The death of the Sony RX10 kills the appeal of bridge cameras for me, just at the time they become more popular

We were updating our guide to the best bridge cameras last week, and we came to an awful realization. There are no longer any bridge cameras on the market with a one-inch imaging sensor.

We had known that the Sony RX10 IV - arguably the best bridge camera ever made - was coming to the end of its life for some time and wouldn't be replaced.

A year ago, the death of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 IV was just a rumor… and each time we have updated this buying guide since we had found enough stores with some stocks of this bridge camera to justify it still making it into our list of recommendations. But now supplies have run dry - and if you want this model, you will have to buy one secondhand. And if you do, don't expect it to be cheap, thanks to their popularity.

But as we weighed up the rest of the field, we then realised that with the loss of the RX10 that there are no longer ANY bridge cameras with a Type 1 one-inch sensor – as Panasonic and Canon had also stopped also making them. Now, all of the bridge camera contenders have a significantly smaller 1/2.3in sensor.

A bigger sensor means better image quality, and superior lowlight performance. So every bridge camera that remains is at a disadvantage, as it is around a quarter of the size.

There are some advantages of a smaller sensor, though. A small sensor is the only thing that makes the monster 125x zoom on the Nikon P1100 possible (and the camera is still huge). Similarly, it is the 1/2.3-inch sensor that allow the Kodak AZ405 to be so small, despite offering a 40x optical zoom.

The Sony RX10 IV had to compromise on its zoom range - offering a more modest 25x zoom range to ensure that the camera was a sensible size.

When we first published this guide to bridge cameras - around seven years ago - there was actually a choice of models with a one-inch sensor. It wasn't just Sony – Canon and Panasonic also offered what I would call a quality bridge camera.

Sony had a succession of models, with the RX10, RX10 II, RX10 III, and RX10 IV - and for years you could buy two or three of these different generations new at a range – providing a range of differently priced options from Sony alone.

Panasonic brought out three different models between 2014 and 2019 - and Canon had given us the Canon PowerShot G3 X.

There is an irony that this specialist class of compact cameras should be killed off now… just as other types of compact cameras are proving popular again (and the available bridge cameras are selling well).

So will one-inch sensor bridge cameras also make a comeback at some point? Who knows - but I think there is a need. These type of all-in-one cameras do something that a mobile phone will never be able to do, thanks to their huge telephoto zooms. And they also provide a solution, for bird photography, say, that would be much more expensive with an interchangeable lens system.

A colleague suggested the other day that it would be great to have a full-frame bridge camera… I pointed out that I already owned one – a Ricoh Mirai – one of the first generation of bridge cameras, launched in the 1980s. That shot 35mm film, of course, and almost certainly will never be seen in digital form. But only offering the modern photographer bridge cameras with 1/2.3in sensors is, surely, selling us short.

See our Sony RX10 vs Sony RX10 II vs Sony RX10 III vs Sony RX10 IV comparison, and check out our recommendations for the best bridge cameras you can actually buy new today