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| Kingfisher at Taronga Zoo Sydney |
I buy too many cameras. True.
But cameras and photography have been an abiding interest of mine since childhood.
Along the way I have had the opportunity to use and evaluate lots of different models.
This series of three posts is a summary of my impressions of some of those which I have used over the years, starting with Compacts.
I have a long standing interest in compacts.
The best of them deliver picture quality as good as that obtainable from an interchangeable lens model be it DSLR or Mirrorless ILC.
The worst of them are little pieces of junk. These have mostly disappeared from the market to be replaced by smartphones. I see this as a positive development in the history of photography.
But I still think there is a place for advanced compacts.
These can have a proper viewfinder, zoom lens, articulated screen and a set of controls suitable for the expert/advanced/enthusiast user who wants to take control of camera operation.
The only manufacturers which appear to be fully engaged in the compact business are Canon, Sony and Panasonic.
Olympus and Nikon have a few waterproof models and Nikon has a few legacy small compacts.
Ricoh, Casio and probably others also have a few models.
Canon
I have a long history with Canon compacts.
My first ever digital camera was a Canon S70 in 2004. I made a few decent pictures with this but overall it was a device of modest capability.
It did set one theme for Canon compacts (not including bridge types) over the next eleven years namely the absence of any inbuilt electronic viewfinder.
In fact at the time of writing (November 2017) the G5X appears to be the only Canon compact to have an inbuilt EVF. The G1XMk3 is due in shops shortly
The S70 was followed by an S90 with a bad lens. That didn’t last long in my camera drawer.
Then there were four Canon G models. This series began with the G1 in 2000.
The G series appeared to provide what many enthusiast/experts might want namely a user experience and most of the features of a DSLR in a compact, take anywhere package.
For some reason which I now forget I did not buy into the G series until the G9. Then came a G10, G12 and last a G16.
All the G series models had the same nasty, almost worse than useless, little optical viewfinder.
Worse, towards the end of the line, some (marketing ?) genius at Canon started progressively stripping features and capabilities out of successive models.
By the time I got to the depressingly disappointing G16 I was fed up with underspecified, underperforming Canon compacts and shifted to other makers, mainly Panasonic and Sony.
It seems one family member did not get this memo. She came home one day with a Canon G1X which she bought because it had a nice handle.
Indeed it did. And that was good. But nothing else about it was.
The G1X arrived on the market with great fanfare from Canon’s marketing department which made the camera sound like the second coming of some kind of photographic deity.
The reality was otherwise. The G1X had the same old dreadful optical viewfinder as the G series, poor performance, mediocre picture quality and a frustrating user experience.
Canon’s subsequent models using the Sony “one inch” 15.9mm diagonal sensor have been depressingly mediocre, underspecified, underperforming things attracting little interest from me. I might have been interested in the G5X because it has an EVF but for the widely reported soft lens and poor performance.
Nikon
I did make one brief foray into Nikon land with the Coolpix P7800.
This camera did have an EVF (but of low quality).
It had a fully articulated monitor, a nice lens and decent picture quality.
But you could almost make a cup of tea in the time it took to recover from one RAW exposure. And the controls were a confusing muddle leading to a poor user experience.
I saw the P7800 as yet another opportunity lost for Nikon which with a much faster processor and better design could have turned this into a really appealing compact camera.
Nikon dropped the ball completely on compacts when it cancelled the DL project.
Sony
The RX100 of 2012 revolutionised the compact camera sector.
Overnight, the previously ubiquitous small sensor compacts using 9.3mm and 7.7mm diagonal sensors were rendered almost irrelevant by the RX100 using the new 15.9mm Sony sensor which provided better image quality in an amazingly small package.
One family member in our household used the original RX100 for several years, making very good pictures all around the world. This camera eventually died having had a well used life.
I eventually joined the RX100 party with a Mark4 after the price dropped a bit.
This camera is now two years old but still provides the most imaging capability in a pocketable package that I have ever seen.
The lens and sensor are excellent and the pictures are suitable for very big enlargement.
The only complaints I have about this model concern the ergonomics.
The camera comes without a handle. Sony makes a stick-on accessory handle which I regard as essential. This should be included in the box in my view. It would add maybe $5 to the price.
The pop-up-pull-out-push-back-push-down EVF is annoying but at least it has an EVF of decent quality although there is no eyecup so stray light entry is a problem in sunny conditions.
The buttons are all too small and crammed into too small a space on the control panel. The shutter button is recessed and not as easy to locate by feel as it should be. I popped a dab of epoxy resin on the On/Off and shutter buttons so my index finger can find them more easily by feel.
The menus are confusing and poorly laid out. However the Fn button is well designed making menu diving infrequently necessary.
Some of these problems are partly due to the camera’s very small size but handling and operation could in my view be substantially improved with a fresh look at pocketable camera design.
The Mark 5 has high speed capabilities which seem a bit irrelevant to me in this type of camera so I am not tempted to go there.
Sony still makes some compact models using the small 7.67mm sensor but to date none of these allows RAW output so they have not been of interest to me.
Panasonic
In recent times most of my compacts have been from Panasonic. My experience with these has been mixed with some being very good, others dreadful.
I keep coming back to Panasonic because most of their compacts have above industry average levels of specifications, capabilities and performance.
Most have a built in EVF, fast processor, 4K video, touch screen, fast accurate continuous AF, fast frame rates with minimal EVF blackout, zebras, many user configurable features and functions, RAW output, very good auto panorama and much more.
By comparison most of Canon’s offerings look decidedly under specified, lacking in capability and performance.
Panasonic is the most prolific producer of compacts and other fixed lens types so there have been plenty of models to try.
TZ series
Let’s start with the TZ (travel zoom) series. Panasonic more or less invented this camera type and has kept updating its model line annually when most other lines are back to a 3 year or longer refresh interval.
These cameras pack a high level of specification, capability and performance into a near-pocketable package.
The latest ones have a small built in EVF of serviceable quality, a 30x zoom of mostly decent quality, good handling and ergonomics for a compact and very good performance with RAW output, fast single and continuous AF, 4K video, high level of user selectable functions, and much more.
I have owned the TZ60, TZ70, TZ80 and TZ90. They keep getting a little bit better with each iteration.
I have few serious complaints about any of these cameras. The EVF could be larger but then so would the camera.
The lens could have more consistent optical performance but then it would cost more.
I wish the OIS was more effective.
The flash is in an awkward place but there is nowhere else to put it within the current design envelope.
They are not so good indoors in low light but I have used them in this situation with acceptable results.
These cameras admirably perform the role for which they were intended. That is as travel companions to record memories of a trip as they are experienced.
I decided not to keep the latest one, the TZ90 because I prefer the FZ300 in the travel companion role.
The FZ300 is much larger and somewhat more expensive but is a nicer camera for holding, viewing and operating with better performance and picture quality.
The TZ100 carries the TZ prefix but I don’t really understand why. Standard TZ models have a 7.67mm diagonal sensor and a 30x zoom.
But the TZ100 has the much larger 15.9mm sensor and 10x zoom.
Panasonic’s lens designers set themselves a very ambitious task with the TZ100. They had to squeeze a 10x zoom into a near-pocketable body and still cover the image circle required for the relatively large (for a compact) 15.9mm diagonal sensor.
No other camera maker has produced a model to match this.
I bought a TZ100, was very displeased with the lens, tried another one and was equally displeased.
The lens on both my copies was quite soft at some focal lengths and apertures with unpleasant double imaging in just out of focus areas.
I found the body smooth and slippery, desperately needing a proper handle and thumb support. The controls are not well designed and not nearly as user friendly as those of the regular TZ models.
The whole thing seemed to me to be the invention of stylists rather than photographers.
I should say some users reporting on forums have expressed full satisfaction with their TZ100s, but others appear to have had an experience like mine.
LX series
The LX series has for many years carried the “tiny but premium quality” banner, along the way gathering a solid base of enthusiast users.
Most models have used the 9.3mm sensor, several with variable aspect ratio capability and all with a wide aperture zoom of good to very good quality.
None of the LX-XX series has a built in EVF but some will take a clip on accessory EVF.
I bought an LX3 with the 16:9 aspect ratio sensor. This model had decent RAW output but shot to shot times with RAW were woefully slow.
I did not like the JPGs at all.
Then came an LX5 which was a more serviceable model, capable of making very good pictures indoors or outdoors in almost any circumstance.
But I hated the lack of a built in EVF which made the camera very difficult to use outdoors in the sun.
The controls were not to my liking either. The control dial of the LX5 is very recessed and difficult to turn and the cursor buttons rounded and smooth making them very difficult to locate and operate by feel.
LX10/15. I bought one of these against my own rule never to buy a camera without an inbuilt EVF.
That was a mistake.
Unlike the LX series up to the LX7, the LX10 uses the larger 15.9mm Sony sensor.
Someone at Pana-world marketing seems to have insisted the LX10 be “stylish” like the TZ100.
Apparently “stylish” means no handle or proper thumb support, a smooth slippery exterior surface, no EVF and a minimal, poorly designed set of controls. I absolutely hated using this thing.
To make matters worse the lens on my copy had some strange characteristics. Maximum sharpness was at the widest aperture at each focal length. Closing the aperture even a third of a stop caused obvious loss of sharpness with nasty looking double imaging especially at the frame edges.
The LX100 is completely different from the previous LX-X series of models.
It is built around a Four Thirds type sensor (diagonal 21.6mm) but the camera only uses a 19.2mm crop of the sensor to permit multi aspect ratio capability and make the lens smaller than it would be if the full sensor area were used.
I have used my LX100 extensively in Australia and on overseas trips and have acquired considerable experience with it.
It has some excellent features and capabilities but also some less appealing qualities which leave me after three years feeling somewhat ambivalent about the camera.
Things I like: Very good lens, useful focal length range, very useful aperture range, useful multi aspect ratio capability, quick operation of all functions, configurable user interface, good image quality indoors or outdoors, decent, built in and always ready EVF….. and much more. There is a lot to like about the LX100.
Things I don’t like: The biggest problem I have is with the autofocus system.
AF on the LX100 is very fast, sensitive (too sensitive ?) and mostly very accurate BUT I have found the camera repeatedly misfocusses when the Active AF area is placed over a part of the subject with specular light sources. This could be sunlight reflecting off foliage or backlit foliage or multiple pinpoint light sources or similar. In these situations I have to use the AF/AE-L button to lock focus on a part of the subject without specular light sources. Sometimes I forget and the penalty is misfocussed pictures which looked OK in the viewfinder.
Users on forums have reported another focussing problem with the LX100 which I have not experienced. That is misfocussing on distant subjects with focus achieved on the foreground. I am not sure about the reason for this but there are plenty of reports about it.
Other things I don’t like are the hybrid traditional/modern control system (which some users say they do like) lack of articulated monitor and absence of a more substantial anatomical handle.
Several users have reported that the LX100 is very prone to dust/dirt ingress into the lens and onto the sensor.
So the LX100 is something of a flawed gem. If Panasonic fixed the problems in an update model they would make a lot of enthusiast compact users very happy.
Likes and preferences
I have to say I am not greatly enthused by any of the compacts described in this post. All of them have compromised ergonomics and many have numerous other faults and failings.
Recommendations ?
Two camera series stand out for me as being the most coherent. By this I mean they know what they are trying to achieve and do so.
The first is the Sony RX100 series of which my pick is the Mk4.
It tries to fit the greatest possible imaging capability into the smallest possible package and succeeds in doing so.
The ergonomic shortcomings make it somewhat less than a joy to use but it does get the job done and the results are excellent.
Second is the Panasonic TZ series particularly the TZ80 and TZ90.
These cameras are designed to be travel companions which offer a lot of features including a 30x zoom at a budget price.
They achieve this rather well.
They trade off the outright image quality of the Sonys for the versatility of the long zoom with better ergonomics and a much lower price into the bargain.
What’s next ?
The most popular post on this blog at the moment is “PanasonicLumix LX100 What’s next ? August 2017”.
Canon has announced and is about to roll out the G1X Mk3. If this camera has a good lens, sharp at the widest aperture at each focal length, I might buy one despite the ambitious initial price point. Or maybe I will wait until the price eases down a bit.
Either way this is the first Canon compact in which I have had any interest at all for several years.
Panasonic will surely need to counter this with an LX200 of some description.
We shall see.