Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsThe Best Worst Camera Money Can Buy: Great results - horrible ergonomics and interface
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2020
As a skilled, amateur enthusiast photographer, this will be my new carry around street camera. I've been looking for a camera to meet some very specific requirements. The most important of which is that it needed to be small and lightweight. I love my DSLR - and when I'm shooting portraits at a park or getting shot of the milky way, that camera is my go to. But for every day walking around, I needed something that I can gather quickly and start shooting.
A cell phone is ok, but they lack the sensor size, dynamic range, low light performance and a decent optical zoom. This means that if I see a feral cat 100 ft away in a parking lot at dusk, the best I can hope for is a noisy, impressionistic photo. But give me a good quality sensor that performs well in low light, and a decent zoom lens and I've got a photo that belongs in a coffee table book. Which is my second requirement. I want a camera that produces results worthy of being called a camera.
And finally, I want the versatility of having a RAW file. RAW files capture all of the data from the sensor and gives you the ability to adjust that photo to match your vision as a photographer. But related and often overlooked, is the sensor size. Raw sensor data means very little if the sensor is small or performs poorly.
I figured I'd end up with a mirrorless, but all of the options were too expensive for a camera whose purpose is slightly more than high end point and shoot. At the price I paid for this camera / lens kit - it is exactly what I've been looking for. Which brings me to my first caveat.
The price I paid was $450 on an Amazon special. The asking price is generally around $650 - $699. This camera is not worth that price, even with its exceptional results and sharpness. It was a difficult decision as to whether it was worth $450. Had I paid the extra $200 that is generally demanded, I'd have returned it. Which brings me to caveat #2.
The ergonomics on the camera are absolutely the worst of any camera I've ever touched. Here's a list of a few of my issues;
- You cannot hold this camera like a DSLR - even though the zoom and focus control on the lens demands it.
- When you place your right hand on the camera in position on the shutter - you risk triggering the touch screen with your palm.
- There is no easy back button control to select and manage ISO forcing you to use the touch screen or dig through the menu.
- The shutter speed, ISO and aperture settings are difficult to read
- The camera is both too small to be held like a DSLR, and too bulky to be held like a point and shoot leading to lots of fumbling.
- The touch screen interface takes too many steps to accomplish any one task and in some cases behaves counter to expectations. i.e. Setting the ISO - select the "<" icon, touch the "Q" icon use the joystick to move over ISO setting, click the joystick to enter the selection mode for ISO (whoops that's not how that works - start over), touch the ISO icon on the screen, then use the joystick to select desired ISO settings (whose icons are too small to read and understand what you're setting), then click the joystick button for OK. And yes there is a way to do it only slightly faster, but it's not intuitive.
In the end, this camera is not built for someone that knows what they're doing. It's designed to be used by Aunt Sheila at the family reunion. Anyone who has had any experience with real cameras will quickly become frustrated with this camera. For my use - as a camera to turn on in program mode and get a quick shot of a duck at a park or a possum on a fence and have a high quality RAW file that I can turn into a real photograph as opposed to a snapshot - this works for me. But for any serious work, I'll be sticking with the big boy.
SUMMARY
Don't buy this if you are a serious photographer who expects a good experience with real control. This is a glorified point and shoot interface on high end hardware.
Do buy this if you want superb photos but don't care about having control over the individual camera settings and things like fiddling with the lens to activate the zoom by wire don't bother you.
PROS
- Lightweight body and lens kit
- Body is constructed of high quality materials
- Phenomenal image quality
- RAW files that are on PAR with much more expensive cameras
- Incredible low light performance
- Video quality is exceptional
- Very good auto-focus
- Super sharp images
CONS
- Interface is often in your way more than it's being used
- Clunky UI takes too many steps to change settings
- Customizability is limited due to lack of customizable buttons
- Important settings like shutter and aperture difficult to read due to small text on the screen
- Holding the camera is uncomfortable - I've yet to find a way to use the camera that feels "right"
- Zoom tied to the lens - but the lens is so close to your right hand they interfere with each other when zooming
- Touch screen focus - on a small and light camera touching the screen moves the camera which negates the focus especially when zoomed.
