Camera to complement your phone

[dolina]

Are you looking to buy a camera to complement your smartphone but dont know what to get? Then read on!

If size & weight are important and you have no plans to buy a 2nd lens then a point & shoot with a large image sensor like those found in a Four Thirds, APS-C, Full frame camera may be of interest to you.

Large image sensor allows for better image quality than any and all smartphones.

Their built-in lens tends to have faster f-number than the kit lens of mirrorless or dSLRs.

They also have WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC to complement and connect to your smartphone.

Listed below are some of these cameras that are smaller & weigh less than their mirrorless counterpart. These are accurate as of the date of this posting.

Full Frame
- Leica Q (Type 116) < looks like a Leica M camera but with auto focus and auto aperture
- Sony RX1R II
- Sony RX1R
- Sony RX1

APS-C
- Fujifilm X100F
- Ricoh GR II
- Canon G1 Mark III
- Fujifilm X70
- Leica X-U (Typ 113)

Four Thirds
- Leica D-LUX (Typ 109)
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100

Another option that offers higher utility may be buying a flagship phone like a Google Pixel 2 or iPhone 8.

You may leave your new camera at home but never your phone.

The best camera you can ever own is the one with you always.

[Tannin]

A very useful post, Dolina. Perhaps you could add in a fourth category: somewhat smaller sensors but still well above the general run of P&S and smartphone ones.

There are quite a few high-end point and shoot cameras using what they idiotically call a "one inch" sensor, which is actually about 13mm x 9mm or a 2.7 crop factor (compare to APS-C at 1.5 or 1.6 and Four Thirds at 2.0, or to the best phone camera sensors at about 5x crop).

I recently bought a Canon G9X II to try out. It's a genuine shirt pocket size unit (roughly the size of a small cigarette packet), has a fastish f/2 lens with a sensible zoom range, and seems like a pretty nifty little thing. Early days yet though - not sure that I'll ever get used to not having a viewfinder. I keep trying to hold it to my eye. There are various other models in Canon's range (at extra cost and, more importantly, extra size) using the same sensor, and if I remember correctly, broadly similar models from two or three other manufacturers.

[dolina]

Hi Tony,

I excluded the 1" sensor point and shoots because there are no mirrorless or dSLRs that I know of that uses that sensor size.

The post was created for people who want exactly the same image quality of a mirroless or dSLR but in as small or light a camera as possible.

For the purpose of discussion here are point & shoots that have image quality between a mirrorless camera and a flagship phone.

1.5"
* Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II

1"
* Sony RX0 1.0"-Type Sensor Ultra-Compact Waterproof/Shockproof
* Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II
* Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 V
* Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 III
* Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100
* Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II
* Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10
* Canon PowerShot G3 X
* Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 IV
* Canon PowerShot G9 X
* Canon PowerShot G5 X
* Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 V
* Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS100

[swifty]

Nikon 1 (abandoned?) is a mirrorless system based on 1” sensors and Pentax Q, which is a bit of a novelty is even smaller.
Anyways, I think you should add Sigma’s DP series that are based on APS-C Fovean sensors.
Also Canon’s G1x mkIII is now APS-C and even the mkII’s sensor was bigger than that of the LX100/Typ 109.

Edit: Oops, I see you’ve included the G1x III in the original post but I think you writing G1 without the x was just a typo.

[dolina]

Nikon 1 (abandoned?) is a mirrorless system based on 1” sensors and Pentax Q, which is a bit of a novelty is even smaller.
Anyways, I think you should add Sigma’s DP series that are based on APS-C Fovean sensors.
Also Canon’s G1x mkIII is now APS-C and even the mkII’s sensor was bigger than that of the LX100/Typ 109.

Edit: Oops, I see you’ve included the G1x III in the original post but I think you writing G1 without the x was just a typo.

I completely forgot that Nikon had mirrorless offerings.

It appears that Pentax has withdrawn that product from the US market.

As for the Sigma it doesn't fulfill smallest or lightest parameter.

For the purpose of discussion here are point & shoots that have image quality between a Four Third cameras and a flagship phone.


1.5"



Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II

1"



Sony RX0 1.0"-Type Sensor Ultra-Compact Waterproof/Shockproof
Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 V
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 III
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100
Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10
Canon PowerShot G3 X
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 IV
Canon PowerShot G9 X
Canon PowerShot G5 X
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 V
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS100

[xbojx]

+1 for the X100F. I love how I can bring my X100S everytime I go out due to its small size. [emoji1303]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[swifty]

I completely forgot that Nikon had mirrorless offerings.

It appears that Pentax has withdrawn that product from the US market.

As for the Sigma it doesn't fulfill smallest or lightest parameter.


Fair enough as this is your thread. But the DP Quattro's aren't really all that bulky but rather oddly shaped to make storage/transport somewhat awkward compared to the brick shapes of the DP Merrill's as well as the other cameras listed.
But the Leica X-U is also not particularly small, for an APS-C compact relatively speaking, but has the advantage of being water and shockproof.

I guess what I'm getting at is it becomes extremely difficult to compare the relative performance of each ''compact'', especially if we look at sensor size alone. As these are not ILC's, the lens cannot be separated from the equation.
They vary in performance and speed and a faster lens with a smaller sensor may perform better than slower lenses with larger sensors, shooting conditions dependent.

I get what you're trying to achieve but its a very difficult task as small and compact is a relative term, whilst there are too many variables to consider when considering fixed lens cameras to just base it on sensor size alone.