Sony started the category of compact, large sensor travel zooms with the introduction the RX100 in 2012. Today, Sony is on its fourth version of this camera, the RX100 IV, but no longer alone in the market. Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic have all introduced versions of a compact zoom with a 1 inch sensor. To create such small cameras with large sensors requires compromises, particularly in the area of the lenses. The recent Sony, Canon, and Nikon cameras have short zoom ranges of about 3 or 4 times, but the lenses have fairly large apertures. Panasonic has opted for a 10x zoom, from 25-250mm in its ZS100, but sacrificed the bright aperture. What would be your priorities if you could custom design a small travel zoom camera and couldn’t violate the laws of physics?
