Lacking in the compacts department.

Phil Young

Phil Young

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I've never thought about this until now...

...but that's what's lacking in the compacts department - an ultra-wide zoom, fast compact.

I'd love a compact that could go to 12/14mm or even 18mm. That would be awesome.

Realised there isn't one on the market (that I know of at least) and would be a nice addition to what's out there.
 
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Amen to that. I use a Canon S90 as a cheap carry around, but 28mm is soooo not wide enough. A fixed 20mm lens would be much better.
 
Think about all the people that would keep trying 14mm portraits! 28mm is bad enough right in the face.

I actually quite like the fact they are stuck in the boring range with massive DOF. It makes it easier to differentiate from these shots.

If you still fancy something compact - there are Sony NEX with 11-18, something from olympus, etc. I hope you would consider them compact enough even if they cost nothing like one.
 
That nobody has ever come up with one to me suggests there might be technical problems, perhaps the crop factor would just make focal lengths too small? or maybe the lens would just be too expensive to make it profitable.

You mention the NEX ultrawide zoom but whats notable for me is that like other high performance mirrorless ultrawides its actually a pretty long lenses. Compare that to say the Sony E mount 16mm pancake that has very poor boarder performance and maybe its a sign that even without the mirror retrofocal designs might be needed to make sure light isn't hitting the sensor at too extreme an angle.
 
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There was a new Panasonic bridge camera released recently with a really wide angle. Google says it's called the FZ72, with an equivalent range of 20-1200mm. I was trying out a Samsung WB800f recently and noticed at started at 23mm(Equiv.), which I thought was a bit odd for a travel zoom, although that looked more like a fisheye with the amount of dist.
 
I'd just like there to be a compact aimed at serious photographers with all the attributes of today's premium compacts (RAW, fast lens, manual controls etc) that sacrifices it's tele but in place has a wider end... it would be cool to have something out there.
 
Phil Young said:
I'd just like there to be a compact aimed at serious photographers with all the attributes of today's premium compacts (RAW, fast lens, manual controls etc) that sacrifices it's tele but in place has a wider end... it would be cool to have something out there.
Click to expand...

Wide is really difficult on a compact as with the crop factors involved you are already looking at 6mm equivalent lenses to get 24mm wides. The distortion is already pretty bad and corrected by software but much wider will leave you with a fish eye which most compact users don't want!
 
If you mean compact as in pocket sized with retractable lens then I don't have any suggestions, but if you include compact system cameras then how about a Canon EOS M (1.6 crop factor) with the 11-22mm lens giving 17.6-35.2mm equivalent?
 
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