I was recently shopping for camera that would offer better image quality than my current cheap compact and still be small enough to be carried with me all the time. Most of the contenders are on the larger side, so only a die hard photographer enthusiast would carry them all the time, but because I happen to be one, that’s not a problem for me.
Still, this comparison might come handy for someone looking for compact camera to be used when traveling or going into events where you want to put some weight on image quality, but not carry DSLR or similar with you.
This is not meant to be be-all-end-all comparison, I just publish the data I collected when facing this decision myself. It seems there is very few comparisons like this available on the web, so publishing even just data that worked for me feels justified.
The volumes assume the camera to be rectangular block sized per the largest measure to each dimension, because that approximates how much space it takes in your pocket.
Dimensions and volume are recorded with both a standard prime, one giving field of view comparable to 50mm on 35mm film, and with small standard zoom lens. The lenses used calculations are Olympus 25/2.8 and Panasonic X 14-42mm zoom for GX1 and Samsung 30/2 for NX200. These give field of view equivalent to 50 and 45mm on 35mm film, respectively.
As a reference for sensor sizes, from Wikipedia:
Note about the image: What’s called “four thirds” on the image is the size what the “micro four thirds” digital cameras use.
|
Canon S100 |
Fuji X10 |
Panasonic DMC-GX1 |
Samsung NX200 |
| ¤, Amazon UK |
444¤ |
580¤ |
1107¤ |
925¤ |
| Sensor size |
1/1.7″ |
|
Micro Four Thirds, |
APS-C |
| Sensor dim. |
7.6*5.7mm |
8.8*6.6mm |
17.3*13mm |
23.5*15.7mm |
| Sensor area |
43mm2 |
58mm2 |
225mm2 |
369mm2 |
| Relative area |
1 |
1.3 |
5.2 |
8.5 |
| W |
198g |
350g |
367g |
306g |
| Base dim. |
99*60*27mm |
117*70*57mm |
116*68*39mm |
117*63*36mm |
| Dim. w/ 50mm |
|
|
116*68*62.5mm |
117*63*58mm |
| Vol w/ 50mm |
160cm2 |
467cm2 |
493cm2 |
428cm2 |
| Dim w/ zoom |
|
|
116*68*66mm |
117*63*76 |
| Vol w/ zoom |
|
|
521cm2 |
560cm2 |
| AEB, # |
|
|
7 |
3 |
| AEB, EV |
2 |
|
6 |
6 |
| Flash sync |
1/2000 |
1/1000 |
1/160 |
1/180 |
| Max exp. time |
15s |
30s |
2min |
4min |
| Viewfinder |
- |
Optical |
Optional electronic |
- |
| Widest pancake, 35mm eqv. |
24 |
28 |
28 |
24 |
| Min focus |
3cm |
1cm |
20cm |
25cm |
| Vol of zoom |
- |
- |
79cm2 |
129cm2 |
| Notes |
Plastic body |
Raw files are insanely large, 50MB per shot, meaning saving them takes ages. UI is unpolished. |
Micro 4/3 is multi-manufacturer standard for small interchangeable lens cameras, meaning lens selection is a lot wider, a lot, than Samsung NX. |
While the overall selection of lenses is limited, almost all the wider ranges I need have a pancake prime available, rivalling or surpassing everyone else, even µ4/3 in this respect. However, if you want lenses faster than f/2.0, you are out of luck on autofocus lenses. |
The part even a casual photographer needs to know when shopping for new camera is a) sensor size and b) widest aperture at zoom ranges you are going to use. These are the parameters that directly affect how good pictures you can get in low light, like shooting family events indoors, because they tell how much light can possibly be captured by the camera when shooting.
The reason I put in the surface areas is this: Surface area of the sensor dictates the upper range for how much photons hit the sensor when all the other parameters are equal. In other words: four times more surface area on sensor means you can, if all other parameters are equal, get same amount of photons with quarter of time, or with quarter of the noise in same time. Which means you can shoot in four times less light and still get useful images. (Obviously the sensor area only sets upper limit to what can be done, engineering can still fail to make use of it.)
GX1 and NX200 are system cameras, meaning the parameters of the lenses vary a lot; To keep the table at manageable size, I have just included the lenses I immediately need, with the idea that camera body and “50mm” prime would go in one pocket, zoom in another pocket or back bag. Your mileage will vary.
Options I discarded due to lack of pancake lenses were Sony NEX series, Pentax Q and Nikon 1. Sony NEX bodies are at least as good and featured in case of NEX-5N or far superior in case of NEX-7, but almost total lack of pancake lenses made them a no-go for me.
In terms of lens selection micro four thirds is superior in mirrorless systems – it’s the oldest system and there are tens of lenses available, up to the expensive and fast Leica optics.
EDIT:
What is not listed is that every camera here sports CMOS sensor, even the Canon S100. CMOS is usually used in system cameras, whereas compact cameras use CCD. The CMOS sensor inside S100 is also claimed to be the first compact camera sensor that’s manufactured by Canon – every other compact Canon uses third part CCD sensor, even when their sizes match the S100 1/1.17″.
Links to DPReview reviews/previews of the listed equipment:
Canon Powershot S100:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canons100/
Fujifilm X10:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/fujifilmx10/
Panasonic DMC-GX1:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonicdmcgx1/
Olympus Zuikos Digital 25mm 1:2.8 Pancake:
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/olympus_25_2p8_o20/
Samsung NX200:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/samsungnx200/
Samsung NX 30mm F2 Pancake:
http://www.dpreview.com/products/samsung/lenses/samsung_30_2
EDIT2:
The inch-based sensor size figures are whole black magic, designed to confuse the living hell out of you. Here DPReview tries to explain them:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2002/10/7/sensorsizes
EDIT3:
Links to lenses for micro-four-thirds and Samsung NX mount. Obviously not all-inclusive, especially since almost any lens for mirrored SLR can be mounted to these in manual mode, but a starting point.
µ4/3:
http://www.dpreview.com/products/olympus/lenses
http://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/lenses
http://www.four-thirds.org/en/fourthirds/lense.html
Samsung NX mount:
http://www.dpreview.com/products/samsung/lenses
Both:
http://www.syopt.co.kr/eng/product/manual_zoom.asp
While the Samyang lenses are all manual, their image quality should not be overlooked. For example the 14/2.8: http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/532-samyang14f28eosff?start=1
It has a lot of barrel distortion, but that’s something you can semi-easily correct in post-processing. But when you look at the sharpness, it’s pretty darn good lens, sporting better results in effective resolution than many high-regarded lenses multiple times of the cost. And in very wide angle use you usually shoot landscapes or architecture, so the manual focusing is not a real problem – the subject is not running away.
