The compact camera craze shows no sign of stopping. While walking through the Photography & Video Show in London, England, this morning, I happened upon the Sonida stand (E50) and its line-up of very affordable compact cameras.
The Shenzhen-based outfit calls this its Compact DSLR Camera Series, which is a curious moniker given that none of the cameras are actually DSLRs. Still, it’s the designs that caught my eye, inspired by some of the best retro cameras and best compact cameras on the market.
Sonida admittedly quotes a formidable set of headline specs, with the new DC206X touting “up to 64MP photo resolution,” and “up to 5K 5120*2880 (30fps) video resolution”.
In all likelihood, I think it’s fair to treat these specs in a similar manner to the best camera phones; you certainly wouldn’t expect the Redmi Note 14 Pro to compete with the highest-resolution cameras you can buy.
My colleagues on the site have reviewed some similar examples from other brands, such as the Minolta MND25 and Andoer Digital Camera. However, despite these cameras boasting 48MP sensors, image quality proved an issue.
Still, the huge success of the Kodak PixPro FZ45 and PixPro FZ55 are proof that people can’t get enough of cheap compacts.
Sonida has a range of pocketable compacts that are similar in form factor to the aforementioned Kodaks, such as the DC403 and DC306L. There are even a few retro rangefinder-style compacts (DC203, DC213Y, and DC212M) that are giving me serious Fujifilm X100VI vibes.
Having spent a short while handling the cameras, they feel light and plasticky – but this is to be expected within this price range.
Ultimately, these cameras are up against the likes of the AgfaPhoto Realishot DC8200, Minolta MND25, and Andoer Digital – and if they can better them in regards to image quality they're likely to come out on top. Here's hoping we can get one in for review at some point in the near future.
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