, on the camera’s screen.

Samsung’s TL9 will be available in September for around $280 (£140/€170).