Recently, I have been experimenting with what I can achieve with a mere “point and shoot” camera. Both of these photos were taken with an Olympus XZ-2, which ranks at the high end of point and shoots, but has only a 1 / 1.7″ sensor.

This photo was also taken with the Olympus XZ-2. While the originals are 12 MP images, all of these have been resized to 640 pixels wide for display here. They look much better full size!

I also shoot 1″ sensor cameras (Nikon 1) and will post some of those photos another time.

For now, here is a link to some nice night time photos taken in Paris by someone using a 1″ sensor Sony RX100 camera. I think the 1″ sensor size is going to be a “Sweet spot” for cameras, producing exceptionally good images. As sensor technology improves, we are also seeing remarkable low light capabilities of these smaller sensor cameras (as compared to 4/3ds, APS-C or full frame).

1″ not only produces exceptional results but lenses are quite small relative to the larger format cameras, producing a small and lightweight package for professional quality results.