Today’s compact cameras have it tough. They have to constantly prove their everyday worth against the ubiquotous smartphone camera and stay just as easy to use. Different manufacturers have different features for their compact cameras to stand out, so we put them all through their paces to find the best.
Today’s compact cameras have it tough. They have to constantly prove their everyday worth against the ubiquotous smartphone camera and stay just as easy to use. Different manufacturers have different features for their compact cameras to stand out, so we put them all through their paces to find the best.
CANON POWERSHOT SX710 HS
The PowerShot SX710 HS could probably be considered the midrange superzoom in Canon’s compact line-up for 2015, coming with a 20MP BSI CMOS sensor, an impressive 25-750mm zoom range (35mm equivalent), and Wi-Fi plus NFC capabilities. In terms of design, the PowerShot SX710 HS is virtually unchanged from the PowerShot SX700 HS, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you liked the previous model.
Grip support comes by way of faux leather covering over a small grip area and in a certain sense the enlarged mode dial which is knurled for better feel. While we did have some misgivings about the dial being placed vertically (it seemed like the chances of accidentally shifting modes would be quite high), it seems like Canon has taken that into account quite well, implementing click stops that don’t shift out too easily.
We like that the camera also offers the very handy zoom framing assist mode that’s also seen on the higher end PowerShot G3 X. You simply press the button once and it zooms out temporarily allowing you to reframe the shot while keeping the button depressed. Release the button, and it zooms back in. What’s nice though is that it also doubles as a subject tracking mode. You can have it identify face, body or just the upper body and the camera will adjust the lens zoom to keep that in frame
if you press and release rather than hold it down. Another thing to note is that pressing either the phone button or the preview button will turn on the camera and automatically put it in the respective mode. It’s a bit of an underrated shortcut perhaps, but one that could save you some time if you just wanted to show off a picture perhaps.
The movie record button can be difficult to reach.
The vertically oriented mode dial is pretty handy in practice.
There’s a pop-up flash if you need extra light in a pinch.
AT A GLANCE
Sensor 1/2.3-inch BSI CMOS Megapixels20.3-megapixels Focal length25-750mm (35mm equivalent)Weight (inc batteries) Approx. 269g Price$459.
IMAGE QUALITY & PERFORMANCE - CANON POWERSHOT SX710 HS
The PowerShot SX710 HS turns in good results in most conditions. There’s in-camera lens shift stabilization, and a Hybrid Auto mode that automatically captures a 4-second movie before each shot and combines the stills and video into a montage, handy for parties or outings where you can’t quite predict the action. The autofocus isn’t the fastest of the group, but it is fairly accurate and it goes down to a focusing distance of just 1cm in macro, making it one of the more versatile cameras in the line-up. One thing we did like is how the AF Frame enlarges to show you exactly what is being focused on in center AF Frame mode, which sort of acts as confirmation before the shot. However, images tend to have a bit of a cyan bias, especially when shooting indoors.
CASIO EX-ZR3500
The EX-ZR3500 is Casio’s flagship in their travel series compacts, and has a 25-300mm (35mm equivalent) zoom reach that can be doubled with their Multi SR Zoom function, which samples multiple areas from the image to do real-time interpolation, thus creating a better final image than what most digital zooms are able to achieve.
It’s powered by a 12.1-megapixel 1/1.7-inch back-illuminated CMOS sensor, and features Casio’s HS anti-shake feature which corrects for shake in five axes leading to better images and videos. In fact, Casio touts the EX-ZR3500 as having the best image quality of the entire travel series to date, capable of giving images that show “each and every strand of hair”, so there certainly is a fair bit of expectation in terms of image quality. The EX-ZR3500 features a quick access menu that you can get to easily by pressing down on the main dial pad.
This runs as an extension of the physical control dial on the camera, so selection of options involves rotating the control dial, pressing right to select the function, rotating the dial again to get your setting, then pressing the set button to save it. That may seem a handful, but it works pretty well in practice, as the menu system was one of the easiest to go through. Of course, with any Casio camera, make-up mode and selfies are always going to be main features, and the EX-ZR3500 is no different.
There’s a dedicated front shutter, and the camera automatically switches to selfie mode once you flip the LCD up, even if the camera is off. The strength of skin tone and skin smoothing adjustments applied can easily be adjusted via sliders, so men can darken their skin and yet get some light skin smoothing too.
There’s a handy control dial over the lens.
There’s a handy control dial over the lens.
The LCD tilts a full 180 degrees, giving you better flexibility.
AT A GLANCE
Sensor 1/1.7-inch HS BSI CMOS Megapixels12.1-megapixels Dimensions25-300mm (35mm equivalent) Weight (inc batteries)Approx. 248g Price $579.
IMAGE QUALITY & PERFORMANCE - CASIO EX-ZR3500
The EX-ZR3500 had one of the faster autofocus systems of the group, constantly picking out focus points, quickly and more importantly, accurately. We do think that it also has the best color balance of the group, and the best sense of exposure when left in program mode. Hardly any correction is needed with the shots, and there is generally good detail in the images. The 5-axis image stabilization also offers choice of two settings – “normal” and “strong”. We had it set to “strong” when we were testing the extents of the lens, and found that the image stabilization generally worked well, with minimal blurring. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that images captured had every bit as much detail as some of the other cameras with higher resolution numbers in the group.
NIKON COOLPIX S9900
Nikon brands the Coolpix S9900 as “the ultimate in pocket-size versatility”, and they might not actually be far off in this case. The camera features a swiveling LCD, built-in Wi-Fi with NFC support for starters, and even incorporates built-in onboard GPS with POI technology so you can automatically log the longitude and latitude of every shot you take. There’s also a 5-axis Hybrid VR system that uses a combination lens shift and electronic VR for more stable images especially on the long range of the zoom.
That’s certainly important as the camera body is extremely small given it goes all the way out to a 750mm equivalent zoom while not offering you that much to hold on to. That said, we do like that the camera remains relatively slim and light, and the flip-out rear LCD display is certainly the most versatile of all the other cameras, allowing you to shoot from virtually any angle. Nikon says it uses a RGBW alignment for the LCD screen with an added anti-reflection coating to ensure clear visibility of the images, and in our testing it certainly seemed to work.
The LCD was always clearly visible without needing much brightness or contrast adjustments. We must say we have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the CoolPix S9900’s menu system. While on the one hand, it’s smart enough to remember where you are in the menu so you don’t have to start from the top each time you need to adjust the same setting, somehow it always resets the drive mode to single shot after you put it on timer mode. That means you’ll be diving through the same menus over and over again if you’re taking a series of shots that require the use of a timer, it gets frustrating to say the least.
The dials are nicely knurled for better feel.
The pop-up flash comes up fairly high.
The vari-angle LCD lets you use the camera from any angle.
AT A GLANCE
Sensor 1/2.3-inch CMOS, Megapixels16.0-megapixels, Focal length 25–750mm(35mm equivalent), Weight (inc batteries)Approx. 289g, Price $479.
IMAGE QUALITY & PERFORMANCE - NIKON COOLPIX S9900
The Coolpix S9900 obviously struck us by how much easier it was to frame and compose images from any angle thanks to the vari-angle LCD, but we were also impressed by how active the autofocus system was when set to tracking mode. The in-body stabilization system also seemed to work as advertised, as we were able to get steady shots at the 750mm (equivalent) range handheld. Overall, the white balance on the camera is pretty accurate, without too much of a color bias in any of the pictures, important because you can only shoot in JPEG format. Our one major bugbear with the camera though, is that the exposure system seemed to bias very heavily towards highlight preservation, leaving the images captured looking about half to one stop underexposed compared to the others.
OLYMPUS STYLUS TOUGH TG-4
The Tough TG-4 is the only camera in this round up that’s not only weather-sealed, but able to take freezing sub-zero temperatures to -10C, crushproof to 100kgf, and waterproof to 15m. In short, it’s well capable of following you on a dive trip, a trip to the Antarctic, or even a trek in the Sahara. Perhaps as a result of this, the body is more ruggedly designed than the rest, and even the zoom levers have been built to accommodate use by gloved fingers.
In practice, this translated to just a touch more damping on the controls as compared to the others. The camera features GPS capabilities that are faster than the previous version, being able to acquire a signal in less than ten seconds, which makes geotagging pictures less of a hassle. Complementary to this, is the integrated e.Compass that gives you readings like direction, longitude, latitude, altitude and barometric pressure at a press of a button.
All that means is that you could potentially use the camera to navigate your way home, which can definitely come in handy when you’re overseas. Tap control is another handy feature, as it allows you to call up different functions like image playback just by tap the sides of the camera, which helps when you can’t easily reach the buttons.
Like when you’re managing your buoyancy under water for instance. So it’s certainly great for the rugged traveler, but add to that a highly impressive Super Macro function (that gets you up to just 1 cm for extreme close-up shots), a high speed movie function with capture rates of 120fps or 240fps, and a super resolution zoom feature (that boosts the optical zoom to twice the range with minimal image quality loss), and you have a great camera for capturing stills and video overall.
The zoom lever is a little small.
The mode dial has deep ridges for better feel.
The flash is also fixed and fairly near to the lens.
AT A GLANCE
Sensor 1/2.3-inch CMOS, Megapixels16.0-megapixels, Focal length25-100mm (35mm equivalent), Weight (inc batteries)Approx. 247g, Price $498.
IMAGE QUALITY & PERFORMANCE - OLYMPUS STYLUS TOUGH TG-4
In terms of sheer reach, the Tough TG-4 falls behind the rest of the group as it only offers a zoom range of 25-100mm (35mm equivalent), but we did take advantage of the underwater capabilities by half submerging it in water to get unique images from that perspective. This is also where the tap capabilities came in handy as we wouldn’t have had an easy way to change settings otherwise. Images in bright sunlight do tend to exhibit a bit of purple fringing though, and it seems to lack the micro-contrast and sharpness exhibited by some of the competition. The camera is best at kept at the base ISO of 100 though, as detail loss starts from as early as ISO 400 and becomes unrecoverable from ISO 1600 onwards.
PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-TZ70
The Lumix DMC-TZ70 is billed as the “ultimate travel camera for every destination”, and actually features a sensor with a lower resolution count that its predecessor, the DMC-TZ60, which boasts a 18.1-megapixel MOS sensor. This lowered pixel count should make for improved low light performance, and indeed the DMC-TZ70 was one of the better performers at ISO 6400.
The camera features slight design changes from its predecessor, with a larger hand grip in the front and a flatter profile overall. It’s also very slightly taller and wider at 110.7 x 64.6 x 34.4mm (compared to 110.6 x 64.3 x 34.4mm of the DMC-TZ60), but otherwise everything remains essentially unchanged save a slight shift of the Live View function key to the center.
That’s actually now a programmable function button, giving you two buttons with which you can assign custom functions to in addition to the four main quick access buttons on the directional pad. There isn’t a quick menu function on the DMC-TZ70 though, so you will probably fi nd yourself diving into the full menu fairly often.
Menu is divided into four sections - Rec, Motion Picture, Setup and Wi-Fi. That adds a bit more hassle to something as simple as changing the White Balance or your drive modes. What’s nice is the control ring over the lens as it’s certainly a good size to allow for precise adjustments like when you’re doing manual focus for extreme close-ups.
Another small touch we also liked was how the camera displays the entire zoom range for each stop when you adjust the lever. You can tell immediately the minimum focus distance of the camera for the particular zoom length it’s set at, which can at times help explain why the camera can’t get focus (too close to the subject).
The movie recording button is raised up just enough.
Four quick options allow for quick changes of settings.
The ridged handgrip gives you just enough to hang on.
AT A GLANCE
Sensor 1/2.3-inch High Sensitivity MOS, Megapixels12.1-megapixelsFocal length24 - 720mm (35mm equivalent), Weight (inc batteries)Approx. 243g, Price $529.00.
IMAGE QUALITY & PERFORMANCE - PANASONIC DMC-TZ70
The DMC-TZ70 impressed us with how well it handled, and how quickly the camera obtained focus. The lens action on zooming was also very swift, and we do like how there’s an option to set it to stepped zooming, meaning the zoom stops on fixed focal lengths that correspond to the focal lengths of most commonly used lenses. When you zoom in to look at the out of focus areas, it appears that the DMC-TZ70 holds slightly more detail than the rest, and our experience with the camera also shows that it’s quite a bit better at dealing with flaring too. Where it seems to suffer a bit though, is in the shadow areas as we found it doesn’t hold detail quite as well as something like the Casio EX-ZR3500.
SONY CYBERSHOT DSC-HX90V
The smallest of the group measuring just 102.0 x 58.1 x 35.4mm, the DSC-HX90V is certainly extremely portable. But you’ll never complain about a lack for features as Sony has somehow found a way to still pack in a 30x optical zoom lens, an electronic viewfinder, and a pop-up flash into the tiny body. While it shares the same zoom range as the DSC-HX60V from last year, the camera actually gets a bit of a lens upgrade, as it sports Zeiss optics this time.
The new Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens has a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at the wide end and f/6.4 at the long end, and covers a 35mm equivalent range of 24-720mm. The camera also gets Sony’s Bionz X processor and a Back-Illuminated sensor that has slightly lowered resolution (18.2-megapixels as opposed to 20.4-megapixels) for a bigger pixel pitch. Together, these should lead to better performance at higher ISOs.
The pop-up viewfinder is very reminiscent to the one found on the higher-end RX100 IV, and we must say it’s probably the best we’ve seen on a compact camera so far. Like, the one on the RX100 IV, the OLED viewfinder sinks into the camera body and pops up at a flick of a switch. It’s clear and bright, and you get a live image review of your settings, making it extremely handy for judging exposure. Also improved, is the rear 3-inch TFT LCD on the camera.
This now flips up a full 180 degrees so you can easily do selfies or take pictures with the camera at low angles. Of course, the camera sports Wi-Fi with NFC capabilities for easy picture sharing, and GPS geotagging capabilities that can be used with the Sony PlayMemories Home software on your computer to display a path and images of your journey on a trail map.
A switch by the side releases the EVF.T
The DSC-HX90V comes with integrated GPS.
The pop-up flash barely rises up above the camera.
AT A GLANCE
Sensor 1/2.3-inch Exmor R CMOS, Megapixels18.2-megapixels, Focal length24–720mm (35mm equivalent), Weight 245g, Price $599.00.
IMAGE QUALITY & PERFORMANCE - SONY CYBERSHOT DSC-HX90V
We said it earlier but it bears repeating – the best thing about taking pictures with the DSC-HX90V is the viewfinder, and the extra control ring around the lens that allows you to have physical controls for both shutter and aperture in Manual mode. Both features give you a sense of control that you don’t always get from a compact camera. The 5-axis image stabilization is also very handy, allowing us to capture images at shutter speeds as low as 0.6 seconds. Images captured seem to have a slight tinge of cyan, but hold a good amount of detail, especially when taken in bright daylight. Finally, while the camera is listed as being able to go up to ISO 12,800, it only does so under Multi-Frame NR mode, and so isn’t always an option.
AND THE BEST TRAVEL COMPACT CAMERA IS
ISCASIO EXILIM EX-ZR3500
This was honestly a little surprising to us, given that the EX-ZR3500 didn’t quite have the highest resolution sensor of the shootout. In terms of consistency of exposure and the accuracy of the automatic white balance systems though, the EX-ZR3500 was easily one of the best. Images from the camera also constantly came in with the most detail captured, and the camera was also one of the best in low light. Both points we think can probably be attributed to the slightly larger 1/1.7” sensor, as well as the choice made to stick to a sensible level of 12-megapixels given the smaller sensor. Other plus points are the relatively easy to use interface and the full range of shooting modes available; especially important for compact cameras as they have to appeal to users of all levels.
NIKON COOLPIX S9900
We mentioned how impressed we were with the Nikon Coolpix S9900’s suite of features. Swiveling LCD, built-in Wi-Fi with NFC support, GPS with POI technology, all this add up to a very feature-filled offering at a fairly low price compared to the others. You will probably have to work with the camera for a while to decide how much compensation to dial in to get exposures consistent to what you prefer, and the menu system definitely can do with an improvement, but none of that should detract from the fact that the Coolpix S9900 remains a very capable camera at a good price, hence this award.
