the shrinking niche for small sensor compacts

[aizan]

do you think that there are still compelling purposes for "serious" compacts with small sensors? i mean, the ricoh gr has an aps-c sensor and it's only a few millimeters larger than the grd.

what features would your ideal small sensor compact have? a fast zoom? a super-zoom? unprecedented macro capabilities? a rangefinder-style body with a built-in evf? interchangeable lenses? 🙂

 

[willie_901]

Extraordinarily fast lenses at silly short focal lengths are required for equivalent s/n and dynamic range performance with cameras with larger surface areas.

By equivalent, I mean performance comparisons (including DOF slectivity) where the lens-to-subject distance is held constant.

Gory details are here:

http://www.falklumo.com/lumolabs/articles/equivalence/

 

[GaryLH]

It depends... Fixed focal length. Maybe not. Csc types like the Pentax Q or Nikon One will depend a lot on the price point. Fixed zoom lens compact like the rx100, x20, lx7, etc still have their place for now..

Gary

 

[Godfrey]

do you think that there are still compelling purposes for "serious" compacts with small sensors? i mean, the ricoh gr has an aps-c sensor and it's only a few millimeters larger than the grd.

what features would your ideal small sensor compact have? a fast zoom? a super-zoom? unprecedented macro capabilities? a rangefinder-style body with a built-in evf? interchangeable lenses? 🙂

I generally consider FourThirds format (13x17.3mm) to be the smallest sensor I'm interested in these days. Much smaller than that and the options are too limited by the physics of the design to be of much interest—and my iPhone 4S does well enough to say 'why bother carrying another camera?'

Now, that said, the old Panasonic FZ10 I had in 2004 with its excellent Leica designed f/2.8 constant aperture ultra-zoom lens produced some amazing photographs and was quite compact for a 400mm EFoV with image stabilization. I sold a lot of photos I made with that rig.

G

 

[biomed]

This subject came up in class last night. The instructor read somewhere that P&S digital camera sales have dropped by 43%. The light at the end of the tunnel for this niche of the photo market is the display on a smart phone. I personally don't care for in phone cameras, but the numbers prove that a very large number people like them. For the last few years I have always had a P&S camera. My current one is an LX5. I am anticipating the availability of some very good small sensor cameras for bargain prices in the not too distant future.

Mike

 

[Rang-er]

1’’ seems to be the absolute minimum for compacts, since now even smartphones carry sensors this big (cf. Nokia). Compacts with sensors this size will be able to thrive for few years (see the Sony RX100’s success and the last interview of an Aptina exec on DPReview) before having to embed a bigger sensor, like a 4/3 sized one.
Such rumours are already floating around.

Meanwhile, the Pentax Q and Nikon 1 will have long disappeared. They are already dead, and they were a mistake to begin with. The Nikon especially, which stands no chance against the likes of the NEX and XM-1 which aren’t much bigger yet carry a mighty APS-C sized sensor (and – wait for it – the NEX-FF is right in the corner). Too big a body/lens ratio? Then the venerable µ4/3 is at hand. At least the Pentax Q holds some value as a toy.

The next wave of non-system compact cameras will be RX100 competitors. Good thing. Sony is milking us too much for being the sole player with a solid offer in this segment.
Now I wonder. How will the RX10 look like? In-between the 1’’ zoom RX100 and the FF fixed 35mm RX1, are they going to give it a mid-size sensor with a fixed lens? Like... 4/3-ish sized with a collapsible 50mm?

I hope Sony will continue to be daring with its RX series, the market needs it... and so does the company, since its DSLRs aren't that successful. Though, given Sony's lack of customer commitment, I hope even more that Fuji will come up with something interesting. They too have the flair for innovative products, as demonstrated by their comeback with the X series; and they, on the other hand, also release firmware updates in a timely manner.

 

[mkvrnn]

My ideal compact camera must have the following, in this order:-

(1) A decent viewfinder

(2) Small enough to fit my pocket or my car's glove box.

(3) Reasonably good picture quality, and most modern cameras pass that test. I don't care about pixels, sensor size etc, so long as it produces a fairly big sharp image on my computer screen.

(4) A manual zoom range of at least 4x, preferably at least as wide as 24mm equivalent

(5) Decent build quality - I don't want a lens which I can wobble.

(6) Fast focussing and no shutter delay.

(7) Reliability, which unfortunately rules out Fuji after my recent experience with an x10

Sadly I can't find anything on the market at a sensible price which meets my requirements. Any suggestions?

 

[Pablito]

(7) Reliability, which unfortunately rules out Fuji after my recent experience with an x10

You rule out all products by one company because you (I take it) got a lemon? I don't have one (or any other Fuji product for that matter), but that camera has a very good rep. among photographers.

 

[zuiko85]

I've noticed that Pentax has dropped the fixed 'normal' f1.9 lens for the Q camera. All they have now in fixed focal lengths are the Toy lenses.

The zooms stick out too far, making the camera not pocketable. Never really understood that whole marketing decision by Pentax to bring out such a small sensor camera with interchangable lenses.