Best Compact Mirrorless Cameras of 2026

By the calendar, the a6400 is the oldest camera in this group, and it's still one we recommend without hesitation. What keeps it relevant is autofocus: 425 phase-detection points spread across most of the frame, paired with real-time eye tracking that grabs a subject and refuses to let go.

The viewfinder is the other half of the argument. Putting the camera to your eye in bright sun is a different activity from shading a screen with your hand, and it steadies a longer lens. With the 16-50mm power zoom collapsed, the whole kit slides into a jacket pocket, and there's enough of a grip and enough dials that it doesn't feel like a toy.

So why keep an older body on a page like this? Because stills are what it does best, and it does them without drama — exposure, colour, and focus land where you expect, and 11 fps with tracking is plenty for a school football game or a dog at the park. If you mainly photograph rather than film, this is the one we hand you.

Video is 4K at up to 30p and holds detail well; the newer Sonys here add video conveniences rather than a fundamentally different picture. What you're really buying is the mount. E-mount lenses are everywhere, so a fast 35mm-equivalent prime or a cheap long zoom is a short search away, and a lens bought now still fits the next Sony body.

No viewfinder is the whole idea. The ZV-E10 is built for the person who's in front of the camera as often as behind it, so the money went on a screen that flips out to the side and a body that stays out of the way. We found that trade easy to live with while filming and instantly irritating while framing a landscape in the sun.

The video side earns it. 4K at 30p is oversampled from 6K with full pixel readout, so fine detail survives, and two top-plate buttons handle fixes you'd otherwise take to an editing app: Background Defocus softens the background with one press, and Product Showcase slides focus from your face to whatever you hold up to the lens.

Audio is better than the size suggests — a directional three-capsule mic plus a windscreen in the box, which is more than most bodies this small offer. One USB cable turns it into a webcam with no extra software, and the 16-50mm power zoom has a rocker for slow, smooth zooms mid-shot.

Autofocus is the 425-point hybrid system with real-time eye tracking, and for talking-head work it's the right tool; 11 fps is fine for stills, if unremarkable. A photographer should look elsewhere, because the missing viewfinder and the video-first controls are the wrong trade for someone who shoots through a lens.

Two lenses, one bag, and a working range from 16mm to 250mm — that's the argument for this kit, and it's a strong one. The 16-50mm covers the everyday and the 50-250mm reaches far enough for wildlife, school sports, and the far side of a street, both stabilised, both small enough to travel together.

The body underneath is the most capable APS-C Nikon here: 20.9MP, 4K at up to 60p, and an EVF with 1.02x magnification. Subject detection recognises nine kinds of subject, with dedicated bird and airplane modes, and this is the newest autofocus Nikon brings to these picks — the one we point at anyone who wants a single purchase to cover a whole year of shooting.

Picture Controls are the feature we didn't expect to use: a dedicated button cycles 31 presets, and you can save your own, which means a usable look straight out of the camera on a grey afternoon. There's also a built-in flash, which neither Sony here lists.

What it costs you is lens changes. Two lenses mean a decision every time the light or the subject shifts, and an open body while you make it; if you mostly shoot one subject at a time, that's a small price. Both lenses are stabilised, which matters more at 250mm than any figure in the body's spec sheet.

The screen on the R100 is fixed, and that one omission tells you most of what you need to know. Everything else is a real mirrorless camera: the RF mount, a 24.1MP APS-C sensor, an electronic viewfinder, and Canon's Dual Pixel autofocus with face and eye detection.

That points at one buyer: someone who wants a proper camera with a viewfinder and has no plans to film themselves. For that person it's the least expensive way into the RF system here, and the files don't read as a compromise — 24.1MP with Canon's colour, from a body Canon lists as the smallest and lightest in the EOS R line.

The rest is straightforward in a way we liked. 6.5 fps is enough for a slow-moving subject, the menus are short, and there's headroom in the files to crop. For landscapes, portraits, and birthday shots taken at standing height, the R100 gives away very little to cameras costing more.

Two practical notes. There's no wall charger in the box, so budget for one alongside a spare battery. And the mount is the same RF fitting as Canon's full-frame bodies, so a lens bought for this camera still fits the day you move up.

Shutter speed, ISO, and exposure compensation each get their own marked dial on the top plate, and that changes how you shoot: you glance down and read your settings instead of hunting through a menu. It's the only camera here making that tactile case for itself, and it's the one we grab on the way out.

Underneath the retro body it's a 20.9MP APS-C camera with a vari-angle screen, an EVF at 1.02x, 4K video, and 11 fps. It's quick and accurate in use, and eye detection held on portraits without fuss. The 16-50mm kit lens collapses flat, so the whole thing hangs off a strap all day without complaint.

Here's the part that surprised us: the silver finish earns its keep. People relax in front of a camera that looks like a camera rather than a piece of equipment, and a body you enjoy carrying is a body you take out on days with no brief. That's the Z fc's real argument over the R50 — not a specification, a reason to bring it.