There’s one point I missed in this otherwise well articulated opinion : the historical perspective. Several ears ago, “bridge” meant something completelly different than the “superzoom” of today. Compared to today’s superzooms:
– the sensor sizes were bigger, at least 1/1.7″
– the reach was much more limited (to around 300-400mm)
– lenses were faster
– optics manufacturing quality was not of cheap feeling and reputation.
I’m talking about devices like Sony F717, F828, Fuji cameras (S6500fd, S9XXX, S100fs, S200exr), Panasonic FZ30, FZ50, Minolta AXXX, etc.
Sadly, this category of devices died out – the last one of them was probably Fuji X-S1 (but that one was unfortunatelly hampered by the overambitious lens design). Their extinction coincides very well with the advent of mirrorless, but also with arrival of their low-cost (but high zoom) siblings – the superzooms.
It seems that the true “bridge” category is back. But the ingredients are still the same.
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.