After about a day of research into this, my recommendations for designers anno 2017 are:
-
Canon SX620 HS - best value for money option at $200; it’s compact, 25x optical zoom, good optical quality for a 1/2.3" sensor and f/3.2 max. aperture. The only difference with the larger SX710/20/30 is the zoom level and lack of manual exposure control but that can be done in post-edit.
-
Sony RX100 series - best optical quality for money option at $350 with a Zeiss lens, CMOS 13.2x88 mm sensor providing f/1.8 max aperture and 25,600 max ISO. The tradeoff for its vivid colors and sharpness is the 3.6 optical zoom.
-
Sony Powershot G16 - another one in the contenders for DSLR alternatives with a f/1.8 aperture and 5x zoom.
-
Nikon Coolpix A900, $300 with a 35x zoom lens (you can shoot pictures of Saturn) and good quality background fading/bokeh. These have a great focus stacking mode for professional results.
Some niche cameras are:
- Waterproof: Olympus TG-4 with f/2.0 aperture shoots great photos at good lighting levels and with nice bokeh; on low light or high zoom (max 4x) it brings in the noise as known from Olympus lenses.
- Android OS: Samsung Galaxy 3 camera. Not remarkable but it does have a f/2.8 max aperture (the sweet spot for faded backgrounds) and 21x zoom. It operates on Android so you can install apps and edit photos on-the-fly.