sinderone wrote:
On my recent trip to Europe, I came to the conclusion that while I love the results, my D7100 plus lenses is just getting to heavy to shlep around. So now it’s time to decide what’s next. Point and shoot? 4/3’s? Mirrorless? My requirements are these; light, quality results close to my slr, a reasonably long zoom (minimally 200+mm), a viewfinder and good reliability. I shoot mostly in aperture and shutter priority.
Suggestions plus pros and cons of each type?
Thanks in advance.
APS-C mirrorless would give you the closest to your D7100's image quality, choice of various interchangeable lenses like a DSLR, while being more compact and lighter weight.
Mirrorless come in smaller m4/3 format, the same or similar APS-C format as your DSLR, as well as bigger full frame format and even medium format.
Full frame and medium format mirrorless would be as large or larger and heavier than what you presently use. A full frame mirrorless body itself might be a little bit smaller, but the lenses need to be full frame capable and will necessarily be bigger & heavier than APS-C/crop sensor lenses. Sony and Leica full frame mirrorless have been around for some years now. Nikon and Canon have announced FF mirrorless, but they won't be in stores until next month and there are very limited native lenses for them planned for the next two or three years, so they will be quite dependent upon adapting full frame capable DSLR system lenses for some time to come. Supposedly Panasonic will be introducing a FF model soon, too. To have "up to 200mm on D7100/DX/APS-C" equivalent on a FF mirrorless, you'd need a 300mm lens on full frame.... bigger and heavier. Only the Sony system has native lenses like that, right now.
APS-C mirrorless use the same or very close to the same size sensor in your D7100. Sony, Fujifilm and Canon offer mirrorless using this format sensor. All three have lenses up to 200mm. The Canon EOS M system is the newest of these and has the least selection of lenses at this point in time, but does offer a zoom to 200mm, among others. All Sony a6000 series and all Fuji mirrorless (except for their medium format GFX) are this format and each system has a fairly large selection of lenses. For what you want... this format mirrorless is probably your best bet. Nikon doesn't make or appear to have any plans to make an APS-C mirrorless (they built their now-discontinued Nikon 1 system around smaller 1" sensors.... but were the only manufacturer to attempt and support that smaller format).
m4/3 format is slightly smaller than APS-C, but pretty close to the image quality and has potential to be smaller and lighter... check out Olympus and Panasonic systems, the lenses of which are interchangeable between the two.
Most point n shoot use smaller or much smaller sensor than your D7100.... and as a result will have reduced image quality and far lower usable ISO.
Only a very few P&S use APS-C size sensors like your DSLR and those have restricted zoom range (and, since these are by definition non-interchangeable lens cameras, no easy way to change the zoom range other than adding auxiliary lenses that further reduce IQ to some extent). Fujifilm, Canon, Leica and Ricoh make P&S cameras using this size sensor, which would give the closest to the same IQ as your DSLR. However, the P&S that use these sensors often do not have zooms at all, but instead use a slightly wide angle prime lens. The Canon G1X Mark III is one of the few with a zoom lens, but it's a 3X with full frame equivalent 24-72mm (which is equiv. to roughly 18-50mm zoom on your D7100... nowhere near the "200mm" you wanted).
Relatively few P&S uses m4/3 size sensor. Panasonic and Leica make some. All these use relatively narrow range 3X zooms that max out around 75mm (full frame equiv.) So none would provide the "200mm on APS-C" that you want.
With APS-C and m4/3 format sensor P&S, "auxiliary lenses" that attach to the front may be available, to give you approx. or closer to the "200mm on APS-C/DX" equivalent you want (aux. lenses are also avail. to render wider angle and macro/close-up). These will compromise IQ to some extent, essentially magnifying any shortcomings of the camera's built in zoom lens.
Some P&S use a so-called 1" or CX sensor, which is large in P&S terms, but only about one third the area your D7100's APS-C/DX sensor. Sony, Canon, Leica and Panasonic all make models using this size sensor. You will find a few from Panasonic and Leica with 1" sensors and zooms giving close to as much or more telephoto reach than what you wanted (250mm to 400mm FF equiv.) Canon's and Sony's 1"/CX P&S use more limited range zooms. IQ and high ISO capability will not be fully up to your DSLR's... but better than a lot of P&S (see below).
Since you want a viewfinder, you probably will only want to consider a "bridge style" P&S.... These are "DSLR like" in appearance and function, except they are a bit more compact and, of course, have non-interchangeable lenses.
A lot of P&S from various manufacturers use tiny 1/2.3" or 1/2.5" size sensors (much like "camera phones").... Especially the P&S with the extreme range zooms use this type. These can be quite compact, but with snesosr that are 1/10 or less the area of your D7100's, will have nowhere near the IQ and high ISO performance of your DSLR, so probably should be avoided. I won't go into more detail here.
Here's a sensor format discussion you might find useful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format Hope this helps! Have fun shopping.