I was there recently I was flipping through a photo book at the library and came across a double-page spread of a crowd surrounding a celebrity taken in 2008. The photo itself wasn’t very good, but something caught my eye: everyone was holding a compact camera. Canon Powershots, Nikon Coolpixes, Sony Cybershots, and others I didn’t recognize filled the scene. Fast forward a few years, we took the same picture, and those cameras are now smartphones.
I get it. Your phone is always with you, and it’s good enough for the selfies and snapshots most people capture. But… taking pictures with your phone isn’t much fun. I think that’s why we’ve seen a huge resurgence of interest in compact cameras. People love “vintage” compact digital cameras, and some ridiculously bad cameras from the early 2000s are selling on eBay for more than they cost new, thanks to viral videos. To keep you from overspending, I’ve tested and ranked every compact camera I could get my hands on—here are the best compact cameras I’ve tested.
Check out our many camera buying guides including the best mirrorless cameras, best action cameras, best GoPro Hero, best Instax cameras, best camera bags and our step-by-step instructions on how to choose a camera.
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What to look for in a compact camera
If you want to upgrade your smartphone to a dedicated camera, there are three key aspects you need to keep in mind:
Size and weight:If it doesn’t fit in your pocket, are you going to carry it around? Part of the appeal of a pocket-sized camera is that it, ahem, fits in your pocket. With the exception of the Fujifilm X100VI, all of the cameras in this guide are small and light enough to fit in your pocket.
Image quality: The bigger the sensor, the better, but the better the lens, the sharper and more contrasty the images will be. For this reason, I have mainly recommended cameras with fixed lenses, as they tend to have faster and sharper lenses.
Additional Features:Phones make decent cameras, but they rarely have good macro lenses, built-in neutral density filters, or fast autofocus. If you’re investing in a pocket camera, look for nice extras like these.
