This is the time of year when family members clamor for pictures and videos plus better ways to display and cherish them. Indulge their whims or enable a budding shutterbug or filmmaker with a gadget from our lists:

Cameras — Know someone looking to up their photography game? The Pentax K-x is on the pricey side but is one of the least expensive DSLRs to shoot 720p video and includes HDR processing for more detailed pictures.

Though DSLRs are tempting, I’m no budding Mapplethorpe, so I love the Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z280 because it’s packed with features (mechanical image stabilization, 4X zoom, 720p video recording) but still easy to use and understand if you’re just a casual photographer.

Pocket Camcorders — Easy to use and easy to upload, the Pure Digital Flip MinoHD will make holiday dinners seem more vibrant and interesting. At least that’s what you’ll tell yourself when they end up on YouTube.

Digital Photo Frames — These make great gifts, but I’m partial to frames that can do more. The Toshiba Digital Media Frame connects to your household wi-fi to stream pictures from the cloud (via FrameChannel) or the household PCs. Plus it can play music and video (holiday dinners, vibrant and interesting!).

Photo Printers — There will always be those who like to frame hard copy prints in traditional frames, thank you. Release those digital pictures from their memory cards with the all-in-one Epson Artisan 810.

Connected HDTVs — If 8-inch photo frames are too small a stage for the media you create or buy, then check out the 47-inch Vizio Via. This slim set can play 1080p HD video, connects to a dozen or more Internet services, including video on demand, plus delivers amazing sound without external speakers. All for under $1,000.

There are more cameras, camcorders, screens and accessories to explore in the Gadget Gift Guide.

Even more than the resolution bump, though, the biggest change is the introduction of image stabilization, a feature I’ve wanted to see in pocket cams in general. Even though it’s electronic, and not optical, I’d still expect it to offset the shakiness that mars even the crispest of HD pocket cam footage.

Other upgrades include 5-MP still photo shooting, a larger 2.5-inch display, and an external mic jack (since camcorders like this aren’t exactly known for delivering impressive sound). Like the Zi6 and Zx1, it has an SD/SDHC slot, accommodating cards as large as 32GB. It also comes with an HDMI cable.

The Zi8 costs $179 and is available in black, red, and blue. It’s available at kodak.com today.

We’ve already had plenty of hands-on time with the Ultra HD, and we just gave it an Editors’ Choice (check out the full review here). We dig the clear video quality, loud speaker, and HDMI output, something most other HD pocket camcorders don’t have. Best of all, the Ultra now has 4GB internal memory, while the HD version has 8GB. We don’t even care this time around that there’s no memory slot.

The new color scheme resembles the Mino series, although they have a satin feel and discrete buttons, while the Minos are glossy with touch-sensitive controls. It’s bulky, as you can see, but that didn’t stop us from naming it best in class.

Other specs: it comes with 2 rechargeable AA batteries (you can pop in your own, too). It has a larger 2-inch screen with a 16:9 orientation, which we were able to see even while shooting outside on a cloudless day.

The Flip Ultra costs $149 and the Ultra HD costs $199. They’re available now.

In addition to 12-megapixel resolution and 5X optical zoom, the camera has Fujifilm’s new Super EXR CCD sensor, which allows for improved color fidelity and dynamic range (the latter is crucial in drawing out shadow details in harshly backlit situations).

The sensor has three shooting modes/usage situations: Fine Capture Mode (high resolution), which uses all twelve million pixels; Pixel Fusion Mode, which improves low-light performance by capturing two adjacent pixels together, creating a photodiode large enough to absorb a lot more light; and Dual Capture Mode, which improves dynamic range.

Sound confusing? An EXR Auto mode can decide which settings are best.

In addition, it has a 3-inch screen, HD output, Super Intelligent Flash, Portrait Enhancer Mode, dual IS, Dual Shot Mode, and High Speed Playback, and takes SD and xD cards. It’ll start shipping in February.

Meanwhile, the $129 FinePix A150 (right) has 10-MP resolution, 3X optical zoom, and face detection for up to 6 faces. It takes SD cards and AA batteries. It’ll ship in February.

Before we get to budget, though, let’s talk about zoom. The escalation of zoom factors (not to mention gimmicks like smile detection) seems to have replaced the megapixels arms race; what used to pass for a superzoom– 12X– looks puny compared to the 24X models we’ve seen and will continue to see this spring.

The 12.1-megapixel P90 ($399, above right), Nikon’s update to the P80, has a 24X lens, a huge bump from the P80’s 12X zoom factor. It also boasts features the P80 doesn’t have: a 3-inch vari-angle lens, four-way image stabilization, and a pre-record mode that caches up to 45 3-MP frames before you fully press the shutter. Like the P80, it has a pop-up flash. ISO 6400, sports continuous mode, and a fair amount of manual controls.

For a hundred and twenty bucks less, the L100 ($279) offers a simpler design with fewer manual controls, but still has 15X optical zoom, four-way IS, a 3-inch screen, continuous shooting at 13 frames per second, Best Shot Selector, ISO 3200, Motion Detection, and Nikon’s Smart Portrait System.

Now, for the more mainstream customer, let’s talk about how much camera you can get for your money.

An Improved Touchscreen

The S230 ($229, right) is Nikon’s second touchscreen camera (the first was the S60). We’ve already had some hands-on time with it, and found the screen to be more responsive this time around.

The 10-MP camera has a 3-inch screen, electronic IS, Scene Auto Selector, face detection for up to 12 faces, ISO 3200, motion detection, Best Shot Selector, Smile Mode, and Blink Proof, which automatically takes two shots to ensure that the subjects’ eyes are open in at least one.

All-Purpose Shooters

In addition to the S230, Nikon added three other models to its style-oriented S line: the S630 ($279), the S620 ($269), and the S220 ($149). All of them have four-way IS, Scene Auto Selector, and the Smart Portrait System. They’re all available in a wide swath of colors.

The S630 has 12-MP resolution, 7X optical zoom, and Sports Continuous Mode, which allows for continuous shooting at up to 11 frames per second. The S620 has 12.1-MP resolution and a 4X lens; the S220 has 10-MP resolution and 3X optical zoom.

Budget Point-and-Shoots

If $250 isn’t budget enough for you, Nikon has the L19 ($109, right) and L20 ($129). These cameras have chunkier, less sleek (but not unattractive) designs, and run on AA batteries, not rechargeable ones.

They also have fewer buttons, denoting much less  manual control than you’d get on even a more mid-range point-and-shoot.

The L19 has 8-MP resolution and a 2.7-inch screen; the L20 has 10-MP resolution and a 3-inch LCD. In line with its easy image, both include features like Scene Auto Selector, Smart Portrait System, Motion Detection, and Easy Auto Mode.

And yet, it’s one of the most memorable camcorders announced at this year’s CES. That’s because inside its tiny body is a monster 70X optical zoom lens. That’s unheard of in a consumer camcorder this size. Even in DVD and miniDV models, which can have 50X or 60x, this would be a milestone.

But particularly in a flash model, where the optical zoom often doesn’t exceed 10x or 12X, it’s just baffling. One has to wonder, how’d they fit it all in there?

As we got hands on, our biggest concern was the image stabilization. The S26 does have optical image stabilization, similar to what you’ll find in the company’s Lumix cameras, but the fact is, it gets harder to keep the picture steady as you continue extending the zoom. We noticed some additional shakiness on the LCD as we pushed the zoom to its limit, but nothing too distracting.

What really impressed us about the S26– aside from the fact that it even has 70X optical zoom– is how quickly the camcorder regained focus as we continued pushing the zoom. The picture remained sharp as we did this, and by the time we arrived at 70X we could still make out fine details, even on the LCD screen. As for the question of, “What can you do with a 70X lens?” Standing on the CES showroom floor we were able to make out tiny lines in the rafters, high above.

The S26 will be available in April for $329. Until then, check out our hands-on video to see just how far the zoom goes, and what kind of details were were able to see from far away.

With the Exilims FC100 and FS10, announced this week, Casio seems to have pre-empted its customers’ concerns about the FX1, and even the HF2o ($599): they’re slim point-and-shoots, and cost $399 and $349, respectively, prices many people are prepared to pay for digital cameras. We got hands on with the FC100. Read on and check out the video to see why we’re so excited about this camera.

Same Simple Interface

We were plesantly surprised to see that although Casio’s slow-motion technology now lives in the body of a slim, point-and-shoot, devoid of the FX1’s complex array of buttons and toggles, the simple onscreen interface remained the same. We like how all of the major settings are listed along the right side of the screen, and that you can move through them using the up and down arrows on the navigational pad. We especially like that there’s an eight-point scale for high-speed shooting (1 being the slowest; 8, the fastest), so that you can customize just how painstakingly slow your movies are.

Changing Frame Rates on the Fly

When it came time to shoot, we just switched the filming toggle from high-def to high-speed mode, and pressed the record button. Users can choose from various frame rates (the highest is 1,000 fps). But these cameras introduce the option of toggling between slow-mo shooting and standard 30fps.

So, if you only want part of your movie to appear in slow-mo, you can press the OK button to switch frame rates on the fly. In general, we warn users not to push the frame rate too high, since the resolution drops and the picture becomes dimmer as you increase the frame rate. Besides, 300 or 400 fps is still fast enough for impressive slow-mo clips.

Cool New Features

In addition to cramming high speed shooting into a slim body, the 9-MP FC100 (as well as the FS10) shoots 720p video, has 5X optical zoom, and can shoot 30 frames per second at a still-decent 6-MP. Both cameras also have a neat dynamic photo picture, that can allows users to swap a new background into a photo with a moving subject. This feature is less essential to us than the slow-motion shooting (and hey, aren’t most things inferior to slow-mo filming?) but it’s still plenty cool. Want to create a digital greeting card, with your child dancing in front of a picture he drew? No problem.

YouTube -Friendly

Most of the time, when we say a camera or camcorder is “YouTube-friendly” we mean that it shoots at VGA resolution, comes with software that allows users to upload photos directly to the site, and, often, has a built-in USB connection. In the case of the FC100 (and FS10) YouTube-friendly takes on a whole new meaning. When in YouTube mode, the camera begins counting down from ten minutes as soon as you begin recording, since that’s the time limit for videos posted on YouTube. That means less editing and trimming for you to do once you’ve gotten the clip off the camera and onto your computer.

And yet, we couldn’t resist checking out the Polaroid Instant Digital Camera ($199) the first– you guessed it– digital camera with a built-in printer. As far as digital cameras go, it’s kind of a joke: it has five-megapixel resolution, fixed focus, 4X digital zoom, and, at 10 ounces without an SD card or rechargeable battery, is almost three times as heavy as most point-and-shoots.

The reason it’s so heavy, of course, is that there’s a ZINK-enabled printer inside. Like the PoGo it prints 3 x 2 stickers. We like that there’s a dedicated print button, which made the printing process fast and easy. It’s also neat that you can crop photos and add borders on the 3-inch screen.

The camera has the same printer specs as the PoGo, meaning they’re both rated to print in a minute or less. Indeed, that’s about how long it took for the picture to fully come out after we initiated the printing.

The final product was similar, too: bluish overtones made the picture look washed out. That’s not Polaroid’s fault of course; we actually commend their ability to stay current as photography becomes overwhelmingly digital. But now that ZINK has found a way to print without ink, we think its next step should be making those heat-activated colors, you know, look better.

Check out out hands-on video below.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3 ($499), announced today, aims to change that. Users can upload their photos to a variety of popular sharing sites, including Picasa. They can also upload over any connection—secured or unsecured, public or private.

Sony accomplished this by installing a browser in the device, so you can navigate even to sharing sites not listed in the main menu. With a browser, splash pages won’t be a problem, either.

In addition to uploading photos to any site, users can view existing Web albums on their LCD (they cannot, however, download photos to the camera). It will include a year of complimentary hotspot service, although the provider has yet to be announced.

Other than that, the 10.1-megapixel shooter has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 4X optical zoom, optical image stabilization, face detection, Easy mode, Smile Shutter, Intelligent Scene Recognition (iSCN), 4GB internal memory for storing photos (that’s enough space to store about 1,000 10-MP shots). Although it has HDMI output, it does not record high-def movies.

With the help of EyeStage software, users can stream Web content like weather and photo feeds. Most other wireless frames do this, too, but many of them use FrameChannel’s service, which makes it hard to tell some of these models apart. We’ll be curious to see if this new software is truly a breath of fresh air.