Q: Apparently, you reply to reader requests, so here is one: a roundup of point-and-shoot cameras that carry their flashes far enough from the lens to eliminate red eyes. Please talk about this underdiscussed problem.
--Emmanuel M., via e-mail

A: There's a directly proportional relationship between the distance between the flash and the lens and the distance between the camera and the subject. As a rule of thumb, for every foot between you and your subject, you need an inch of separation between the flash and the center of the lens. If we assume that you generally shoot people between three and six feet from you, the separation needs to be greater than three inches. That excludes most point-and-shoot models. The best you can probably do is look at cameras with a pop-up flash. Here are some good, relatively compact models that make the cut. (For more details about avoiding red-eye, see "Follow the fleeting moment.")