Compact cameras on test

Even though the iPhone’s camera keeps getting better, the compact camera isn’t dead just yet…

iPhone camera not cutting it? We test six alternatives

According to some (including Graham Barlow, our Editor-inChief – see page 16), the compact camera is on its last legs, its role usurped by the smartphone. From the fixed-focus, two-megapixel camera in the original iPhone to the 8-megapixel number in the iPhone 5s, the technical progression and image-quality improvements in the iPhone’s camera over the years haven’t been that remarkable. But the big benefit is you almost always have it with you. In virtually every other way, there’s nothing a decent compact doesn’t do better. Nearly all compacts have optical zooms; the iPhone offers a fixed lens that can only zoom by enlarging an area of the image, which degrades image quality. And, while the iPhone’s sensor – the component that captures light and turns it into a digital signal – has grown larger, it can’t compete with the size of the image sensor in most compacts. That’s significant as a larger image sensor means, better quality images, particularly when a sensor’s sensitivity is boosted in low light.

Fortunately, the death of the compact camera is much exaggerated, and there are plenty of great compacts

Plenty of compacts offer far more than a cameraphone without the cost or weight of a DSLR

out there that offer far more than a cameraphone, without costing or weighing you down as much as a bridge camera or DSLR.

Indeed, the growth of the cameraphone has been a positive for the compact camera, which now needs to do more than ever to stave off the threat posed by the iPhone. Expect long-range zooms in tiny packages, wireless and even 3G capabilities for social networking, touchscreens and more. We’ve considered all those features, and even investigated shockproof cameras capable of diving to 15m – anyone who’s got one wet will attest that ruggedness is not a key quality of smartphones. Above all else, we’ve strenuously tested image quality, because your money isn’t being well spent if it isn’t improving your photography straight off the bat. Dave Stevenson