As the retro appeal of compact digital cameras shows no sign of abating, I reckon it’s worth focusing on the attributes that can make them genuinely useful – as opposed to deliberately naff.
To take one leading example, Panasonic’s ‘TZ’ Travel Zoom series of digital compacts became popular from the get-go, because back in 2006 the inaugural Lumix DMC-TZ1 was the smallest compact to offer a 10x optical zoom. It provided a useful 35-350mm focal length in 35mm terms while still slipping into my pocket.
