Compact cameras aren’t as popular as they once were, but if you’re shopping on a limited budget, they can be an excellent way of ensuring you get bang for your buck. Unlike with DSLRs or mirrorless cameras (which we’ll get to), you don’t need to worry about factoring in the extra cost of a lens.
Compacts come in all sorts of shapes – some are slim and pocketable, others are styled after DSLRs and come packing big zoom lenses. We’ve included a mix to give you plenty of options, and while the upper limit of our budget is £500, there are some great compacts on this list you can pick up for a good deal less than that.
Canon PowerShot G5 X
• Expect to pay: around £400
A nifty little compact camera from the earlier days of the PowerShot range, the G5 X is not quite as common a sight on the second-hand market, but at the time of writing there are a couple available at MPB for less than £400. You get a decent amount of camera for that outlay, with a 1-inch sensor providing image quality that’s a step above the 1/2.3in sensors of cheaper models, and a versatile 24-100mm equivalent lens that covers most bases for day-to-day shooting. There’s also a built-in three-stop ND filter.
The burst speed of the G5 X is 5.9fps for JPEG only; switching to raw it slows down considerably. Battery life is okay – the camera is rated to 210 shots, or 350 in Eco mode. While these estimates tend to be conservative, it’s also hard to predict how wellpreserved the battery will be on a second-hand camera, as it depends on the previous owner’s usage and storage habits. The G5 X does let you top up via Micro USB though.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ330
• Expect to pay: £300-390
The Panasonic Lumix FZ330 is a bridge camera, meaning it pairs a big zoom lens with an SLR-style body. The lens in question is a rather good one – it covers an equivalent zoom range of 25-600mm, which gives you plenty of shooting flexibility. Even better though is the constant f/2.8 aperture. Normally, superzooms have an aperture that drops off pretty sharply at the telephoto end, making them difficult to use in low light. Not so with the lovely Leica DC Vario-Elmarit optic on the front. This camera is plentifully available both new and used – while it’s cheaper second-hand of course, you can pick up new ones for about £479 across most retailers, which is still within our £500 budget. The FZ330 does use a 1/2.3in sensor, rather than the larger 1in format that’s common in slightly more upscale compacts. This has an inevitable impact on im
