Fixed lens camera roundup 7 November 2018

Fixed lens camera production  declined massively from 108 million units in 2010 to 13.3 million units in 2017, just 12% of the 2010 figure.

In the same period interchangeable lens camera production declined slightly from  12.9 million in to 11.7 million. (source Lensvid, using CIPA data)

Vlogger Tony Northrup recently said “Smartphones are the only compact cameras”.  In the same video he also opined that the Micro Four Thirds system would die, presumably with the aim of attracting traffic to his site by making provocative predictions.

It seems to me there are three groups of photographers:

* Snapshooters. These are the great majority of humans who make photos. These people once used simple compact cameras, first film then digital. Now they use smartphones and social media.

* Enthusiast amateurs. In this much smaller group are people who are interested in the process of making photos and the quality of the results. This is the group which will buy most cameras.  The question for the product development people is “what kind of cameras will this group buy” ?

* Professionals. This is numerically by far the smallest group, but professionals  have considerable influence on manufacturers product development decisions. Professionals use high end cameras, usually of the interchangeable lens type.

I rate myself an enthusiast amateur and this blog is directed to that audience.

Right now Canon, Nikon,  Panasonic and Sony all appear to have decided that enthusiast amateur photographers want highly specified, near pro-level full frame (43mm diagonal sensor) mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. Fujifilm appears to have made essentially the same decision but with the smaller (28mm diagonal) sensor.

I want good picture quality but  have discovered that I can get it without any kind of interchangeable lens camera at all.

I currently use a two camera kit. One is a bridge type for long lens, outdoor sport/action work. The other is an advanced compact with large aperture zoom lens for indoor, documentary and street photos.

Some reviewers and vendors lump all fixed lens cameras into one group labelled “compact” or “point and shoot” which does not help potential buyers at all.

As I see it, there are basically two types of fixed lens cameras.

1. The so-called bridge type.   Typically a bridge camera looks like an ILC with a lens, has a substantial handle and thumb rest and a built in EVF in a hump (ILC style) on top of the body. The lens typically has a power zoom with a very big focal length range.

I have no interest whatsoever in any of the numerous models without a built in EVF. These cameras are VERY difficult to hold still at the long end of the zoom without the stable hold made possible by a built in EVF.

I suppose that the term bridge came into use when this camera type was seen as a kind of halfway station between a “proper” camera, presumably a DSLR at one end of the spectrum and a consumer compact at the other end.

But these days some bridge models are so advanced they can function as an entire camera system in one package. These are the models which interest me and which I use extensively.

2. Advanced compacts. This is a miscellaneous group designed to appeal to the enthusiast buyer but also be of small size for easy portability.  Some users say they like a camera to be “pocketable” but I think a pocket is just about the least camera friendly place I can imagine and a great way to ensure dust, lint and other bits of unmentionable stuff find their way into the works.

If an advanced compact is to interest me I need to see certain key features. At  minimum these are:

* A high quality zoom lens. Modern zooms are excellent. I see no point in restricting myself to a single focal length when I can have the versatility of a zoom.

* A built in EVF which is always ready to use. I find the Sony pop-up-pull-back-push-in-push-down system gets tedious after a while and the absence of an eyecup lets in a lot of stray light.

* A decent set of controls which allow me to drive the camera efficiently.

Let’s see what fixed lens models meeting my criteria are on the market in November 2018. For this exercise I just trawled through items available from a major Australian camera retailer.  I found a total of 55 fixed lens models listed, only a small percentage of which met my buying criteria.

Some models come with a 7.7mm diagonal sensor, others use the larger 15.9mm diagonal sensor. All the sensors are probably made by Sony.

Canon:  SX60, SX70 (7.7mm).

Nikon:  P900, P1000 (7.7mm)

Lumix: FZ300, FZ80 (7.7mm),  FZ1000, FZ2500 (15.9mm),

Sony: HX400V and variants H400, HX350 (7.7mm), RX10Mk3, RX10Mk4 (15.9mm).

In the compact sector there is a range of sensor sizes from 15.9mm diagonal, through 19.4mm (the cropped M43 sensor in the LX100Mk2) and 27mm. Sony probably makes all the sensors except the 27mm chip in the G1X3 which is made by Canon.

Canon: G5X (15.9mm), G1XM3 (27mm).

Lumix: TZ90 (7.7mm), TZ110, 220 (15.9mm), LX100M1/ 2 (approx. 19.3mm).

Sony: HX90V, HX99V (7.7mm), RX100 Mk 3, 4, 5, 5A, 6, RX10 Mk3, 4 (15.9mm),

The bridge camerawhich I use most often is the Sony RX10Mk4. This is a super high performance model which is good for almost any photographic purpose.

I wish Panasonic would produce a Lumix FZ competitor for the RX10Mk4. 

The FZ1000 was class leader when it was released in 2014 and is still available but cannot keep up with the speed of the Sony.

The FZ2500 has a soft-ish lens and is not competitive with the RX10Mk4 for still photos. It appears to be a version of the HC-X1 professional video camera in a traditional still camera body shape.

Sony has no real competition in this sector at the moment.

My advanced compactof choice is the newly released Lumix LX100Mk2. This model is not perfect but beat the Canon G1XM3 and all the Sony RX100 models for a place in my camera bag.

I have extensively reviewed and reported on the RX10Mk4 on this blog and will be starting a review series on the LX100M2 shortly.

You might think so if you believe the nonsense being spouted by some self appointed photography experts who will assure anyone watching their videos that anything less than a full frame ILC is incapable of making decent pictures and  not worth buying.

I think that when the excited chatter about new full frame mirrorless ILCs dies down a bit  then buyers will come to realise a few basic truths, such as:

* Full frame ILCs, DSLR or MILC are big heavy expensive things and some of the lenses are even bigger and more expensive, particularly as you move  up to long focal lengths.

* Smaller, less expensive but no less sophisticated cameras with fixed zoom lenses can make excellent photos in a wide variety of conditions sufficient for  99% of requirements when used thoughtfully.

These truths lead me to believe that in due course the main camera types which enthusiast amateur photographers will prefer are the bridge and advanced compact.

In my view some of them are good enough right now but the camera makers don’t want you to realise this.

They would much prefer to sell you an ILC, preferably full frame and four lenses for about $12000 than one very capable bridge model for about  $2200.

I have been using the LX100Mk2 extensively in the last week and found that it is capable of making excellent photos capable of very big enlargement in a wide range of conditions. Anybody who thinks they need more imaging capability than this camera can deliver might like to consider very carefully just what their imaging requirements actually are and how much some modern advanced compacts can achieve.