You might assume that the best selfie camera is always going to be a phone. However, there are all sorts of cameras that can be fantastic for selfie-taking, as many contemporary compacts, mirrorless cameras and even DSLRs are equipped with flip-around screens. Plus, with camera prices getting more competitive, they can be considerably cheaper than a top-of-the-line smartphone.
I've collated this list to include cameras of all types, all of which have one thing in common – they take great selfies. I've included our reviewers' top selfie-taking smartphones and have added options in other categories, to give you plenty of viable options.
Many of these are also some of the best cameras for vlogging and the best cameras for travel – there's quite a bit of overlap among these categories. So with all that said and done, let's get started with our breakdown of the best selfie cameras available right now!
An avid photographer and expert writer, Hannah also spent several years working at Wex Photo Video, where her job was helping people find the right camera gear for them. Oh, and she's no stranger to a selfie...
The Quick List
With an upgraded front camera, the Google Pixel 9 Pro puts the competition on blast when it comes to selfies, its automated processing producing great-looking results in all kinds of conditions.
While Adnroid rivals have it beat for selfie quality, the iPhone 16 is the best option for those who prefer to stay within Apple's ecosystem – the bigger iPhones are pricier and don't offer significant improvement.
A perennially popular premium compact among YouTubers and vloggers, the PowerShot G7 X Mark III is also a pretty excellent option for selfie-taking, with a good-sized sensor that does well in low light.
Though successor cameras have since arrived, this vlogging specialist still represents excellent value for money, with a front-facing screen that puts selfies in play, as well as fast and accurate focusing with face/eye detect.
This travel-zoom compact offers selfie-friendly features such as 'Buddy Shutter', which detects when two faces enter the frame and automatically captures a shot. Plus, it practically fits in a pocket.
This palm-sized vlogging camera is pretty basic when it comes to stills, but can capture great-looking selfies, and benefits from a built-in stand and a design that actually facilitates front-facing shooting.
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A DSLR may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to selfies, but the Canon EOS Rebel SL3 / EOS 250D is well-equipped for the task, sporting an articulating screen with excellent Live View autofocus.
Waterproof, versatile and capable of being mounted in all sorts of creative ways, the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro is a rugged selfie-camera that offers better image quality than its main GoPro rivals, in our opinion.
Small, lightweight and sensibly priced, the Canon EOS R50 is versatile and capable for selfies. While the ergonomics of a mirrorless camera aren't exactly the best for selfies, the articulating screen helps matters.
The best selfie cameras
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Best Android phone for selfies
The smartphone wars rumble on year after year, but one thing that truly impressed us about 2024's Google Pixel 9 Pro was its upgraded selfie camera. Here, together with its bigger brother the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, this Android smartphone pulls ahead of the competition, boasting as it does a 42MP f/2.2 front camera that produces great-looking selfies time after time. Google's automated image processing is generally pretty balanced – pleadingly punchy without being over-saturated. Quality drops a little when the light goes down, but there isn't a selfie camera out there for which this isn't the case, and in all other respects it does very well.
The headline feature for this phone is, of course, its generative AI features. Your mileage will vary on how useful or interesting you find the ability to generate backgrounds or radically change your selfies with a prompt – it's undeniably pretty gimmicky. Still, if you're not interested, these features are perfectly possible to ignore, and the fundamentals of the Pixel 9 Pro are rock-solid.
Read more: Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL review
Best iPhone for selfies
The iPhone 16 isn't the best smartphone for selfies – the Google Pixel 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra both have it beat, with far superior front-facing cameras. However, many smartphone users are iPhone or bust, unwilling to use any products other than Apple's, and if that describes you, then this is your best bet for selfies.
It's one of the most affordable options in the latest 16 range, smaller and cheaper than the likes of the 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. However, its front-facing camera specs of a 12MP sensor with an f/1.9 aperture aren't much improved as you climb up that list, and while the more sophisticated phones will give you access to advanced photography features like ProRAW format, the difference isn't really pronounced enough to be worth the outlay if selfies are your priority. With Apple's reliably attractive photo processing, the iPhone 16 will produce great-looking selfies in the majority of situations – and what more can you ask?
Read more: Apple iPhone 16 review
Best compact camera for selfies
The Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III has made a name for itself as one of the most capable and affordable vlogging cameras around, so of course it's also great for selfies. The useful touchscreen monitor flips around 180-degrees, making to compose and focus your shots on the go.
The combination of a 1-inch sensor (larger than you'd generally find in a compact of this type) and a lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 means the G7 X Mark III is much more capable in low light than many of its rivals, as we found when we gave it a full review. Producing impressive, punchy images straight out of camera, this is a tremendous option for keeping in a pocket and taking wherever you go.
Read more: Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III review
Best value compact for selfies
Although aimed at vloggers, the Sony ZV-1 with its 3-inch vari-angle touchscreen makes it really easy to take selfies. It might look like another variant from the RX100 range but in reality, it does so much more. Benefitting from a 24-70mm zoom range and an aperture of f/1.8 - f/2.8 even when shooting in low light you'll be able to get a good snap!
It comes with SteadyShot active stabilization and although it isn't the best stabilization we've ever used, it does help. The autofocus is fast and accurate, you can record 4K video and it has a built-in mic so you don't have to run out and invest in one of the best microphones straight away (unless you want to of course!).
With a 20.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, a max burst rate of 24fps and WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, you could take selfies on the camera and send them directly to your phone to edit and upload to your favorite social media platform.
Read our full Sony ZV-1 review for more details
Best selfie camera for travel
The ZS99, known as the TZ99 outside North America, is a refreshed version of a long-running travel compact – and features plenty of smart features that make it an excellent selfie camera. Flip the touchscreen around to face the front and you've got a host of controls at your disposal, including lots of creative options for selfies. There’s a Buddy Shutter option that captures the image as soon as you and a companion bring their faces together. Also, if you’re some distance away from the camera taking advantage of its long zoom lens, you can even trigger the exposure by simply waving your hands across your face.
Together with 4K video recording and a mammoth zoom lens equivalent to 24-720mm, the Lumix ZS99 is fit for whatever you want to throw at it. Priced cheaper that many other compacts on the market, it produces great image quality in bright conditions – though cramming all those pixels onto a 1/2.3-inch sensor does mean quality suffers when the light gets low.
Read more: Panasonic Lumix TZ99 / ZS99 review
Best miniature camera for selfies
The Canon PowerShot V10 immediately sticks out among the other cameras on this list – indeed, you might say it doesn't look like a camera at all. This clever little oblong is designed for vlogging first and foremost, for people who want to record themselves while holding a camera comfortably in one hand (something that is surprisingly difficult to do with a lot of so-called vlogging camera). As you might imagine, this also makes it an excellent choice for selfies.
The V10 is designed for video first and foremost, but it does shoot stills with an effective focal length of 18mm. Photo mode is completely automatic, with no options to tweak settings save for dialling the brightness up or down, but the quality of imagery the camera produces is consistently very good. The 1-inch sensor is a step-up from many other compacts, and you get a lot of latitude to tweak images in post-production.
Read more: Canon PowerShot V10 review
Best DSLR for selfies
This isn't the cheapest DSLR you can buy by any means, but very often it's worth paying a little extra money to get a much better range of features – and this is the perfect example. The EOS Rebel SL3 (aka EOS 250D) has Canon’s top-of-the range APS-C sensor with 24.1MP of resolution and brilliant Live View shooting, thanks to a fully-articulating touchscreen display and Canon's fast Dual Pixel CMOS AF autofocus.
In fact, we’d actually say this is one of the only DSLRs where composing shots with the screen is downright preferable to using the viewfinder. Canon also packs in 4K video and Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, wrapped up in the smallest DSLR body you'll ever see. For selfies you can just flip the vari-angle touchscreen round to the front and focus and shoot just as fast as any mirrorless camera can.
Read more: Canon EOS SL3 / Canon EOS 250D review
Best action camera for selfies
An action camera can be an excellent choice for selfies – they're small, they can handle any conditions, and the newer models tend to sport useful front-facing screens so you can see what you're shooting. For our money, your best bet in terms of an action camera fro selfies is the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro, a capable camera that outpaces the rival GoPro Hero 13 Black in terms of its image quality, particularly in challenging low-light situations.
The Osmo Action 5 Pro consistently puts out great-looking images – one thing our reviewer particularly appreciated was how well it handled darker skin tones. Certainly much better than its rivals. Its waterproofing and mounting options give you huge flexibility in how and where you use it, and its competitive price tag is also worth shouting out.
Read more: DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro review
Best mirrorless camera for selfies
A replacement for the small, cute and popular EOS M50 Mark II, the mirrorless EOS R50 is one of the smallest and lightest mirrorless cameras in the EOS R range. Like DSLRs, mirrorless cameras don't exactly offer the best ergonomics for selfie-taking, but if you're looking for a versatile camera that's good for a range of applications including selfies, they're a solid choice.
The EOS R50 benefits from the rapidly expanding RF lens range, and produces bright and punchy images from its APS-C sensor. Its autofocus system has face-detection and eye-detection, and the intelligent auto modes make it easy to get balanced images in different shooting situations. Creative bracketing is a nice feature, enabling you to apply multiple different filter effects to a single image, and then choose your favorite. Plus, with the fully articulating screen, you'll have an easy time composing your selfies.
Read more: Canon EOS R50 review
How we test cameras
We test cameras and smartphones both in real-world shooting scenarios and in carefully controlled lab conditions. Our lab tests measure resolution, dynamic range and signal to noise ratio. Resolution is measured using ISO resolution charts, dynamic range is measured using DxO Analyzer test equipment and DxO Analyzer is also used for noise analysis across the camera's ISO range. We use both real-world testing and lab results to inform our comments in buying guides.
Read more:
• So you want the best selfies? Then check out the best camera phones right now
• These are the best cameras for beginners right now
• Going on a trip? Here the best travel cameras to take with you
• If cash is tight, check out the best budget camera phones
• The best camera for Instagram
