If you are traveling and don’t want to miss that critical shot, the cameras below provide great features, excellent image quality and a compact size. While your smartphone can deliver great results, I’m sure you have run into situations where they don’t perform as well as you’d like. A dedicated pocket camera will not take up much more space and will give you the versatility and better picture quality you are looking for, be it in lower light situations, underwater or with balancing flash to background. While most of the cameras below will fit into the pocket of your jeans, I have included a couple cameras that are slightly bigger and are more suited to a jacket pocket.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50 1080p Digital Camera
- 3″ LCD Rear Screen
- 12.1MP
- 30x Optical Zoom
- Silver
This is my pick for the compact superzoom class of cameras. The Lumix ZS50 has a tremendous 30X zoom (24mm -720mm) in a very compact body that will easily fit in your pocket. In this latest revision to the series, Panasonic decided to go with a 12 megapixel sensor instead of trying to win the megapixel war. This was a very wise move as the lower megapixel count allows for much better low-light performance and most people won’t notice the difference in the megapixel count unless you are doing tons of cropping of your photos or printing to very large canvases. The ZS50 has many great features beyond its zoom. It has macro focusing with a very short minimum focus distance, in-camera stabilization, and a front control ring that you can assign to aperture, shutter speed or zoom. This is a great camera for trips where you need both a wide angle and long zoom such as on safari where you want to capture the scenery as well as zoom in on the lion staring at you off in the distance.
Canon PowerShot G7-X Compact Digital Camera
- 20.3 Megapixel
- 4.2x Optical Zoom
- 3″ Touch Color Display
- Built in NFC
Stepping up from the Lumix above in resolution, low light performance as well as price is the Canon PowerShot GX-7. This camera has a larger sensor and a faster aperture range which allows for even better low-light performance, but the zoom range is the tradeoff for these features, with a 4.2X zoom (24mm -70mm). The faster lens allows for great pictures that have a sharp subject against very nice soft out of focus background. This is definitely one of the better cameras in its price range.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 Digital Camera
- 16.8MP
- 3.0″ Display
- 24-75mm Leica DC Vario-Summilux f/1.7-2.8 Lens
- 4K Ultra HD Video
- HDMI/USB
- Wi-Fi
- NFC, Silver
This next camera from Panasonic is a serious powerhouse. While the Lumix LX100 is a bit bigger than the previous two compacts, it has some of the best image quality in the compact class. It can shoot Rawimages, has stunning picture quality and a super-fast lens at f1.7 to f2.8. Another amazing feat is that they crammed a 4/3” sensor into this body and while the camera does some cropping to make it work, it is nonetheless very impressive. The zoom range is a decent 3.1X (24mm -75mm). This camera also records video at 4K at 30p or 24p (the PAL version gets 25p and 24p) and 1080p up to 60p. The Lumix LX100 is an excellent camera that is my second favorite on this list.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV Digital Camera
This fourth version of the class leading Sony RX100 series does not disappoint and is my top choice for this list. The new sensor is phenomenal and has super-fast readouts that allow for super slow-motion of up to an insane 1,000fps at 1080p, continuous shooting at 16fps and an incredible maximum shutter speed of 32,000 which allows for lower apertures even in the brightest light. This camera auto-focuses very quickly and in my opinion it does so even better than its bigger brothers in the A7 series. The lens on this model is the same as the previous version, a bright f1.8 – f2.8 with a 2.9X zoom (24mm -70mm). This camera has stunning performance in both stills and video and is now able to shoot 4K video up to 30fps. Sony has made many improvements to the RX100 IV over the RX100 III, but if you are willing to sacrifice some of the newer features to save a decent amount of cash, going with the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 III is definitely a great option.
Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 Digital Camera
- 16MP
- 4x Optical Zoom
- 1080p Full HD Video
- GPS
- Wi-Fi
- iAuto
- Waterproof, Red
The Olympus Tough TG-4 is waterproof, crush-proof, shockproof, freeze-proof and dust-proof. It absolutely lives up to its moniker of tough. For those who want a camera to take into the water, to the Arctic Circle, to the desert or anywhere in between this camera is for you. But all that toughness doesn’t mean anything if Olympus isn’t making a capable camera with great specs. Fear not though, the TG-4 is a very solid performer with a fast f2.0 – f4.9 lens, with a 4X zoom (25mm – 100mm). The TG-4 also has Raw image support, excellent battery life, accepts conversion lenses and has sensor-shift image stabilization. This is definitely the best in class of the tough, compact cameras.
