A friend of mine asked me an interesting question the other day – what compact camera would I recommend for them? Of course I immediately jumped to the Canon G7X Mk III and the daddy of them all, the Sony RX100VII, Both brilliant cameras, both expensive at 820GBP and GBP1050 respectively. So that was my first mistake – not asking about budget. Instead I assumed based on how *I* would buy such a camera.
As a side note, that Sony camera was released in 2019, and it’s still right at the top of the heap. How mad is that?
Anyway, we established a reasonable budget of GBP500…and this is when I hit a bit of a wall. I couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer that wasn’t upgrade your phone. This surprised me, so I thought I’d throw this out there to see what others thought.
The more I looked at GBP500 ish compact cameras the more of a compromise I found them to be – and not in a positive way. The quality of the output dropped, the feature set dropped, and it led me to the question of why not get a better phone? Having discussed this further, it seemed my mate had an older, single-lens iPhone … that is probably not that far from its end of life anyway…so at some point will be upgraded.
This got me thinking about the cameras/lenses in my iPhone 16 Pro Max (as a side note, the dumbest, most pointless iPhone upgrade in as long as I can remember). This phone has three lenses:
-> 48MP 24mm Main Camera
-> 48MP 13mm Wide-Angle
-> 12MP Telephoto 5x Optical Zoom
Let’s not forget the sensor size here though – it’s a 1/1.14″ sensor.
If we compare it to say the Panasonic Lumix TZ99 (GBP469), it’s closer than you’d think.
This camera produces 20MP photos from a 1/2.3″ sensor, and has a 24-70mm zoom (30x Optical). A smaller sensor than the iPhone, but with a better zoom. The iPhone should be better in low-light, and also perhaps in dynamic range.
When you combine the convenience of one device, with the limited uplift in quality from the cheaper compact, I think the phone comes out a significant winner. I’m more likely to have it with me, more likely to use it, and I will enjoy using it. Are there benefits to the compact? Sure.
It’s got a better zoom. You can do manual photos (setting the aperture/shutter speed) better than you can in the iPhone. The output is marginally better (and even that is subjective I believe) than the iPhone – you can of course now shoot RAW on the iPhone if you want.
Is it enough for me to use that Lumix over an iPhone? I don’t think I would.
Let’s revisit the requirement then, and add some additional parameters:
-> I want a better camera
-> Some zoom/flexibility would be great
-> I want better quality
-> My current iPhone is nearing end of life
-> My budget is about 500GBP for the camera
…I can’t see a better answer than combining the iPhone upgrade (other phones are available…) with the camera, and ending up with one device. I’d be far more likely to use it, and I think the minor losses in quality are more than made up for in flexibility.
This is not how I purchase tech typically, so I thought I’d throw this out there for the opinions of others!
Come on, tell me how wrong I am.