The Moneyball Approach to Digital Cameras

What if I were to forget everything I know about compact cameras, and judge them only by bang-for-the-buck-ness?
Which camera would rank the highest?

I saw Moneyball last night - very nice movie, especially if you happen to like Brad Pitt, (which I do). Though it had no profound influence on my core values, I decided to fool around with the doctrine of Billy Beane - judge the players by their numbers, according to specific needs.

With a database of most compact cameras at hand, it's easy to answer the questions, but as always - it the questions themselves that make all the difference.

So let's assume you want a large zoom, disregarding everything else about the camera, other than its price. In other words -

what's the best zoom/price ratio available?

Now that I have a question, the answer quickly follows -

The FujiFilm FinePix S4000 comes first, with a x30 zoom for $199 (that's $6.63 for each x of zoom - a funny way to look at things, but I warned you up front).

Second in line is the Olympus SZ-12, with a x24 for $199 ($8.3 for each x of zoom) followed closely by the Olympus SP-810UZ (x36 zoom for $299) and FujiFilm FinePix S4500 (x30, $259).

One other camera worth mentioning is the x36 Nikon Coolpix P500, which costs $319 but - (in a complete breach of my stated goal here) is a far better camera all-in-all than the rest mentioned.

The other end of the list

In order to understand how extreme this way to examine cameras is, the new Canon PowerShot G1X is the very last in my list, with a x4 zoom and a $799 price tag, making it the most expensive per x zoom camera - $200.
Second to last is the FujiFilm FinePix X10, with a $149 pre x zoom ratio.

No Surprise

The most significant conclusion of this short game comes with no surprise. When trying to get the 'most' something for the lowest price, you might end up missing out on the good stuff. The entire bunch of high-end compact cameras (G1X, G12, X10, S100, LX5, XZ-1) sits comfortably at the far bottom end of the zoom-to-the-dollar list I created.

What this means for anyone looking for a 'good' camera is that the very definition of 'good' needs close examination - is it a large zoom or a wide lens? Or is it image quality, low-light support or good ergonomics? I'm not the one to say - some may actually prefer paying less and getting the largest zoom and that's excellent. I, for one, belong to the other camp.

The complete list (always up to date) is available here.

If you wish that I create another comparison list of any parameters, comment below and I'll do my best to comply. You are also welcome to try my Feature Finder - it could help.

-eyalg