08-24-2014, 08:49 PM
freeradical wrote:
Those super zoom cameras are not small or light.
These are the physical specs for the SX40:
That's not true. There are plenty of very compact superzoom cameras. I have a Fujifilm F600EXR which is quite small (current equivalent model F900EXR). The downside...relatively small sensor and no viewfinder.
The difficulty is that Mr Lynn seems to want a high quality viewfinder combined with compactness and a big zoom range. I don't think that's possible.
Mr Lynn, if you're happy with the A540's picture quality then you'll be happy with pretty much anything, since that camera has a tiny sensor (1/2.5") with about the same picture quality level as current smartphones. The problem is, you won't get a decent viewfinder until you move up to a high quality camera because the manufacturers are not going to waste money putting an expensive EV on a low end camera with a small sensor...there's simply no demand for it. A high quality camera means a decent size sensor and therefore if you add a big zoom range to that the lenses have to be much larger than on the small sensor cameras and you end up with a camera as big as an SLR. You should decide how much of a zoom you need because there is a huge tradeoff between compactness, zoom range and picture quality. If you can get by with a small zoom range you have lots to choose from. Probably the top compact camera with excellent EV and a zoom currently is the Sony RX100 III. However it is a bit pricey and is definitely not a "superzoom".