Reading Thom Hogan's thoughts on competent compacts from the various
manufacturers, I can't help but be reminded about what I'd like to see
in a Coolpix Z. As I get old(er) and want a small camera that fits in my
pocket on a hike or bike ride, a Coolpix Z sounds like a great thing.
I
would like to see Nikon take such a compact seriously, with the same
kind of menus and configurability that we've had in the Z9 generation
(and of course what we'll see in the Z9II generation). For me, that's
not limiting things like bracketing, focus stacking, multi-exposure,
subject detection, raw modes, IPTC fields, and the list goes on.
The
loss of image quality when comparing a small sensor and fixed lens to a
135 format sensor and interchangeable lenses is less important than the
loss of configurability that we saw with the Nikon 1 system compared to
the contemporary F mount DSLRs. Fingers crossed that Nikon won't
artificially limit us if they go down a new compact road.
