Compact Camera Reviews

I recently received a ruggedized WG-50 compact camera from Ricoh and immediately embarked upon a challenging, thorny photographic adventure—the likes of which you can’t imagine. I emerged with just a few scratches—although it does look like I’ve lost some blood. I can’t reveal the location of this treacherous place for fear that others might be tempted to defy this danger—but I can tell you this much: it’s no bed of roses.

Now that 2016 is done and dusted, we’ve had a chance to look back at all the cameras and lenses we reviewed this past year and have chosen ten of our absolute favorites. 

When it comes to Bridge cameras, Panasonic has established itself as one of the major players. The new Panasonic FZ2500 has a new 20x lens system (a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit) that covers a focal length range of 24 to 480mm (35mm film equivalent in 3:2 mode). The lens speed is f/2.8 in wide angle and f/4.5 at maximum focal length. Those very long tele settings require powerful image stabilization and the FZ2500 delivers with an optical and electronic hybrid stabilizer system which is able to level out up to 5 axis movements. We do note that when recording 4K videos only the optical stabilizer is available. The 13.2x8.8mm sensor has 20MP resolution.

We were at Sony’s press conference yesterday to unveil the blazing fast RX100 V compact camera and afterwards we got a chance to try out with this speedy little bugger. The biggest headline about the Sony RX100 V is that can shoot at 24 frames per second, which is the world’s fastest continuous shooting speed for a compact camera and faster than even the most expensive professional digital SLRs on the market.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III has an impressive 25x built-in lens that’s equivalent to 24–600mm lens in the 35mm format. The Zeiss Vario-Sonnar super zoom lens in the Sony RX10 III also features a surprisingly fast aperture range of f/2.4 to f/4. (Offering an f/4 aperture at the 600mm telephoto end in a “bridge” camera has definitely turned quite a few photographers’ heads toward this “serious” superzoom model.)

Active lifestyle cameras are aimed at photographers who don’t want to worry about their equipment during their adventures, but do want to capture images they can be proud of—even under challenging conditions. All seven cameras on this list are virtually indestructible, high-performance compacts that are perfect for skiing, surfing, taking to the beach, boating, hiking or any other activity where an unprotected DSLR or mirrorless camera could be damaged. 

The Sony RX1R II is a high-end compact camera with an integral lens that features a full-frame sensor with a very high resolution of 42MP, comparable in some ways to a classic rangefinder camera or the Leica Q system. The original Sony RX1 was one of the first cameras that offered a full-frame sensor in a compact camera and was sold in two versions: as a “standard” that used a low-pass (anti-aliasing) filter and, as the RX1R, one that was built without a low-pass filter.