Bridge camera zoom ranges

ShinySideUp

ShinySideUp

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Martin
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Never had a bridge camera, have never even thought about them until today when I stumbled across a Techradar Review . I did not know that these cameras had such immense zoom ranges, one of them on the list is the Canon Powershot SX70 HS with a zoom range of 21-1365mm-equivalent, f/3.4-6.5; this is insane, and the cost of the camera is only about £530.

There must be some fundamental problem with these cameras otherwise everyone would be using them, especially if one wanted a super telephoto lens, but what is it? Enlighten me.
 
It has a very small sensor (6 by 4.5 mm, approx) so performance in less than excellent light will be compromised.
 
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I have the Canon SX50 and has a zoom of 24-1200mm, handy when high zoom is needed, the main drawback I see is the shutter lag, so difficult if shooting sport or fast moving wildlife (e.g birds in flight), but otherwise a handy camera (fits in my walking jacket pocket, can't do that with my 80D and 500mm lens ... lol) and goes everywhere I go, I have even had some first place awards with this camera.
If it broke or I lost it I would have no hesitation in replacing it..... as they say "The best camera is the one you have with you".
 
They have their uses action not being one, you have to ignore the posted comments about sensor size etc and decide if they will give you what you want, a couple from the Nikon p900

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ShinySideUp said:
Never had a bridge camera, have never even thought about them until today when I stumbled across a Techradar Review . I did not know that these cameras had such immense zoom ranges, one of them on the list is the Canon Powershot SX70 HS with a zoom range of 21-1365mm-equivalent, f/3.4-6.5; this is insane, and the cost of the camera is only about £530.

There must be some fundamental problem with these cameras otherwise everyone would be using them, especially if one wanted a super telephoto lens, but what is it? Enlighten me.
Click to expand...

As others have said the trade off, and the way they get these immense zoom ranges, is sensor size. They have tiny, smartphone sized image sensors with huge crop factors, which allows a compact lens to have a huge 35mm equivalent focal length.
 
The Sony RX10 M4 has a Zeiss zoom of 600mm @ f4. It does have just a 1-inch sensor but in good light happy days.
 
The Nikon P1000 has a 125x optical zoom - or 3000mm
 
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