Compacts are the hottest and most in-demand cameras on the market – and it’s easy to see why. These portable, powerful photo machines have a fixed, built-in lens – which streamlines your shooting experience and keeps your setup small.
Many photographers have fantastic interchangeable-lens camera systems, but they’re not ideal for every situation. Dragging your DSLR and lenses on planes and trains is no fun if you’re traveling, for example, or if you want something to slip into your glove compartment to take on a road trip.
And while most of us spend years acquiring gear, sometimes you reach a point where you’re tired of swimming in cameras and lenses and teleconverters – you just want to downsize your equipment and get a single tool to do the job for you.
Whether you’re looking for the perfect compact to complement your full-size setup, or you want to turn your unused gear into the ideal everyday carry, you can make upgrading more affordable by trading in your old equipment with a specialist retailer like MPB.
Whatever your reason, here are five compact yet capable cameras that enable you to go small but shoot big – along with some guide prices from MPB (note that prices can vary)…
1) Leica Q3
Without doubt the ultimate premium compact, the Leica Q3 is the everyday camera that’s also a professional tool. Armed with a 60.3MP full-frame image sensor, it resolves an astonishing amount of detail from its sumptuous Leica Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph lens – which also features built-in macro capability.
However, this sensor has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Firstly, it’s a multi-resolution sensor – so you can shoot large (60.3MP / 9520 x 6336), medium (36.5 MP / 7404 x 4928) or small (18.6MP / 5288 x 3518) images to suit your workflow needs.
It also offers a digital crop to simulate 35mm, 50mm, 75mm and 90mm focal lengths – though bear in mind that the resolution is reduced accordingly (dropping to 8MP for 90mm).
It’s a video beast, too, boasting 8K 30p 10-bit capture, so you can record important moments in crystal clarity. Combined with a top burst speed of 15fps for stills, the Q3 comes with a price tag befitting the red dot, but it’s an unparalleled sidearm for professionals.
2) Nikon Coolpix P1000
This one is a bit of a wild card, but stay with us! The P1000 isn’t strictly a compact camera (indeed, it’s a bridge camera), but it shares the same all-in-one, space-saving ethos that attracts photographers to compacts. And crucially, it has a signature feature that no other camera can match: an absolutely staggering 24-3000mm zoom range!
Obviously this camera isn’t pocketable in the same way as a Fujifilm X100. But if you’re desperate to get rid of your bulky DSLR or mirrorless lenses, but still want awesome reach in a small package, this monster 125x optical zoom could be your new best friend.
It goes from wide-angle vistas to telescopic close-ups of faraway subjects or landmarks – making it ideal for vacations, everyday photography, and especially trips to the zoo or even safaris.
The camera is built around a 1/2.3-inch sensor with a resolution of 16.79MP. So there’s a limit to how big you can blow up your pictures for prints but, with its unmatchable 24-3000mm focal range, the P1000 is a Swiss Army knife camera that can shoot almost anything.
3) Fujifilm X100
MPB price: $604-$709
We all know that the X100 series has blown up, thanks to TikTok – but unfortunately, now that the influencers know about Fujifilm’s brilliant compact line, the prices have blown up too. So if you want the latest X100VI, you’ll be spending a pretty penny.
However, most people don’t need all the bells and whistles (or the price tag) of the X100VI. In fact, if like most people you mainly use this camera for shooting social media and online content, you don’t need to pay top dollar for resolution.
Smarter shoppers should look to the original Fujifilm X100, which can be had for a fraction of the price of the latest model – and the best thing is, they look almost identical. So you still get maximum style points while saving big bucks!
As a camera from 2011, the OG X100 has a more modest 12MP resolution – but again, that’s more than enough for online use and you can make decent-sized prints if you want to. The photos out of this camera are still absolutely gorgeous, and its 23mm f/2 lens gives you the exact same (35mm full-frame equivalent) field of view as the latest model.
4) Olympus Tough TG-6
No matter how brave we are, there are some places that send shivers up a photographer’s spine when it comes to camera gear. The beach, for example. Or the desert. Rainy conditions. Water in general. Anywhere rugged, where there’s a risk of knocking or dropping your equipment.
What good is a camera if you can’t actually take it anywhere? Well, with the brilliant little Tough TG-6, you’ll never have to worry about babying your camera again. This thing is virtually indestructible (trust us, we’ve tried!) – it’s waterproof, crushproof, shock / drop-proof, dustproof and freezeproof.
It’s the camera we reach for when adventuring, whether it’s clambering up rocky hillsides or going wild swimming. We’ve even used it in the dusty desert in 104° heat!
It’s a dang good camera, too, with an equivalent 25-100mm f/2.0-4.9 lens, giving you an incredibly versatile focal range that’s perfect for everyday and travel shooting.
The 12MP 1/2.3-inch sensor is backlit, giving you larger photosites with improved low light performance, so the Tough can even take great underwater photos. And it’s got amazing built-in macro and microscope capabilities, too. This camera never leaves the glove compartment!
5) Canon PowerShot SX60 HS
While many compacts are going for crazy prices these days, you don’t have to break the bank to get a capable camera – and this PowerShot is proof positive. It might be a slightly older model, launching back in 2014, but its 16MP 1/2.3-inch still packs a punch for an incredible low price – and puts an amazing 65x optical zoom in the palm of your hand.
Its enviable 21-1365mm zoom is the kind of all-in-one range that photographers dream of, meaning that virtually nothing is too close or too far to shoot.
Sturdy optical stabilization keeps camera shake to a minimum, features like face detection autofocus keep your subjects sharp, and you can rattle off up to 6.4fps continuous bursts. The camera even shoots RAW, so you can extract every last bit of detail from your images.
Again, this is an older camera with older tech, so the sensitivity ceiling is a bit low at ISO3200, and the FullHD video isn’t as crisp as you’ll find on modern cameras (or even your phone). But if you’re looking to get maximum bang for your buck, with a compact camera that can do it all under the right conditions, then the SX60 HS offers exceptional value for money.
Trade and upgrade
We all know how expensive it is to buy new camera gear, but with used camera specialists like MPB you can make purchases more affordable by shopping used – and by trading in your old equipment. And as someone who has traded up my camera gear with MPB in the past, I can attest that the experience is quick, easy and painless.
Simply head to the MPB website, click “Start selling / trading” at the top of the page, and type in the name(s) of the gear you’d like to get rid of along with an estimate of its condition. MPB will then give you an instant online quote, and if you want to proceed it will arrange free insured FedEx Ground shipping to transport your equipment.
Once it’s received, MPB’s experts will inspect your gear and provide a final quote. If you’re selling, payment will be sent directly to your bank account. If you’re trading in, and the gear you’re selling is worth more than the gear you’re buying, you’ll get a payment; if the gear you’re buying is worth more, you’ll receive a link to pay the remaining balance.
To browse the full catalog of cameras and to find out more about buying, selling and trading camera gear at great prices, head over to MPB.
