We will be traveling to Italy this summer and I am looking for a new pocket or bridge camera for the trip. I do not want to carry my R6 or R10 and multiple lenses for this trip because we will be going from city to city for 3 weeks touring. I am looking for a small, light pocket or bridge camera of the same or better quality of my R6 or R10 with a hefty zoom, good lens, newest features and the newest chip. I am a Canon user, so that would be my first choice, but am open to suggestions of other brands. The camera must be new, or refurbished and of excellent quality, and I am willing to spend up to $1,000 on it. Any suggestions?

Sony HX99, you get a 24-720 mm Zeiss lens, accurate pop up viewfinder, articulating rear screen for low level shooting (see second image below) , pop up flash for auto fill, shoots RAW or jpeg, shoots pans four different ways, has HDR, and best of all, fits into a belt pouch, or your pocket allowing you to be HANDS FREE. Did I mention you can get great 20X30 prints. And it will only set you back $400.00. so you will have $600.00 more to take to Italy. The first shot below was my grab shot from Venice.

We will be traveling to Italy this summer and I am looking for a new pocket or bridge camera for the trip. I do not want to carry my R6 or R10 and multiple lenses for this trip because we will be going from city to city for 3 weeks touring. I am looking for a small, light pocket or bridge camera of the same or better quality of my R6 or R10 with a hefty zoom, good lens, newest features and the newest chip. I am a Canon user, so that would be my first choice, but am open to suggestions of other brands. The camera must be new, or refurbished and of excellent quality, and I am willing to spend up to $1,000 on it. Any suggestions?

Lots of choices, but I suspect any compact would be fine. I like something that fits into a belt case.

"Best" -
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/the-10-best-compact-cameras
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/buying-guide-best-compact-zoom-cameras
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401971,00.asp
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-compact-camera
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/the-10-best-compact-cameras
https://shotkit.com/best-compact-cameras/
https://www.t3.com/us/features/best-compact-cameras

$300 -
https://www.sfgate.com/shopping/article/The-5-best-digital-cameras-for-under-300-16312385.php
https://www.photoworkout.com/best-compact-cameras-under-300-dollars/
https://imagerestorationcenter.com/best-point-and-shoot-camera-under-300/
https://www.lapseoftheshutter.com/best-cameras-under-300/

mvetrano2, this really depends on what you shoot, what you want to record and what you want to do with your images.

I have four travel cameras and can try to answer any questions you might have on any of them.

Best at fitting in a pocket is the Sony RX100 VII. There are too many reasons to list as to why this is near perfect for travel.

Best at being capable of travel abuse, fitting in a pocket and recording GPS tracking data is the Olympus TG-5.

Not quite pocketable, but with a bigger sensor and unique ring controls for aperture and shutter speed is my Panasonic LX100. This would still be my favorite for travel except that the Sony RX100 has seriously improved autofocus and video capability. (My wife's choice for her compact travel camera is the newer Panasonic LX100 II version to go with her too large for travel RX10IV)

Newest of all is a Samsung Galaxy S23 that Verizon insisted on giving me. It has three lenses, is more capable than it should be and I'm working at figuring out what is does and doesn't do.

We will be traveling to Italy this summer and I am looking for a new pocket or bridge camera for the trip. I do not want to carry my R6 or R10 and multiple lenses for this trip because we will be going from city to city for 3 weeks touring. I am looking for a small, light pocket or bridge camera of the same or better quality of my R6 or R10 with a hefty zoom, good lens, newest features and the newest chip. I am a Canon user, so that would be my first choice, but am open to suggestions of other brands. The camera must be new, or refurbished and of excellent quality, and I am willing to spend up to $1,000 on it. Any suggestions?

We will be traveling to Italy this summer and I am looking for a new pocket or bridge camera for the trip. I do not want to carry my R6 or R10 and multiple lenses for this trip because we will be going from city to city for 3 weeks touring. I am looking for a small, light pocket or bridge camera of the same or better quality of my R6 or R10 with a hefty zoom, good lens, newest features and the newest chip. I am a Canon user, so that would be my first choice, but am open to suggestions of other brands. The camera must be new, or refurbished and of excellent quality, and I am willing to spend up to $1,000 on it. Any suggestions?

I use a compact camera regularly -- my most used camera in fact as I carry it with me everywhere. I leave the house; the compact goes along.

When I was shopping for the compact I use now I considered the Sony RX100 VII noted above. We all have different priorities and are different in what we choose to photograph so fortunately we have some choices in cameras. The Sony was a runner up for me and instead I bought a Canon G7xII. The two cameras are virtually identical in shape and size (Canon is 2 grams heavier and the Sony is 1 mm thicker). They both have the same sensor -- I suspect literally in that I think the Canon uses Sony's 1" sensor for the G7.

I don't do video so I don't care what video features they have.

So then for me it boiled down to the lens and here the two cameras are quite different.

The Sony has a 28mm - 200mm equivalent f/2.8 - 4.5 zoom.
The Canon has a 24mm - 100mm equivalent f/1.8 - 2.8 zoom.

I see wide and maybe once or twice a year (probably not) I see something I want to photograph that would require a long lens. So the 200mm equivalent reach on the Sony's long end does nothing for me. I'm likely to go years before ever wanting to use it. On the other hand the 24mm equivalent on the Canon is occasionally not wide enough and there's times for me when I'm cussin' that it isn't 20mm equivalent -- 28mm equivalent on the Sony was a deal breaker for me. Top that off with the Canon lens being 1 & 1/2 stops faster than the Sony lens and that clinched it for me. And one last consideration: the Canon is 1/3 to 1/2 less expensive than the Sony.

I'm very happy with the G7 and it really is my most used camera. IQ is excellent; the scene below has 9 to 10 stop DR range -- no problem for today's 1" sensor cameras.