Compact Camera Reviews

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”—Sir Edmund Hillary

A funny thing happened to me while I was shooting and reviewing the new Sigma DP1 compact camera in New Mexico. I had taken a lunch break in a local taqueria and in came a couple that sat down at the next table. Next to the guy's backpack and hat he set down the Sigma DP1. I did a double take, and asked him how he liked it. "Great," he said, "the picture...

The Sigma DP3 Merrill is the latest Sigma camera with the new Foveon sensor. With this sensor, the camera can capture complete RGB information for every single pixel and doesn’t need to interpolate colors like all other digital cameras with Bayer pattern sensors. The APS-C sized sensor offers a resolution of 14.7MP, referred to by Sigma as equivalent to 45MP resolution of a standard sensor ((4704 x 3136 pixel x 3 RGB data per pixel).

Integral zoom lens cameras are often referred to as “bridge” cameras: the idea being that they bridge the gap between compact and DSLR models. If there’s a bridge connection here it’s in the rather incredible zoom range of the Sony Cyber-shot RX10 IV ($1,700, retail price) that spans the far shores of 24-600mm equivalency.

The Sony HX200V is a compact bridge camera with an SLR-like design. It offers an extreme zoom lens that is able to cover wide angle shots with a focal length of 27 mm and tele photos with an extreme tele of 810mm (35 mm film equivalent). The camera offers an integrated image stabilizer (Sony’s “Steady Shot”) to allow shooting with this extreme zoom range. This stabilizer works fine, but can’t really help if you are using the digital zoom function, which allows a 60x zoom, an equivalent of 1620mm.

The RX1 is the first time Sony has combined a compact camera system with a fixed lens system that includes a full-frame sensor that’s nearly the size of classic 35mm film material (35.8x23.9mm). The basic camera concept combines elements of digital compact cameras with features of classic viewfinder cameras, but leaves out an optical or electronic viewfinder. In its stead Sony offers an LCD screen on the back, similar to what you’d find in an entry-level compact camera. The screen is very large (3”) and offers a very high resolution (1.28 million RGB dots). The resulting image preview and the representation of the menu structure is crisp and clear. Sony does offer an optional optical viewfinder, which is mounted on the hot shoe. Just like the camera itself, it is quite expensive. Most users will also be surprised by the battery recharger system of the RX1. It’s equipped with a USB recharger and the user is forced to recharge the battery in the camera. An external recharger and additional batteries are offered as an option.

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.)