The resurgence of the point-and-shoot cameras has led to shortage of supply that has meant that some people are now spending over the odds to get a compact camera.
The comeback of pocket cameras was something that the camera industry just didn't see coming. As camera phones improved their photographic capabilities, sales of point-and-shoot cameras were seemingly in such terminal decline that manufacturers simply stopped making them. And it was at precisely this point they become trendy again…
I bought my last compact camera six years ago in the Cyber Monday sale. It was a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90 that I had got as a present for my wife for when we went traveling. We'd recently been to New Zealand and India - and it was obvious that the limited angles of view offered by her Android phone simply weren't any good at capturing many of the sights we came across.
I paid around £250 in the Amazon Black Friday sale, and thought I had got a very good deal – but I didn't expect it to be worth more all these years later.
Checking on eBay today, I can see that this camera would now typically cost you between £275 - £300. In the US, I can see it selling for as much as $450. And that price increase goes contrary to the general rule that cameras lose value from the moment you buy them…
But the reason that my wife's HX90 is now worth more than I paid for it is actually quite obvious. For starters, popular compact cameras are still in short supply – the scarcity of stock of models such as the Fujifilm X100VI and the Kodak FZ45 have been well reported on this site.
More significantly, you just can't buy a new camera that offers anything like the specification of the HX90 for anything like the price I paid.
The appeal of this Sony to me was it had a built-in 30x optical zoom - so could be used to capture the birds and animals we saw on our vacations. The sensor was small, of course, but that meant the camera was properly pocket sizes. And with a sensible limit of 18MP, the 1/2.3 in sensor was still capable of creating decent-enough images.
But what I also love about this camera is that it is beautifully designed - with features that appeal to a serious photographer, such as myself. There is a full range of exposure modes, for example, so I can shoot in aperture priority when I use it. And then there is the ingenious pop-up electronic viewfinder – so that you can put the camera up to you eye and still use it in bright sunlight.
If you want to buy a new zoom compact with an eyelevel finder like this then the only one you are like to get, assuming you can find it in stock, is the larger-sensored Sony RX100 VIIA. But that will cost you $1,699 / £1,049. That makes a secondhand Sony HX90 look even better value for money - even if it now costs more than when it was new!
