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The Best Point-and-Shoot Camera

By Ben Keough and Phil Ryan
Updated
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Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

A compact camera with a sensor larger than the one in your smartphone can go anywhere with you while elevating your photography, especially in more challenging situations. After our latest round of researching all of the large-sensor compact cameras available and testing the best contenders in the real world, we’re still convinced that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 is the best option. Its excellent lens and sensor, abundant physical controls, and smart touchscreen interface create a combination that no rival can match.

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Our pick

With fast autofocus and a convenient touch interface, the LX10 fits into a jeans or jacket pocket but produces photos and 4K video that rival DSLR output.

Runner-up

Its still images are similar to what you get from our top pick, but the Sony RX100 VI is worth the extra cost if you want better video, more zoom, and a viewfinder.

Also great

The ZV-1 captures better video than our main pick and has features that make shooting video easier, yet it also captures stills that are just as nice as what you get from our runner-up.

Our pick

With fast autofocus and a convenient touch interface, the LX10 fits into a jeans or jacket pocket but produces photos and 4K video that rival DSLR output.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 beats the competition thanks to a 24–72mm zoom lens that lets in lots of light, as well as a responsive touchscreen, convenient physical controls, and fast autofocus. It also shoots crisp 4K video, and it leverages that function for innovative still-photography modes—including 4K Photo, Pre-Burst, and Post Focus—that help you get the right shot even when your reflexes aren’t quick enough.

Runner-up

Its still images are similar to what you get from our top pick, but the Sony RX100 VI is worth the extra cost if you want better video, more zoom, and a viewfinder.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI is quite a bit more expensive than our top pick for similar still-image quality. But the RX100 VI’s pop-up electronic viewfinder makes composing shots on sunny days easier, and it bests the Panasonic LX10 in 4K video: Its 4K footage is noticeably sharper than the LX10’s, and it can output live, uncompressed 4K footage via HDMI. The HDMI output may appeal to vloggers, though the Sony ZV-1’s video-centric design makes that camera a better choice for that crowd. Finally, the RX100 VI’s 24–200mm lens is much longer than the LX10’s, though its reach comes at the expense of a narrower maximum aperture. If you don’t mind giving up a little background blur and low-light shooting ability, its telephoto capabilities may make it a better choice for an all-around travel camera.

Also great

The ZV-1 captures better video than our main pick and has features that make shooting video easier, yet it also captures stills that are just as nice as what you get from our runner-up.

If your main goal is to capture video, but you still want to get great-looking stills, the Sony ZV-1 has you covered. The lens lets in a lot of light, just like on our main pick, and coupled with a large sensor, it produces image quality that ranks among the best you can get from a compact camera. Video enthusiasts should appreciate the hot shoe for adding accessories, the microphone input for better audio, and the touchscreen LCD, which flips out to the side and pivots up and down. If you mostly shoot stills, however, you’ll miss the pop-up viewfinder and flash that the Sony RX100 VI offers.

Ben Keough has been testing and writing about cameras since 2006 and has spent time with virtually every DSLR, mirrorless camera, and point-and-shoot that has come out in the past decade-plus. He knows each manufacturer’s lineup inside and out—and more important, how to distinguish between marketing gimmicks and features that really matter to everyday shooters. He’s also an avid photographer in his own right, and from time to time people have even paid him to take pictures.

For this guide, he spent more than 40 hours over the course of three months pushing the cameras he tested to their limit in order to figure out which model offers the best combination of image quality, usability, and features.

Phil Ryan is Wirecutter’s editor of camera coverage. As technical editor for Popular Photography and senior editor for imaging at CNET, he used the vast majority of the cameras released for over a decade.

If you own a recent smartphone, you have a pretty good camera in your pocket right now. But if you’ve used your smartphone’s camera, you’ve probably noticed that it has limitations: If you look at your photos on anything bigger than a phone screen, you see blurry, blocky results that are far from the shots you’d get from a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Using your phone’s digital zoom only makes the image quality worse. Want to capture action shots? Forget about it.

If you’re frustrated by these limitations, here’s why an advanced compact camera is probably right for you:

  • Better image quality: These cameras use much larger image sensors than phones do, offering correspondingly improved image quality—especially indoors or when the sun goes down, thanks to better low-light performance.
  • Smartphone-like shooting: Most advanced point-and-shoots have a touchscreen interface for changing essential settings and choosing your focus point, which makes the step up from smartphone photography even smoother.
  • Room to grow: Although you can just pick up one of these cameras, point, and shoot, they also include all the custom controls you’d get from more-expensive DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. They’re a great way to start if you’re just beginning to get serious about photography.
  • Fast focusing: Smartphones focus much more quickly today than they used to, but they’re still nowhere near as fast as a proper camera with a proper autofocus system. The difference is night and day when you’re tracking moving subjects like sports, kids, and pets.
  • Still portable: Although these cameras are bigger than phones, they’re still compact enough to slip into a jeans or jacket pocket, or a small bag, without weighing you down. Their large sensors and wide-aperture zoom lenses capture lots of light, providing most of the power of a full DSLR or mirrorless system without the bulk of a larger body and a set of lenses.
  • More flexible than a phone: Most cameras in this category offer versatile 3x zoom lenses that go from wide-angle to portrait focal lengths without degrading the image quality. Many also provide nifty extras, such as a flip-up screen or an electronic viewfinder, that make shooting easier.
  • Better video: The best point-and-shoot cameras are also excellent tools for videography, capable of producing noticeably crisper footage with less noise and more detail than what you get from even a flagship smartphone. YouTubers and Twitch streamers will especially appreciate the 4K recording capability, uncompressed HDMI output, and flip-up screens that the top models provide.

You might be wondering why you shouldn’t just buy a DSLR or mirrorless camera. After all, those models provide even better images and video, more-comfortable ergonomics, and more physical controls. The answer, of course, is size and weight. The cameras we recommend in this guide provide a noticeable bump in image quality over a smartphone but can still fit in a pocket or purse. Mirrorless cameras and DSLRs require a bigger bag, and their added weight can give you a sore neck or shoulder over a long day of shooting.

If you value ultimate image quality over portability, though, we have picks for mirrorless cameras, plus recommendations for budget DSLRs.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI and the Sony ZV-1 point-and-shoot cameras, shown side by side.
Photo: Sarah Kobos

To find the best point-and-shoot cameras, we started out by establishing a few key traits that any great camera should possess.

  • Large sensor: Since we’re looking for cameras that provide significantly better image quality than a smartphone can produce, it makes sense to look for a significantly larger sensor. A sensor's size isn’t the only factor in determining image quality—lens design also plays a major role—but it is a big one. All else being equal, a larger sensor has larger pixels, which can capture more light. This design reduces image noise and allows the sensor to record bright and dark areas in the same shot without turning skies white and shadows black. Since most smartphone cameras use 1/2.3-inch sensors, we targeted cameras with a 1-inch or larger sensor for this guide. (If you want to dig deeper, here’s a detailed explanation of the numbers behind the confusingly named sensor sizes.)
  • Wide-aperture lens: To make the most of their big sensors, these cameras should have lenses with a wide aperture throughout the zoom range—the wider, the better. A wide aperture lets in more light, which allows you to shoot at a lower ISO setting (reducing image noise) or a higher shutter speed (reducing blur). It also allows you to shoot shallow-depth-of-field portrait photos with more pronounced blur (or bokeh) behind your subject. Our top pick, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10, has a lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 at full wide-angle (24mm) and f/2.8 at full telephoto (72mm). In contrast, most cheap point-and-shoots are limited to apertures of f/3.2 or f/4.5 at any zoom setting, leading to blurry or noisy pictures. (If aperture and f-numbers are new to you, here’s an easy-to-understand primer.)
  • Compact design: A good point-and-shoot camera is one that you can comfortably carry every day, which means it should fit in a pants pocket or a small bag. This rules out most superzooms and so-called travel zooms, and it generally leaves you with cameras that have more modest zoom ratios of around 3x.
  • Ease of use: All of the cameras here are easy to use in auto mode, and many owners elect not to go any further. But if you choose to dive into the menus, the main menu should be easy to navigate, and the camera should offer a quick menu for convenient access to key shooting settings. Customizable buttons and dials allow you to set up the camera for the way you like to shoot, so we give bonus points for those.
  • Touchscreen, tilt screen, or electronic viewfinder: These features add a ton of usability to any camera, so having one or more is a big plus. Touchscreens let you tap to focus, and they make navigating settings menus and swiping through photos in playback much simpler. Tilt screens allow you to easily shoot below (and sometimes above) your head, and they usually flip up 180 degrees for selfies. Electronic viewfinders make it easier to compose shots on especially bright days when glare wipes out the image on the rear display.
  • Wireless connectivity: It’s 2021, so you need a way to get your photos to your phone without going through the cumbersome process of putting an SD card in a card reader, transferring the pics to your computer, and then emailing them to yourself or uploading them to Dropbox. Whether it’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or some combination of the three, these cameras should have a way to connect directly to your phone. Fully tethered shooting—in which newly shot images automatically transfer to the connected device—is a plus but not a requirement. But be aware: Most smartphone apps from major camera manufacturers are still disappointingly clunky, so be prepared to spend some time tapping around in the camera and app settings to pair your camera with your phone.
  • Solid video specs: With their high-quality sensors and lenses, these cameras can capture excellent video, so it’s important that they record at 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second at the least. Since 4K displays are now more common, we give bonus points to models capable of recording at 4K resolution at a minimum of 30 frames per second. Other extras, such as uncompressed HDMI output and more-advanced video-codec options, are icing on the cake, but they’re important for people such as vloggers and Twitch streamers.

In our most recent round of research, with the above criteria in mind, Ben Keough surveyed the compact cameras available from all of the top brands. Honestly, there weren’t that many. Canon’s PowerShot G-Series comprises five models, but we immediately ruled out two of them (the PowerShot G1 X Mark III and G3 X) because of their larger bodies and lenses, and we had already dismissed the PowerShot G5 X and G7 X Mark II in a previous version of this guide due to underwhelming specs. Panasonic’s LX100 and LX100 II, as well as Fujifilm’s X100F, were too large to be called pocketable, partly owing to their Four Thirds and APS-C sensors. Nikon and Olympus no longer make compact cameras (besides waterproof models and superzooms). We also rejected otherwise capable pocketable compacts such as the Ricoh GR III and Fujifilm XF10 because they didn’t have zoom lenses.

We were left with our previous picks, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 and the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III. At that point, we also decided to test the Sony RX100 IV, the (now discontinued) Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II, and the Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200, which surprisingly packed a 15x zoom lens into a body not much larger than those of the other contenders.

For our 2021 update, considering that not much had changed in the various camera makers’ lineups, we also tested Sony’s RX100 VI and ZV-1.

A person taking a photo with our runner-up pick for best point-and-shoot camera, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI.
Photo: Ben Keough

We tested these cameras over the course of a month, both in head-to-head studio tests and on extended outings in the real world. We carried them on day trips around Southern California, a longer drive through the forests and rivers of Bend, Oregon, a hike amidst the majestic sweep of the Colorado Rockies, a breathtaking visit to the rocky canyons of Utah, and the streets and subways of New York City.

Although these cameras have plenty to offer to amateur photographers who may already own more-advanced models but appreciate the ability to carry something smaller at times, we think they’re most appealing to people who are taking their first step up from a smartphone camera. With that in mind, we focused on testing for pain points that might frustrate, annoy, or otherwise put off newcomers from using these cameras.

We performed the usual tests for things like sharpness, bokeh, close-focusing ability, low-light performance, dynamic range, image stabilization, and autofocus speed. But we also considered the usability of each camera’s menu system, the responsiveness of its touchscreen, the reflectiveness of its display, the amount and usefulness of the on-screen information it provided, the tactile feel of its buttons, and—especially for cameras with an electronic viewfinder—how easy or difficult the controls were to find and operate by feel. We also connected each camera to our smartphones to see whether remote shooting and image transfer were a pain or a pleasure.

A close up of a person using our pick for best point-and-shoot camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10.
Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Our pick

With fast autofocus and a convenient touch interface, the LX10 fits into a jeans or jacket pocket but produces photos and 4K video that rival DSLR output.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 produces beautiful photos in all but the most extreme lighting conditions. It has an intuitive touchscreen interface, its screen flips up 180 degrees for selfies and 4K video streaming, and it focuses quickly. Many of its rivals have some of these features, but none offer such a compelling combination at such a reasonable price.

Image quality is the most important reason to augment your smartphone photography with a camera like this, and the LX10 delivers. Straight out of the box, it produces crisp JPEG images that aren’t overly sharpened or cartoonishly saturated, unlike some rivals. The zoom lens covers a useful (24–72mm equivalent) range that starts wider than that of most smartphone cameras, zooms in tight enough for portraits, and allows for smoothly blurred backgrounds when you’re shooting close-up. The Leica-branded lens is sharp at all focal lengths and aperture settings, and it can focus down to 3 centimeters—closer than the Sony RX100 VI and Canon G9 X Mark II—for impressive macro images. It’s also optically stabilized, which helps you get clear shots even at slow shutter speeds.

The LX10’s 1-inch sensor and wide-aperture lens let you effectively separate your subject from the background, even when you’re shooting from farther away. Photo: Ben Keough

Since the LX10 delivers JPEGs with less contrast and saturation than you get from some other cameras when you’re using the Standard photo style, you have to edit the photos to get them to pop on Instagram or Facebook. We actually prefer it that way: The more editing a camera does, the less latitude you have to edit your photos to suit your taste. But if you’d prefer more-stylized results right out of the camera, you can choose from other “photo styles” (Panasonic’s term for JPEG presets), including Vivid, Monochrome, and Scenery, that provide more- or less-punchy results. You can edit these presets, or you can create your own custom photo style with specific contrast, sharpness, noise-reduction, and saturation settings. Alternatively, if you want to handle all of the processing yourself, you can shoot in raw mode and develop your photos using digital-darkroom software such as Adobe Lightroom; it’s the best way to get the most out of your camera, but it adds significant time to the process.

The LX10’s dedicated aperture ring is unique among the large-sensor compact cameras we tested. Video: Kyle Fitzgerald

Although the LX10 is not the smallest camera we tested, it is quite compact. When it’s turned off, the lens protrudes about half an inch from the front; there’s a shorter hand grip off to the side.

The LX10 offers plenty of physical controls, so you can easily adjust settings without diving into the menu system. The coolest is a dedicated aperture ring with click-stops that lets you directly control the f-stop when shooting in aperture-priority or manual mode. In front of that is a smoothly rotating secondary dial, and atop the camera you’ll find a third control wheel; you can customize both of these to control a huge range of camera settings. Around back, a four-way directional pad provides direct access to exposure compensation, white balance, drive mode/self-timer, and focus mode options. You also get dedicated buttons for Panasonic-exclusive features such as 4K Photo mode and Post Focus, which we’ll discuss later.

A close-up of a person placing the LX10 into a purse.
Despite its large sensor and abundance of physical controls, the LX10 is still compact enough to fit easily in even a small bag. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

When you do have to go menu-diving, the LX10’s excellent touchscreen interface makes the process pretty easy. Through the customizable Quick Menu, you get access to 11 of your most frequently used settings—such as ISO, exposure compensation, and AF mode—with just a couple of finger taps. Inside the main menu system, you can tap and scroll through submenus to find less-often-used options. If you’ve used a smartphone, it’s a piece of cake.

Close-up of a person taking a photo with the LX10 using the back screen to frame a shot of a flower.
The LX10 doesn’t have an electronic viewfinder, but its big, bright screen tilts up 180 degrees and has a great touch interface. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

The touchscreen is most useful for autofocus. With the AF system set to single- or multi-point mode, you can simply tap to focus. It’s fast, reliable, and easy. It also offers a huge advantage over the system on the Sony RX100 IV and all other RX100 models up to the recently released RX100 VI, which lack touchscreens and take a lot more fiddling to focus. The LX10’s tap-to-focus feature is an even bigger deal for videographers, since it lets them “pull focus” to a subject located anywhere in the frame with a single tap. In our testing, the transition to a new focal point was pleasingly slow and cinematic, not jumpy—something Panasonic says its engineers expressly focused on.

The LX10’s flash can tilt up to diffuse light for more-natural-looking flash photos. Video: Kyle Fitzgerald

Like other recent Lumix cameras, the LX10 uses Panasonic’s DFD (Depth from Defocus) autofocus technology. We’ll skip the geeky details of how it works (here’s a good overview if you’re interested), but when a subject is out of focus, DFD allows the camera to make a good guess as to exactly how far out of focus it is. The result is very fast focus that (in good light) avoids the wobble you see in traditional contrast-detection AF systems as the lens hunts back and forth while trying to lock focus. DFD tech also helps keep your subject in focus when you’re using tracking AF, particularly when your subject is moving toward or away from the camera.

Photo of two people sitting in a restaurant, taken with the LX10. One person's face illuminated by the glow of their phone.
The LX10 can focus accurately in low light, and its combination of a wide-aperture lens and effective image stabilization allows for long exposures with clear results. Photo: Amadou Diallo

The LX10 has even more proprietary tech that adds to its appeal. In Panasonic’s 4K Photo mode, the LX10 records a short 4K video when you press the shutter button and presents the clip as a series of individual still images. Essentially, it’s a 30 fps burst mode. When you find just the right expression or position for your subject, you can extract and save that still as an 8-megapixel JPEG. The LX10 also offers a Pre-Burst option that continuously records video, saving the 30 frames from the seconds before and after you press the shutter. The end result is that you can get the right shot even if you don’t hit the shutter in time. Since this mode continuously records video, it drains the battery more quickly than taking traditional stills—in our testing, occasional use didn’t drastically reduce the battery life, but we’d hesitate to use it if our battery charge was low to begin with and we didn’t have a spare on hand.

Another nifty feature is the Post Focus mode, which uses a short 4K video to capture images at different focus points and then lets you tap anywhere in the frame to focus on that point after you’ve shot the photo. Since this mode takes a fraction of a second to track focus and capture the video, it works best with still subjects, but it works with moving subjects if it has enough light to freeze their motion.

The LX10’s 4K video looks nice and crisp (be sure to select “2160p 4K” in the YouTube quality menu), but it’s not quite on the level of the Sony RX100 VI. Video: Ben Keough

The LX10 captures 4K video at 30 frames per second and 1080p at 60 fps (or 120 fps with lens stabilization and autofocus disabled). At either resolution, the wide-angle field of view is cropped from the 24mm equivalent you get in stills—down to 36mm equivalent in 4K and 30mm equivalent in 1080p with all assists (stabilization and auto-level) turned on. Turning these assists off widens the field of view, but you never get the full 24mm wide-angle look. This crop not only reduces wide-angle possibilities but also hurts low-light performance, since it means the camera is using a smaller sensor area to record video and is therefore taking in less light. But such a crop is fairly normal for these types of cameras.

In our testing, the LX10’s 4K video looked nearly as good as what we got from the Sony RX100 VI (our runner-up pick). And in contrast to the RX100 VI, which limits you to five minutes of continuous 4K shooting (due to heat buildup), the LX10 can capture up to 15 minutes at a time. Unfortunately, the LX10 doesn’t provide uncompressed (or “clean”) live HDMI video output—you can use HDMI only to replay videos you’ve already recorded—which means that it’s not as good for Twitch and YouTube live streamers as the RX100 VI, which can output video as you’re recording it. (Neither camera has a 3.5 mm jack for an external microphone, though.)

The LX10 is capable of connecting to a phone or tablet via built-in Wi-Fi and the Panasonic Image App (available for iOS or Android), and the setup process is relatively straightforward (Panasonic has quick video walk-throughs for iOS and Android). Once the connection is established, you can use the app for remote shooting, which lets you use your device to adjust shooting settings, tap to focus, and shoot. Image transfer is also available, so you can quickly send both raw and JPEG files to your mobile device. However, the LX10 can’t transfer AVCHD video to smartphones and tablets, so stick to MP4 if you want to easily share clips on social media.

If there’s one thing the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 is missing, it’s an electronic viewfinder. Every Sony RX100 model since the Mark III has had one, and it’s a serious advantage—especially when you’re shooting in bright sunlight, where it can be tough to see the screen, or in particularly dark environments, where you don’t want your camera screen to be a distraction for other people. Additionally, although the LX10’s touchscreen tilts up 180 degrees, it doesn’t tilt down like the one on our runner-up pick, the RX100 VI, does, so you can’t easily shoot above your eye line (over the crowd at a concert, for example). As a last resort, you can flip the camera upside down and use your left thumb for the shutter button, but photos you shoot this way come out upside down and need manual rotating later. Regardless, even though we wish the LX10 had a viewfinder and a tilt-down screen, its extra physical controls and touchscreen interface still make it more enjoyable to shoot with overall, and unless you really need the RX100 VI’s better video performance, the Sony camera is not worth its substantially higher price.

Battery life is a concern for all of these large-sensor compact cameras. The Panasonic LX10 is rated for 260 shots in mixed use, 50 fewer shots than the Sony RX100 VI is rated for (though the Sony camera actually has shorter stated battery life if you use its electronic viewfinder). In real-world use, this number can vary wildly depending on how much video you shoot, how many special shooting modes you employ, and how often you turn the camera on and off. In general, you don’t have to worry if you’re shooting an event that lasts a few hours, but for a full day of sightseeing where you want to take a lot of snapshots, you’re probably better off buying and carrying a second battery (or charging via a USB battery pack between shots).

The LX10’s clicky aperture ring is convenient and feels great, but it can also be misleading. Since the maximum aperture becomes smaller when you zoom in, what you see on the dial isn’t always what you get. When you zoom to 72mm, for example, you’re shooting at f/2.8 even if the ring says f/1.4. This is a concern only at the widest aperture settings, though—after f/2.8, the setting is always accurate. It’s also slightly annoying that the aperture ring can’t serve another purpose when you’re using a shooting mode without aperture control; if you’re in Program or Auto mode, for instance, it’s totally useless.

Unfortunately, the LX10 lacks a built-in neutral-density filter (as does the Sony RX100 VI), which would enable wide-aperture shooting in bright sunlight and super-long exposures (think star trails or wispy white waterfalls). Panasonic addresses the first scenario by providing the option to use an electronic shutter with speeds up to 1/16,000—fast enough to shoot at f/1.4 in bright light. Just be aware that shooting fast-moving objects using the electronic shutter mode can produce rolling-shutter effects, making moving objects look slanted. As for super-long exposures, well, you’d need to buy a physical neutral-density filter for that, but there’s no elegant way to mount one on the LX10’s lens.

Our other complaints are relatively minor. We would have preferred a more substantial grip, perhaps with a bit of rubber for the camera to feel more secure in the hand. We also wish it were possible to start the camera directly in playback mode without extending the lens, something that both the Sony and Canon cameras we tested can do; this feature saves battery life and reduces wear and tear on mechanical components over time.

Our runner-up pick for best point-and-shoot camera, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI.
Photo: Sarah Kobos

Runner-up

Its still images are similar to what you get from our top pick, but the Sony RX100 VI is worth the extra cost if you want better video, more zoom, and a viewfinder.

If you’d prefer an electronic viewfinder, or if you place heavier emphasis on video quality and video file types than most people do, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI is a great choice. It’s likely more camera than the average person needs, but we think its perks—faster burst shooting, the ability to get more shots per burst, fast and sure autofocus, and a longer lens—are worth the substantial price increase for serious photographers.

The RX100 VI delivers excellent photos, almost indistinguishable in quality from what you’d get from our top pick. The two cameras use near-identical 1-inch sensors, and although the RX100 VI’s lens doesn’t let in quite as much light as the LX10’s, it still allows more than cheap compacts do, and its long zoom range makes this model one of the best travel cameras you can get. On its default settings, our JPEGs from the RX100 VI had a little more contrast and saturation than those from the LX10, but you can tweak the effect to your preference. If you shoot raw, you’d be likely to see as much variation in sharpness between multiple units of a single camera model due to manufacturing tolerances in lens construction as you would between, say, a Sony model and a Panasonic model sharing the same sensor design.

As the light waned on New York City’s Mott Street, the far end of the RX100 VI’s zoom lens produced a flatter-looking view of the scene. Sony’s auto metering underexposed a bit, so be sure to use exposure compensation if you’re shooting a scene like this. Photo: Phil Ryan

The biggest design difference between the Sony RX100 VI and the Panasonic LX10 is Sony’s pop-up electronic viewfinder (EVF)—an excellent addition for people who prefer eye-level composition over framing shots on the rear display. Considering the overall size of the camera, the EVF is remarkably large and clear, and the clever retracting design is unique in this class. The EVF makes shooting in bright daylight less of a guessing game, and it also provides a way to shoot more discreetly in dark environments since the camera’s rear display doesn’t light up when it’s in use. In addition, the RX100 VI’s rear display is more flexible than our top pick’s, letting you tilt it down 40 degrees so that you can easily shoot above your head.

The RX100 VI’s articulating screen tilts up 180 degrees and down 40 degrees, offering more adjustability than that of our top pick. Video: Sarah Kobos

Like the LX10, the RX100 VI shoots 4K video at up to 30 frames per second and a 100 mbps bit rate. But Sony offers more formats and codecs, including its proprietary XAVC S. This Sony camera’s video footage is sharper across the board—not a huge difference, but noticeable—in both 4K and 1080p recording modes. XAVC S footage looks best but requires a specific type of memory card, an SDXC UHS-II card with at least 64 GB of storage. We used a SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-II card; it worked flawlessly, but the kind of performance it offers doesn’t come cheap.

A top view of the RX100 VI point-and-shoot camera.
The pop-up viewfinder (left) and pop-up flash (center) help make the RX100 VI better suited for capturing still images. Photo: Sarah Kobos

The RX100 VI crops 4K video much less aggressively than the LX10, which means you can shoot wider-angle footage. And whereas the LX10 can record 1080p 120 fps footage for 2x slow-motion, the RX100 VI can go up to 960 fps to slow things down by a factor of 32x (albeit for only two seconds at a time and at reduced resolution). As the icing on the cake, the RX100 VI can output live, uncompressed 4K video via its HDMI port—perfect for YouTube and Twitch streamers.

Like Panasonic, Sony provides a smartphone app (called Imaging Edge Mobile, available for iOS and Android) that allows you to wirelessly pair your RX100 VI with your phone. The pairing is fairly simple: A QR code appears on the camera’s screen, and you scan it using the app on your phone. Once the two devices are connected, you can control the camera remotely, as well as transfer photos and video to your phone. Like the LX10, the RX100 VI is somewhat limited in what it can transfer—specifically, it can’t send raw photos, AVCHD videos, or very-high-bit-rate XAVC S videos to your phone—but for most people, JPEGs and lower-bit-rate video will suffice for Instagram and Facebook.

Our also great pick for best point-and-shoot camera, the Sony ZV-1.
Photo: Sarah Kobos

Also great

The ZV-1 captures better video than our main pick and has features that make shooting video easier, yet it also captures stills that are just as nice as what you get from our runner-up.

If you mainly want to shoot great video and take stills only occasionally, you’ll likely prefer Sony’s ZV-1 over the RX100 VI. The two Sony models use the same large, 1-inch sensor, though the ZV-1’s optically stabilized lens has almost the same specs as that of the Panasonic LX10. This means the ZV-1’s lens lets in more light than the RX100 VI’s, producing better autofocus performance in low-light scenarios, but it doesn’t have the longer zoom range of the RX100 VI. The ZV-1 also has various features that make it better for recording higher-level video compared with our two other picks.

Chief among these differences are the ZV-1’s audio capabilities. The top of the camera houses a directional stereo microphone designed to emphasize recording sounds coming from in front of the camera while also minimizing background noise without losing a solid sense of place. In practice, this microphone provides a sense of direction yet is also wonderful for vlogging selfie-style since it’ll mainly pick up your talking while not losing the background sounds of whatever grand locale you may be talking about.

A top view of the Sony ZV-1 point-and-shoot camera.
The accessory hot shoe (left) and stereo microphone (center) help make the ZV-1 better suited to capturing video than the RX100 VI. Photo: Sarah Kobos

Just in case the fancy microphone atop the ZV-1 eventually becomes insufficient for your videos, Sony includes a standard mini microphone input so you can plug in an accessory microphone, something lacking in Panasonic’s LX10. Unlike the Sony RX100 VI, which uses the space on top of the camera for its pop-up finder and built-in flash, the ZV-1 also includes one of Sony’s Multi-Interface hot shoes for adding, or just mounting, other accessories. One such accessory, a fuzzy windscreen to cut down on wind noise when you’re using the built-in microphone, is included with the ZV-1.

Another feature that video shooters will love is the angling touchscreen. Coupled with the large video-record button on the top of the camera, this touchscreen lets you tuck the ZV-1 into unusually small spots while easily starting or stopping video recording. Like the touchscreen on the RX100 VI, the touchscreen here isn’t quite as versatile as the LX10’s in that it doesn’t allow you to use it to change camera settings. Instead you have to use the menu button or the Fn button to access the quick menu and then use the directional pad on the back of the camera to select what you’d like to change about how the camera operates.

The range of motion of the ZV-1’s touchscreen should appeal to videographers. Video: Sarah Kobos

In our tests, both video and images we captured with the ZV-1 were just as high quality as what we shot with the RX100 VI—which is to say, great. Images showed more saturation than those from the LX10 when we shot in Standard mode, but without being anywhere near garish. In fact, when we shot at the same settings using the RX100 VI and ZV-1, the stills from the two Sony cameras looked almost identical, as you can see if you compare the photos here in this section with those in the RX100 VI’s section above. We’d have a tough time distinguishing the photos from one another if not for their metadata or proper file naming.

The ZV-1 might make sense for you even if you plan to shoot lots of still images, as the similarity between the sensors and image processing in this camera and the RX100 VI mean that you wouldn’t sacrifice too much by opting for the ZV-1. The RX100 VI’s sensitivity can expand one step beyond that in the ZV-1, though a lot of shooters wouln’t miss that too much considering that the ZV-1 has a larger maximum aperture to make up for the difference. The biggest thing still-photo shooters would miss is the RX100 VI’s viewfinder, which we think is worth the investment for serious photographers, but if you’ve never used a camera with a viewfinder, you might not miss it all that much and might prefer to save the cash instead. Although the ZV-1’s battery life is impressive when it’s shooting only stills, if you’ll be shooting a lot of video, as is likely with this camera, we suggest spending some of the savings on at least one extra battery.

This image is nearly indistinguishable from the one we captured with the RX100 VI. We kept all the settings the same. Photo: Phil Ryan

The ZV-1’s wireless functionality works just like the RX100 VI’s: You pair the Imaging Edge Mobile app (iOS and Android) with your camera using a QR code, and then you can use the app for remote shooting and for transferring images and video. The app works well enough for casual use, though you may find it frustratingly laggy and clunky (video), particularly in the live view shooting functionality, if you need to use it day in, day out.

If you like the RX100 VI’s viewfinder and overall design, and don’t mind sacrificing 4K video and zoom range in exchange for a lower price, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III is still a good buy. Its shorter zoom even offers some benefits: Although its lens covers only 24–70mm in contrast to the RX100 VI’s 24–200mm, it has a wider f/1.8–2.8 maximum aperture versus the RX100 VI’s f/2.8–4.5, so it can produce a little more background blur and may deliver better low-light shots in some situations. However, it typically costs more than our top pick from Panasonic, which not only has a lens with a similar focal range and an even wider aperture but can also shoot 4K video.

If you’re not chiefly concerned about portability, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 and DC-LX100 II each use a Four Thirds sensor, far larger than those found in our picks. These two models can shoot 4K video, have nice EVFs, and are decked out with lots of manual controls. But the larger sensor results in a larger lens and a significantly bulkier camera that can’t fit in a pocket. If that doesn’t bother you, either model is a very capable camera, and the older model is even more affordable than the LX10 now that the LX100 II is out.

We are currently testing the latest large-sensor, fixed-lens point-and-shoots from Ricoh and Fujifilm in anticipation of adding an upgrade pick to this guide. These cameras don’t offer zoom capability, but they have APS-C-sized sensors and bright, wide-angle lenses that allow for higher-quality images than our other picks. We’ll update the guide soon with new recommendations.

The Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark III, with its DSLR-class APS-C sensor, produces image quality superior to that of our top picks, but it’s heavy, expensive, and saddled with a lens that has a restrictively narrow aperture range. Although its silhouette is similar to that of our top pick and runner-up, it’s much thicker, which makes it far less pocketable.

Equipped with the same kind of sensor as our top pick, the Canon PowerShot G5 X features a zoom with more telephoto reach, plus a fully articulated rear screen and an OLED viewfinder. But it’s significantly bigger than the Panasonic LX10 and Sony RX100 VI due to its DSLR-style viewfinder, its battery life is abysmal at just 210 shots per charge, and it shoots less than one frame per second in raw mode—inexcusable for a camera in this class.

The Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II improves on its predecessor in several ways. It’s smaller since it has an RX100-style pop-up EVF, it has a 20mm longer zoom, and it’s faster—able to shoot raw photos at up to 20 frames per second. However, its battery life (though improved to 230 shots per charge) still lags behind that of our picks. It also has iffy autofocus, and its video was disappointingly soft in our tests, even when we shot 4K.

Although the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II shares the original G5 X’s longer zoom lens, it can’t shoot 4K video (like our top pick) and doesn’t have an EVF (like our runner-up).

The Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III is faster and lighter than its predecessor, and it adds 4K video recording at 30 frames per second. It also has an external mic port, which makes it much better for vlogging and serious video shooting. But it still doesn’t have an EVF. Ultimately, the Sony cameras we recommend would give you a better video experience, while the Panasonic LX10 offers a more tactile control scheme and greater flexibility when it comes to aperture, ISO, and shutter speed for still photos.

We tested the Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 and found that although it produced excellent images, we didn’t love the bulk that its 15x zoom lens added or how narrow its aperture range was. The ZS200’s EVF is also of much lower quality than the one in our runner-up pick, and the rear touchscreen doesn’t articulate. If you prioritize zoom higher than pocketability and don’t plan to shoot in dim environments often, the ZS200 could be a good match, but for most people we like our picks better.

The Ricoh GR II and GR III both feature a large APS-C sensor and a wide-angle (28mm-equivalent) lens in a compact body. Although these cameras are capable of producing beautiful photos, they’re in a different class than our picks, and they offer far less flexibility. In addition to their fixed-focal-length lenses, they lack articulating screens and EVFs. And while the newer GR III adds some modern amenities such as a touchscreen and 4K video capability, it’s very much an old-school, still-image-focused camera. (The video looks terrible.)

The Fujifilm X100V has a fixed-focal-length lens (35mm versus Ricoh’s 28mm) and an APS-C sensor. It’s also bigger, heavier, and more expensive than the Ricoh models and our picks. Like the Ricoh models, it’s fantastic for a certain style of shooting, but it’s very much a niche camera.

Meet your guides

Ben Keough

Ben Keough is the supervising editor for Wirecutter's working from home, powering, cameras, and hobbies and games coverage. He previously spent more than a decade writing about cameras, printers, and other office equipment for Wirecutter, Reviewed, USA Today, and Digital Camera HQ. After four years testing printers, he definitively confirmed that they all suck, but some suck less than others.

Phil Ryan

Phil Ryan is Wirecutter’s senior staff writer for camera coverage. Previously, over 13 years he covered cameras and other photo-related items for CNET and Popular Photography. As the latter's tech editor and then senior tech editor, he was responsible for maintaining and refining the lab testing for cameras, and as the main camera tester,  he used and wrote reviews of many of the cameras released in that timeframe.

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