The Compact Camera Quandary
– State of the Market, Mid-2007

Page 4, version 1.1, © (Aug.) 2007 by Dale Cotton, all rights reserved

What's out there

Fig. 11: Nikon P5000, just one of the many available choices

Having looked into most of the items on a potential shopping list it's now time to consider what's on the shelves. I'm well aware that the following will come across as the grouchy grousings of an incurable pessimist. But if you've followed my analysis so far, or if you've already reached the same conclusions, I suspect you'll find the following to be simple fact:

• Canon dominates in sales – what do they have to offer? They removed Raw from their compact flagship, the G7, as well as from the S80. The Ixus/SD models use a 1/2.5" CCD and offer virtually no exposure control. The A570IS is aimed squarely at the non-photographer and very likely hits that target.
• Fuji: their SuperCCD sensors have two or three stops better low light capability than anything else. Sorry: Fuji still makes a tourist cam, with a minimal and practically unusable control set, no Raw; and only as I write this have they gotten around to announcing their first stabilized model, the F50fd. You could wait for this to hit the shelves, but the specs are not promising, given that the 12 mp SuperCCD inside is no bigger than the 6 mp SuperCCD in the current model. It would take a doubling in light gathering efficiency for the F50fd to retain the native noise vs. ISO capabilities of the current 6 mp models. Any such breakthrough would be so spectacular that Fuji's marketing arm would be all over it. We'd be hearing about an UltraCCD by now.
• Nikon doesn't even pretend to make a serious compact. Not one model has even low-compression JPEG, let alone Raw. The new P5000 is their closest thing to usable with its 10 mp 1/1.8" CCD and lens IS. But the zoom is un-wide at 36-126, 400 ISO is beyond redemption, and according to the dpreview.com review the auto focus is unusable. The S500 is less pretentious with a 7.1 mp 1/2.5" CCD, and 35-105 zoom, but does have lens IS and is extremely petite.
• Olympus is also hobbled by a proprietary (xD) card format. The SP550 UZ has some interesting features, including Raw and a 28-504 zoom, but is virtually an SLR in form factor and has only a 1/2.5" CCD under the hood. Nothing else looks remotely interesting (which I write reluctantly, since my first camera was the venerable Olympus C-2020).
• Then there's Panasonic/Leica. Panasonic continues to come tantalizingly close. The LX1 and LX2 in particular simply nail the decisive moment concept. The control set and form factor are exquisite. Raw mode is there. They even use a gorgeous (miniature) Leica Vario-Elmarit lens, but, as Simon Joinson points out, the Ferrari has a two stroke sensor under the hood. Of all the small cameras available as I write this the LX2 is in my opinion the closest thing to what we want. And if you shoot it in bright sunlight the resulting image files will actually be reasonably usable (so long as you don't ask too much of the shadows).
• Pentax makes wonderful dSLRs but their compact line is mainstream (I seem to recall them announcing they were exiting the compact business a few years back, but that was a few re-orgs ago). The A30 has a 10 mp 1/2.5" CCD, 38-114 zoom, sensor shift IS, no aperture or shutter priority, no Raw.
• Ricoh has fascinating line of small cameras (if you can find one). Lile Panasonic, Ricoh seems to understand. The GX100 has a 24-72 lens, so far as I know the widest ever on a compact, plus it has IS. But its 1/1.8" sensor has the same noise and ISO issues as the competition.
• Sigma. We'll discuss Sigma's first compact, the DP1, below.
• Sony has never even heard of Raw and loves its proprietary Memory Stick flash cards but otherwise has made some very interesting small cameras over the years. The W200 is the first kid on the block with the new Sony 1/1.7" 12.1 mp CCD, 35-105 zoom, lens IS, No Raw, no aperture or shutter priority. You might think the previous W80 or W90 with more modest megapixel counts of 7.1 and 8.1 but otherwise the same feature set would be preferable, but unfortunately both employ a 1/2.5" CCD, so pixel size will not be much different.

So what's to be done?

If the minuscule sensor size is the underlying problem, why hasn't any company built a small camera around a larger sensor? Previously, the answer was simply economics: sensors were originally much pricier and the manufacturer's cost increased directly with unit size. But even so, the somewhat larger, 2/3" sensor was used in the flagship models of several manufacturers. Another issue still persists: the size (and therefore the weight) of the lens assembly must be big enough to at least cover the diagonal of the sensor. If we want to slap a standard-issue APS scale dSLR sensor into a compact camera, we also have to attach a lens big enough to cover it.

Fig. 12: Sigma DP1, the new possibility

This is precisely what Sigma has announced with its DP1. Note, however, that it sports a non-detachable 28mm equiv. f/4 prime lens. Presumably a pancake design, this lens comes as close as possible to retaining the compact camera form factor, adding perhaps an inch to the thickness of the camera. A zoom would be correspondingly larger, either in length or in diameter, creating something little or no more pocketable than a small SLR – which is probably a sticking point for them but would not be so for me. One can envision a DP2 with a detachable lens mount and a suite of proprietary lenses. How practical that may be in engineering terms, I don't know.

The alternate approach that shouts out at us is to stay with a small sensor but reduce the pixel count. Given today's technology, and excluding the Fuji SuperCCD, one would have to cut a 1/1.8" imager back to 2 or 3 mp to achieve a meaningful reduction in noise and therefore a meaningful increase in high ISO capability. But the Japanese camera companies undoubtedly view any step backward in megapixel count, no matter how justifiable, as economic suicide, and they're probably correct ... at least in today's market.

The combination of increased lens size and weight together with the bleak s/n picture for small sensors, given any reasonable megapixel count, tells me that the camera manufacturers have their backs against the wall. Upping to a 2/3" sensor gives us a 20% reduction in noise, which would be welcome, but which wouldn't buy us even a single "stop" in ISO.

Of course, their current "solution" is to throw noise reduction at the problem and hope consumers won't notice.

Having explored the unpromising leads of larger sensors and of fewer pixels, the direction I find suggestive is the slow-but-steady reduction in entry-level dSLR size. One day some manufacturer is bound to come up with a mini-dSLR or rangefinder camera system about half way in size between the typical compact and the typical SLR, using a 4/3s or similar sensor size, employing compact camera miniaturization wherever possible, offering in-camera IS, usable ISOs up to 800, and sporting a select suite of scaled-down but classy interchangeable lenses. This is, of course, the promise 4/3s got us excited about but never fulfilled. Such a camera might weigh in well under one pound (1/2 kilo) with a single lens attached, which would make it portable enough not to burden a day's hiking but definitely not pocketable.

Recommendation

The course I recommend to you at this time is to:

• a) Buy any true pocket cam that strikes your fancy as an adjunct to your main squeeze, so long as it has IS and a wide-enough lens to suit your wants. (We might dub this sub-species of the pocket cam the Elvis cam, since it's primary purpose will be to capture that million dollar photo proving his continued existence.)

Or

• b) If you want to try for a bit better image quality, look additionally for a 1/1.8" sensor, Raw capability, a usable set of exposure controls, and as low a megapixel count as possible. Slip this in a pocket and carry it with you at all times.

Either way

• c) Take your SLR whenever possible on any outing from which you have any hope of getting keepers. If your pro-grade SLR tends to get left at home due to its weight and bulk, consider adding one of the small/budget SLR bodies to your kit.