Advice on Bridge v Compact

[oldgreygary]

I guess that if you are looking for something small and compact that would 'grab the moment' then a smartphone i.e. iphone or Samsung galaxy would do the job? My understanding is that bridge and entry level dslr cameras are about the same size,weight and price. I would also think that if you buy a 'top end' compact then it would fall into a similar price range.

Cheers for now

Gary

[escoville]

I was going to buy a Canon G10 but got an SX 40 HS instead. The price and weight are not very different. I'm glad I chose as I did, for two reasons. One is the electronic viewfinder with eyesight adaptation, which allows me to see the screen with my distance glasses, and the other is that the zoom is very useful. It is 35x (which approximates to a fieldglass magnification of 10x).

[Scott Stephen]

I had the then-current Canon super-zoom 5 years ago. Was 30x magnification, I think. I accidentally left it in a taxi right after I bought it, but honestly I am kind of glad. It did terribly in anything other than very bright light. Half my indoor shots were blurry because it was using such a slow shutter. Now, I was shooting on Auto mode all the time back then, so perhaps I could have eeked a little more performance out of it had I known what I was doing.
The super zoom seems pretty cool, and it is the kind of thing a beginner reads and feels he understands. "More = Better." I have since learned that is not true of zoom length or megapixels (or not entirely so) for most people. What matters first is getting good shots most of the time in the most common shooting conditions (relatively dim light and relatively close subject).

If I was going to get a small-ish camera now, without interchangable lenses, I would go for one that had a large-ish sensor and a wide maximum aperature. I believe the Canon G12 (or whatever the curent G-number is) kind of fits the bill.

If you are willing to spend a little more, a "Micro Four-Thirds" camera might do the trick. They are pretty small, but you cah change lenses. Panasonic makes very good ones, as does Sony. The advantage here is the ability to change lenses. There is no really good "one-lens-fits-all-situations" camera. If you have 2 or 3 lenses, you can use the right tool at the right place. The same reason no one has a single-club golf bag. Sure it would be lighter and cheaper and you'd have simpler decisions to make, but your golf game would suffer horribly.

I don't think you stated a budget. That is a big, big piece of the puzzle.

[William W]

Perhaps the OP has long gone and / or made a choice . . .

But a small but significant comment about the above mentioned Powershot SX40HS:
For what it is – the SX40HS is a superb camera and cannot be compared to any of the previous (similar) Powershot range - such as the S1IS; S3IS and S5IS (all those cameras mentioned - I have used).

I see the main limitation of the SX40HS (compared to) the (current) G Series, is the incapacity of raw capture, by the Poswershot SX40HS,

And also the G-Series have easy underwater housings . . .

Swings and roundabouts - the SX40HS has other features which are more appealing to some.

(I've used a G11 and G12 also)

WW

[escoville]

Scott Steven says the then superzoom had '30x magnification'. This is very misleading. He presumably means a 30x zoom factor. But this is 30x the widest angle, a very different matter. They ought to say zoom 'range'. The Canon SX40HS has a zoom factor of 35. Its widest angle is equivalent to 24mm., meaning its max. telephoto is 840mm. Okay. But when you look at a scene with your eyes, what you see is something like a 65mm lens will give you. That means a 35x zoom factor approximates to a 'magnification' of 13. But even this seems subjectively too much. I took a pic of a bird 20 yards away at max, zoom, and it gave the same subjective impression as when I looked through binoculars with a magnification of 10x.
(Incidentally in my post a few days ago I said G10; I meant G12 of course.)
I would emphasize the importance of an electronic viewfinder for those whose vision is not what it was. I cannot see an LCD screen and the scene with the same glasses. An optical viewfinder will show the the view, but as it doesn't go through the lens, can show you nothing else (focus, brightness). The electronic viewfinder can be adjusted to your distance glasses, and tells you what your shot will look like.