Importance of the Bridge Camera and Is it worth buying a Bridge Camera?

Posted by David Lucas on July 16th, 2019

Is it worth buying a bridge camera? What is the Best Bridge camera? Do you need a good comparison of Bridge cameras? Nikon has been boosting its range of Bridge cameras for a while now (it has a Bridge camera with an 83x zoom, the Nikon Coolpix P900). Why this sudden interest in this type of "bridge" cameras? The companies have realized that people demand light cameras with good features and a great zoom, and there are more and more Bridge models.

In between compact cameras and DSLRs, these models offer the best of both worlds, although they have smaller sensors than DSLR, they are starting to have really impressive objectives: from 50x, 60x to 83x of the P900.

Is it worth buying a bridge camera? We will see the main pros and cons of the bridge cameras and then we will give a few tips on this type of cameras.

What is a Bridge camera?

Bridge cameras are cameras that are located between SLR or DSLR cameras and compact cameras. They are comparable in size and weight to the smaller digital SLRs. DSLRs have interchangeable lenses, while current bridge cameras do not. Many Bridge cameras have a tremendously long zoom.

Bridge Cameras: Pros

Bridge cameras are ideal for all those who are going to use your travel camera. This is because they are lighter than a DSLR and have an exceptional zoom.

For example, we have the Canon PowerShot SX60, which offers an equivalent focal length of 21-1365mm (65x optical zoom). To get closer to these parameters in a DSLR, we would need the Canon EF 800mm f / 5.6 L USM telephoto lens, which costs more than 10,000 euros.

Of course, the image quality will not be that high, but considering that the bridge camera is cheaper, it's really worth it.

Another advantage of using a bridge camera, compared to compact cameras, is that many of them offer complete manual control and, in some cases, RAW format.

You may also prefer to handle a camera with a good grip similar to that of DSLR models with many buttons and dials. Many models also have a viewfinder, very practical in very bright conditions.

Bridge Cameras: cons

There are also disadvantages in the use of a bridge camera. The biggest limitation is that they have very small sensors compared to those that can be found in a digital SLR camera or compact system.

While these small sensors facilitate the presence of huge zoom, we will also obtain less detailed images and tend not to work very well in low light situations. Generally speaking, most bridge cameras will also have a narrow maximum aperture.

Of course, there are some notable exceptions to this rule - such as the Panasonic FZ200 that features a 24x optical zoom and a constant aperture of f / 2.8.

While many bridge cameras have viewers, they are not always up to the task and you may find that you prefer to use the screen.

Another problem is that we can get blurred images with the telephoto lens. Many of these models have advanced with optical image stabilization systems, but not all have done so and in other cases, it is not 100% effective.