Best Bridge Cameras 2014 (Archive)

[seancaptain]

Bridge cameras offer higher-quality images than point-and-shoots but are smaller and cheaper than mirrorless or DSLR cameras. Many feature extreme zoom lenses.

Best Bridge Cameras 2014 : Read more

 

[razor512]

Bridge cameras are usually some of the worst values. They are at a size and price that is not pocket friendly (thus similar transportation arrangements will be made with a compact DSLR such as a Sony A6000)

They often lack easy access to many of the manual controls commonly found on proper DSLR's. The smaller sensors, will often make for poor low light performance compared to similarly priced (and sometimes, even cheaper) DSLR's.

 

[razor512]

Wanted to also add, do not spend more than $150 on a camera with a 1/2.3 inch sensor, and it is usually not worth the extra cost for the ultra zooms as the images are pretty much always soft. For example, the DSC-H400 has a 20.1 megapixel 1/2.3 inch sensor. the pixel density is so high that the camera is using heavy noise reductions even on the base ISO. On top of that, at all of the zoom levels, there is very little fine detail, thus you are really only getting a small fraction of the advertised resolution, as effective resolution.
http/www.photographyblog.com/reviews/sony_cybershot_dsc_h400_review/sample_images/

 

[mosc]

I don't see the point of recommending the G1x mark 2. You either want small size (RX100 triplets) or you are just looking for fixed lens quality. A better choice in the category would be the FZ1000. It's not as small as the G1x m2 but it's the same price and has a lot more features like 400mm reach and 4k video. The G1x's sensor is large but doesn't produce much better than 1" sensors despite it's size.