Soap cameras: what is it and how to choose?

You can often hear that a "soap dish" is the simplest and most normal option for an amateur photographer. As a rule, this "title" means a somewhat contemptuous attitude towards the camera, but it is not for nothing that they are still sold in stores. This suggests that the "soap box" itself is not evil, and it can also have good samples, so we decided to figure out, together with the readers, what it is.

There is no doubt - the people really call this term the simplest automatic camera, which is unlikely to satisfy a professional. Actually, the main feature due to which the soap dish camera got its name is its small size, the characteristic rounding of the body at the corners, and most importantly - the complete absence of a bulging lens, which is exactly what professional photographers would find fault with. The counterbalance to the concept of a "soap dish" is the concept of a "SLR" - a professional or semi-professional device with a removable screw-on lens.

It is clear that such a camera, unlike a professional one, does not have removable components - not being able to replace a lens with lenses, you will no longer adapt to specific shooting conditions.

Since "soap dishes" are still not out of use, it means that they are not so bad and have their own advantages. Nevertheless, a dream camera for some reason always turns out to be a "DSLR", which means that a mirrorless "soap dish" is by no means devoid of drawbacks. Having decided to purchase such a camera, the consumer must clearly understand whether it is worth even the small money that will be paid for it. Therefore, we will consider the advantages and disadvantages of such equipment, and let's start with the good ones.

• "Soap dish" weighs very little - within 100-150 grams. It is compact and lightweight and can be taken with you wherever you go. In this case, the weight of the battery is usually not taken into account when indicating the weight of the unit.
• This camera is equipped with a large display with a diagonal of 2-3 inches... You can evaluate the disposition and the captured frames immediately, and this is convenient in order to avoid mistakes on the fly.
• "Soap dish" will cost the consumer a penny - there is an excellent selection of such cameras at a price even up to 10 thousand rubles. At the same time, digital models are sometimes more expensive due to their incredible compactness, and even some full-size "DSLRs" of better quality would cost less than them.
• Matrix resolution starts from 5 megapixels and reaches a level comparable to many DSLRs.
• Although there is no "exit" lens, in the arsenal of possibilities of an amateur camera there is also a zoom several times, and even a change in the focal length to objects. However, these capabilities differ greatly depending on the specific model.
• Mirrorless camera designed for quick and easy shooting without a million settings options. You just point it at the object of interest and take pictures. Perhaps, it will not be possible to get a frame for the cover of the magazine, but the moment will not be missed.
• "Mirrorless" can shoot video with a parallel sound track recording, which means it will keep the most vivid memories in motion.

From the above, one might get the impression that "soap dishes" are neglected in vain, but they, of course, are not without drawbacks. Some of them are quite significant, so let's look at them too.

• The mirrorless optics correspond to the price of the unit - this is the most primitive. You should definitely not expect outstanding clarity of photos; upon careful examination, even small distortions can be detected.
• The mirrorless camera does not shine with an abundance of functions. Moreover, it does not have separate buttons on the body for various settings - in order to adapt to the surrounding conditions, you have to go into the menu, or you can lose a rare frame.
• Most mirrorless cameras lack a viewfinder at all. Those models in which it is still present are often distinguished by its crooked performance - at the output the frame is obtained differently, and not by what was seen through the viewfinder.
• Autofocus in "soap boxes" does not work so quickly - in pursuit of an urgent frame, you can get a blurry "blanket". The photo itself is written to the memory card rather slowly, too, not allowing you to take many frames with a minimum time difference.
• The resulting photographs often have unnecessary digital "noise", especially if the ISO is too high and set to over 100.
• As a rule, digital “soap boxes” take pictures only in jpeg format. It is, of course, the most popular, but that does not mean that it is the best or most versatile.
• The built-in flash is far from reaching - it is only relevant when shooting at short distances. The mirrorless design does not involve connecting a separate, more powerful flash to the device. In this case, its own flash can both under-illuminate and overexpose. Against this background, the inoperative red-eye reduction no longer surprises anyone.
• Due to the small size of the equipment, the battery does not shine with an impressive capacity.

Since the "soap dish" is a characteristic concerning the form factor of the body and the absence of a removable protruding lens, accordingly, all cameras of this type, like any others, can be divided into two categories according to the main criterion - the medium on which the photographs are stored.

Actually, historically, this is just the first "soap box", the history of which began several decades ago. At first, cameras were quite expensive equipment. Only professionals could afford them, and, of course, they had the opportunity to replace the lens with a more suitable one. However, this type of aggregate did not allow for the possibility of large-scale sales - the target audience was relatively small.

Manufacturers began to think about changing photographic equipment in the direction of increasing compactness a hundred years ago., but at first the lens still protruded noticeably beyond the "main" body. The modern "soap dish" can be considered a relatively recent invention.

Wherein the technology of photography on film is considered by many modern reviewers to be outdated and frankly unpromising - why would an amateur puzzle over whether he has a film and where to develop it, if in “digital” it is possible to photograph more practically.

As in the case of film models, the first digital cameras were expensive, and therefore cannot be considered "soap dishes" in the literal sense of the word. The era of digital video photographic equipment began in 1984, but at first this technique was used only by representatives of the media - this way it was more convenient for them to transmit the picture and sound to the editorial office.

It is no secret that early digital equipment was not in the least compact, so that in the original format, such equipment had little chance of becoming mainstream. Nevertheless, manufacturers quickly realized that the future was behind the new technology, and already in 1988 the first consumer-grade digital mirrorless camera appeared.

Over the years, digital soap dishes have become more compact and lightweight, at the same time their cost has decreased, while the functional characteristics have gradually increased.

Modern "soap dishes" are quite cheap, but their best examples cannot be called outright bad. Let's highlight a few models that have achieved success and will certainly remain in high esteem in the next couple of years.

• REKAM iLook-S777i. Not a bad portrait camera with a portrait focal length of 1 meter. Xenon flash makes it possible to take pictures even in low light, power from ordinary batteries makes the owner independent from the outlet. Memory card - no more than 32 GB, can be easily removed. But you can also just connect the camera to the computer with a cable. The price is modest - within 6 thousand rubles.

• Canon IXUS 175. At a price of 7 thousand rubles, we have a unit of a well-known company with excellent characteristics. The wide-angle 28mm lens is complemented by a decent 8x optical zoom. The matrix is ​​sewn at 20 megapixels, you can evaluate the frames on a 2.7-inch screen. The battery charge is enough for 220 photos, there is an economical mode that expands the capabilities by another third. A 16 GB memory card is not just included - it is built-in.

• Nikon Coolpix W100. Another top brand asks for 9 thousand rubles for the brainchild, but it can easily withstand immersion under water, shock, frost and the onslaught of dust. Reviewers call this "mirrorless" one of the best for travel and extreme sports - in terms of the degree of security, it is in many respects comparable to action cameras.

Rule one: no matter how hard you try, you are unlikely to be able to find such a "soap box" that would be really comparable in quality to a good "SLR" photographs. Rule two: the above does not mean that all DSLRs are the same. Therefore, it is worth considering what characteristics are important and how to choose the right inexpensive camera.

• Matrix size. Do not confuse this figure with the number of megapixels - we are talking about the physical size of the matrix on which these pixels rest! If two cameras have the same number of megapixels, but one of them has a noticeably larger matrix, then each individual pixel is also larger. Thanks to this, it is more sensitive to light, and this is your guarantee that there will be no light noise in the photo. Models with a good matrix are those where its height is not less than an inch, and the width, accordingly, is even greater. The quality of their photos is comparable to that of an inexpensive DSLR.
• Matrix resolution. The more megapixels, the supposedly more detailed the picture. So it is, but above we examined where the risk is - if the matrix is ​​too small, there will be noise in the photo. Therefore, it is hardly worth chasing the conditional 40 megapixels.
• Flash. In budget models, its range is only 3 meters, but it is worth taking at least 7 meters. In this case, 20 meters for "mirrorless" - the ceiling.
• Aperture ratio. The smaller it is, the better. Indicators of average "soap boxes" are 2.8-5.9 units, for better models this parameter is 1.4-2.0.
• Zoom. It can be optical and digital. The first option is achieved by the lens shift method - the mechanics work here, so the image really gets better. The digital zoom simply shows the same picture in a larger scale, the optics are not involved here, so zooming in can result in a picture deterioration.
• Focal length. The smaller it is, the wider the camera covers the surroundings. For the human eye, the focal length is approximately 50 mm.For a "soap dish" the best indicator is 28 mm. Models up to 35 mm are considered wide-angle, their lens fits a significant part of the horizon, they are suitable for landscape photography. Cameras with focal lengths over 70mm are not bad either, but their purpose is different - they take good portraits.
• The presence of a classic viewfinder. It doesn't hurt - many experts believe that it helps to better define the boundaries of the picture and, in general, gives a clearer idea of ​​the future frame than a dim display.

For an overview of soap cameras, see the next video.