My 28-year-old friend just bought Canon PowerShot SX740 HS. And she is absolutely thrilled with her decision – but it is a decision that would utterly mystify most camera experts.
She's not alone, of course. The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS is still selling like the proverbial hot cake, despite being launched back in 2018 – an absolute aeon ago in terms of camera technology. Which is exactly why it would be one of the last models most people would have recommended her.
Her request was simple: all she wanted was a camera for her social media content. And I can see the kinds of cameras that people would tell her to go for: the Fujifilm X100VI (because hipsters), the Sony ZV-E10 II (because vlogging), the Canon EOS R50 (because versatile), the Fujifilm X-M5 (because tiny).
In other words, all the usual "content creator" cameras – but I don't think that any expert in 2025 would have advised her to go for a Canon PowerShot SX740 HS.
And this underscores the enormous disconnect right now between what experts think the camera industry is, and what the camera industry actually is. And it's not just the experts; that applies to camera manufacturers as well.
Part of this is because camera diehards are, in large part, also technology geeks. As such, we get stuck in a trap – not just thinking that new is better, but also that anything not new is not relevant.
This is why the instant camera comeback, followed by the renaissance of compact cameras (like the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS) and now the resurgence of bridge cameras have all caught the experts by surprise.
These aren't just quirky Millennial buying habits or Gen Z not knowing any better: these are the cameras that people actually want, much to the befuddlement of an industry extolling the virtues of things like dynamic range and subject detection AF.
My friend doesn't care how many stops of dynamic range a sensor has or whether a camera can shoot at 120fps. She wanted a camera that fits in her pocket and has better image quality and better zoom range than her phone. What she wanted was the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS, no matter what the industry might think she wanted.
I think there's a valuable lesson here. Usually the problem is that the market has left the technology behind; with cameras, it's the technology that is leaving the market behind. The camera business doesn't need to catch up, it needs to slow down. And it needs to stop kidding itself that the only cameras that matter are fancy mirrorless ones released in the last 12 months.
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Obviously, some people do need more modern cameras. Take a look at the best cameras for vlogging if that's what matters to you. And if you do want 120fps burst shooting and loads of stops of dynamic range, check out the best cameras for sports photography and the best cameras for filmmaking.
